Help Weaning 13 month old pleeease!

blushngold

I'm ready to stop nursing my 13 mo. She never took a bottle and always drank straight from the tap. Now she will drink water and a little WCM out of a sippy. She nurses in the AM, before both naps, and bedtime. I tried putting her down for a nap without nursing and she FREAKED. She doesn't nurse to sleep, just before sleep. My pedi suggested going cold turkey but that seems harsh. Anyone have any experience with this?

andrea911

Have you tried talking to a lactation consultant? I'm sure you probably think they are only going to encourage you to still BF, because I was hesitant at first for the same reason. But I finally broke down and called because I was having problems and she guided me right through weaning just like she did when we were learning to BF. Because of my schedule and our needs, she suggested I drop the first feeding, give it 4-7 days, drop the second, wait 4-7 days, third, etc. IMHO, cold turkey would be too hard on both your body and your baby. You didn't just start BF on full power day 1. It took time. So should weaning. Hope that helps.

 ETA: We are fully weaned as of 5/6. No problems at all.

blushngold

Thanks for your response! I haven't called anyone yet...did you call LLL? Did your LO have a reliance on nursing for naps? I think I'm going to cut the AM feed first too since I think that'd be the easiest for her.

namara5532

Yep, one feeding at a time is the way to go.  My DS weaned himself actually down to 2 feedings a day.  I took away the pre-bedtime feeding, and he did the rest.  Cold turkey isn't good for breastfeeding because your body needs time to adapt to not making breast milk.

andrea911

The hospital DS was born at keeps a LC on staff, but if I didn't have her, I would've called LLL. Their website has a lot of really helpful information. DS did like to have "snack naps" but I wouldn't say he relied on nursing to nap. Now going to bed was a different story. That's one of the things the LC helped with. She asked what his most important feeding was, and to end weaning with that. For him, it was the bedtime feeding, so she had me start with cutting out the first feeding.

Any other q's, don't hesitate to ask or PM me anytime!

blondegirl22

I weaned DD about 5 weeks ago at almost 15 months old. She would nurse to sleep for naps and bedtime. She would nurse a couple times a day and wake up at night too... So my DH started going in at night and we stopped night nursing first and he also started putting her to bed. That just left a couple daytime feedings. After almost a week and a half, I went out of town for two nights... My first time away, and she did awesome! The first evening back was tough because she wanted to be with me, but once I was out of the room, she went right to sleep. 

I was worried about our first nap time, but once again, she did great.

i still became engorged.. The painful boobs sucked, but finally eased up. (Lots of cabbage leaves)! GL!

blondegirl22

And forgot, I cut out her morning feeding about 2 months before all of this. My pedi recommended it first. I would take her straight to the kitchen for wcm and food (usually a banana). DD never took a bottle either, but loves her sippy cups.

Gingersnap_mama

We weaned about a month ago and I agree, one feeding at a time is the way to go.  But what I did to kind of make it easier (I discovered with DD1) is that I slowly moved the feedings closer to meal times so when it came time to start weaning, I would just give a sippy with WCM or BM or whatever with whatever meal.  I started with cutting out the first AM feeding, and on down...and when it came time to start cutting out the before bed feeding, she kinda dropped it on her own.  Just DON'T do it cold turkey.  No offense, but does your pedi happen to be a man, lol?!  Go SLOW.  Your girls will thank you!  HTH.

blushngold

Our pediatrician is a woman actually! Haha. I wouldn't go cold turkey, but my DD refuses to nap without nursing, so I'm having trouble cutting those feedings.

stacee55j

I was sure my son would never wean! I started around 13 months and we just finished at about 15.5 months. He was still nursing 6 times a day at 13 months so I cut out 1 at a time for about a week each. I started with middle of the night! From there I went to the ones I thought would be easiest to cut. First thing in the morning, nurse to sleep for nap and bedtime were the most dreaded. We happened to go on vacation and he cut out his nap nursing himself...just wouldn't do it! So hopefully as you start leading the process he'll go with the flow and even take the lead. It's a process but surprisingly not as painful as I thought it would be! My disclaimer is that he still needs rocked to sleep and held for his naps!! Thankfully puts himself to bed at night just fine oddly enough!