Weaning, Whole Milk and My Mentality

Re: Weaning, Whole Milk and My Mentality

• dusk42

  June 2011

  
  

  I would just nurse her and let her have the mix from someone else.  I always had low supply, so I would nurse for a while and then DH would give a bottle and finish the bedtime routine.  At her age, any BM she gets is great for the immunity, but she's getting the majority of her calories from solids and eventually cow's milk.  I just looked at it as bonding time and not a ton of nutrition after a year old.  You're doing a great job!

   

  This is also a good time to try to get her to drink from a cup - it took us from 10 months to 15 months to get her to take any real amount of liquid from a cup.  The transition from bottle to cup was hard from her, and she would only do one kind of sippy (argh!). 

  
  

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• Magoy

  June 2011

  I probably don't have great advice for you.  Audrey would never take a bottle from me, so I just stopped offering them. There was only two times that she needed to take a bottle from one of us due to a surgery and an overnight trip for me.  Other than that, I exclusively nursed and she didn't want anything else from me. 

  At 11.5 months or so we started putting WCM in a sippy cup for her.  Straight up.  And she was fine with that, for the most part. I guess she didn't know to expect anything else.  

  At that same age, we were still nursing before each of her two naps, before bedtime, and first thing in the morning.  So, four times a day or so.  But, my supply was nothing like it used to be... especially after we started table food.

  Nursing for us at that age was more about comfort (or a snack) than anything else.  She was getting three meals a day and sippys of milk or water throughout the day.  

  So, I guess my only advice is to relax and continue nursing for now if you both are still enjoying it.  You may not be her sole source of nutrition and your body understands and reacts w/ a dip in supply.  I kept going this way until about 13.5 months when she just clearly didn't really care if she nursed or not.  Kind of a natural wean.  It was much harder on me than it was for her... so I totally get your feelings!

  Hugs! 

  After THREE years, our IVF miracle is here!!!
  
  

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• Radler member

  June 2011

  We struggled so much with the transition from BF to WCM, and I know how hard it can be. I started just as you did, at 11.5 months, and now at 18 months he is just now drinking WCM in good quantities from a cup (like 4-5 oz. at a time).  He just wanted to nurse and was stubborn about it. On the advice of his pedi, we tried rice milk, almond milk, soy milk, chocolate/vanilla WCM, 1%, 2%, skim, and all sorts of mixtures of breastmilk/water/WCM. Warm milk, cold milk, you name it. In all kinds of sippy cups, in a bottle. From my DH, my mom, the babysitter. At playdates with friends who drank milk. He would drink a few sips of and bat the cup away. I thought he'd never drink cow's milk and I set out to meet his calcium needs with yogurt, cheese, etc. (it's possible to do that and many people do).

  I don't have any advice, really, except to share my experiences and to say that the thing that finally caused my DS to drink WCM eagerly was finally weaning from BF at 18 months. A week after his last nursing, he started drinking the milk. This is not to say you should wean now (because I think it should be up to you and your baby completely, and if you are not ready, there's no reason 12 months needs to be the magic age). But I did want to tell you my experience in the hopes it will help your mindset to know that everything worked out with time for me. Good luck.

  After 7 failed IUIs, IVF w/ ICSI worked!!

  I am thankful every day for my miracle after infertility.

  And thrilled to be pregnant again after FET!

  

  

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