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Breastfeeding
How to stop nursing
I have been nursing for all most a year and I want to wean my baby so I can start to get some rest and get her on whole milk. I have tried mixing breastmilk and whole milk and she will not drink it. She does not drink whole milk or other infant milks or take a nuk of any kind. Please help.
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Re: How to stop nursing
How are you introducing it? Cup, bottle, sippee? I would use a method she's already comfortable with taking just BM. Then add just a tiny bit of WCM. Very slowly (over the course of several days) increase the amount of WCM.
Cold turkey is another method. It depends on your preference and patience, though. You could also ask your child's pedi for advice (since she will be more familiar with your child's nutrition and temperament) at the 1yr wcc.
How old is your baby? And what do you mean you want to wean to get some rest? If she's not sleeping at night, weaning her completely may not help that.
How many times a day are you nursing and how often does she eat solids, etc.?
I weaned my son completely by 14 months, but I started around 11.5 or 12. I actually completely nightweaned him by 10 months and he was sleeping from 7:30 to 6:45 without nursing.
Then I slowly weaned his other 5 feedings. I started with the after morning feeding and replaced it with a sippy of milk or water and a snack of some sort. He wasn't crazy about whole milk, so most times he would drink a little water. I made sure to give him a yogurt or some cheese for calcium and added fat. I also fed snacks like banana and avocado to be filling to him.
The second feeding I weaned was a 3:30pm feeding after his second nap. I replaced that with a small snack as well.
Then I weaned the feeding before his second nap. That was a little harder and I had to rock him to sleep for a little while. Eventually, he did up his solids and milk/water intake at lunchtime.
I took a week to wean each feeding, shortening the time a little for a few days and then stopping completely. Then I let a week pass before I dropped another nursing session. It was much easier on my breasts and on him to gently wean this way.
There probably were a few times he insisted on nursing, so I nursed him for a few minutes and then gave him a pacifier to suck on for a few minutes.
The last 2 feedings to go were before bed and first thing in the morning. I dropped the bedtime feeding before I stopped the mornign feeding. The morning nursing session he defnitely nursed longest and took in the most milk. He really didn't drink much whole mik until the day we stopped nursing in the morning. Then he downed a cup with his breakfast and his intake went up from there. I made sure to offer milk at least 4 times per day. And of course I continued offering cheese and yogurt to make up for the dairy he chose not to drink.