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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
bluejetta
member
XP: EBF 1yr old down to 4 feedings - now what?
bluejetta
member
DD nurses (or takes bottles) 4x a day. 5am or waking at 6am, before both naps and at bedtime. She has cut out other feedings. These are the hardest as she and I are quite attached to them.I'd like to cut out the nap feedings (since that is when I have to pump on work days) to make it easier for others to put her down for naps and to wean off the pump. However, I'm dreading it because it makes nap time so easy. I'm not sure if I should try to offer milk/yogurt as a good snack before nap and then just put her down and offer snack again when she wakes? I expect some crying in transition.I hope to keep first am and bedtime a bit longer if my supply holds up. Anyone with transition advice please share.
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Re: XP: EBF 1yr old down to 4 feedings - now what?
Slowwww transitions were key for my D. Have you intro'd cow's milk? If not, start now and mix it half & half with BM. Make sure it's warmed. Slowly decrease the amount of BM until she's drinking only warmed cow's milk. Do the same for the second nap feeding, then lessen the ounces until she's willing to just take a few swigs from a cup before naps.
A snack before naps is probably a good idea, too! Good luck.
I would start introducing whole mik.
My DS liked whole milk from the start and I found he took it before naps no problem. And, I have a number of friends who continued BF when they went back to work and baby had milk during the day and BF in the morning and at night.
I stopped pumping at work around 11 months and introduced WCM about 12.5 months and he took to it right away even though I had a ton of frozen milk left. I dropped one pump and then the other a week later so it wasn't too bad.
From there, I just let him lead. He's 16 months and we mostly only nurse at night now but sometimes in the morning and after work depending on what type of day he's had. I had a robust supply so I don't know if my experience is typical but for a while I was nursing at nap time on weekends even though I wasn't pumping at work and it was not an issue for DS.
I replaced feeding with solids, but my boys didn't nurse before both naps at that age. They were nursing first thing in the morning, after morning nap, before afternoon nap, and at bedtime.
I think I dropped the one before afternoon nap first because as long as he ate a good lunch, he wasn't acting interested in that one. I may have rocked extra before nap, but just didn't offer to nurse.
I wouldn't offer a snack right before naps myself, as that was always a surefire way to cause my boys to poop and wake up from nap early.
With my younger one, I basically moved him to the same feeding schedule as his brother. It made my life easier to give both boys morning/afternoon snack at the same time.
If she's nursing to sleep, you'll need to break that association before you start weaning!
I did the don't offer/don't refuse weaning methods for both of my kids (I'm still doing it with DD2), and it worked great. They never cried or protested, and I never hurt.
I was nursing DD2 before naps for the same reason as ou, but I found on the days I sent her to daycare she didn't even ask for the feeding (I work part-time). On the days when I'm home with her, I just give her a sippy with milk instead, and she is fine.
We are down to 3 feedings. I substituted two slices of quality cheese for the mid-morning feeding. LO didn't mind at all. In fact, I think my LO would do without the mid-afternoon feeding also now, but I'm not ready. When I remember to give her cottage cheese or yogurt at lunch every day, I will drop the mid-afternoon feeding.
Unexplained IF/RPL
TTC#1 2003 BFNs, 2004-2009
5 angels above
2010 IVF-PGS-FET#1, DD b. Aug-2011
TTC#2 2012 BFNs, 2013 FET#2, DS b. Nov-2013
TTC#3 2015 BFNs, FET#3
(my 6th and last angel above)
Journey Complete.
Thanks all. She is in daycare 3x a week and get a bottle before both naps but doesn't fall asleep and her nap environment is very different there. Last week I forgot to send bottle nipples and she took the milk from sippys just fine (didn't drink quite as much) so I'm going to just make that switch now and worry about nursing at home.
She doesn't fall asleep nursing before naps but she is certainly drowsy. Today I started by leaving the light on when I nurse her (to help reduce drowsy a bit) and we read a story after nursing -- she didn't really notice. Once I'm sure she is going down more awake then I will make the switch to a sippy.