March 2012 Moms
cmsdouglas
member
Options
Weaning
cmsdouglas
member
Ok, ladies. I think it might be time to wean DD. We're down to morning, before bed, and sometimes once in the MOTN. The problem is that I have no idea how to go about weaning her. How did you guys do it? Did you cut down on the amount of time each day until you weren't nursing any more? How long did it take? If you nursed at bedtime, how did you adjust your bedtime routine?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Weaning
We're still nursing once at bedtime, so I'm no help there. I'm a teacher and finishing up the school year, so once I'm done I'm going to work on fully weaning DS and getting him to fall asleep without nursing at bedtime. He does it at naptime, so I'm hoping it won't be TOO difficult..we'll see :P
As for the other sessions, the daytime sessions weren't difficult to drop. The MOTN one was sort of tough. Mostly, what happened was I stopped offering during the night. I'd give him his pacifier and rock him or soothe him in some other way and he'd go back to sleep. If that doesn't work with your DD, can you have your H go in if she wakes in the MOTN? I know that wouldn't have worked for us but it seems to work for a lot of moms...
The morning session took longer. I gradually reduced the amount of time he nursed down to just a few minutes, then started offering breakfast pretty much right away. For several mornings, I'd either lay on the couch with him on my lap or sit in the rocker with him and give him a little bit of BM in a sippy (which I gradually moved to cow's milk). I think this really helped him transition because there was still some of the closeness similar to nursing before starting the day, and a little bit of milk so he wasn't SUPER hungry and really looking to nurse. It took a while but I think the morning weaning went really well. Now, we just go pretty much right into breakfast.
Hopefully someone else can weigh in here on the bedtime situation because I'm dreading dropping that session!
When i weaned my DD, I replaced night feed with a bottle of water...then sippy cup. I made it a point to just switch most "nurseing" with water. That worked for her and she STILL has to have water at night time.
I have NO idea how or when I will wean DS. He honestly isnt that great of a eater yet and prefers to nurse still.
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. She asked a few questions about our schedule and DS's feedings. 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.
We are fully weaned as of 5/6. No problems at all. I still had some BM frozen, so DS still got BM in a bottle until it was all used up. After that, we tried a few different sippy and straw cups. DS really took to the straw style sippy cups, so we switched to WCM in those.
As far as bedtime, he still gets a bath, a drink of WCM in his straw cup, a story if he wants one, then I "sing" to him while holding him and rubbing his back. Then he gets laid down. Really, not much has changed except for what he's drinking and where he gets it from. Hope that helps.