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Breastfeeding
greeneyed_bride
member
Officially weaned
greeneyed_bride
member
As of today, it's been nine days since my 16 month old son last nursed, so I think we can officially declare him weaned. It's kind of bittersweet to be done, but it was the right decision for us.
We had a tough time in the beginning because of a tongue-tie, but I'm so glad I stuck with it! Overall, it was a wonderful experience. To those of you just starting out - the first few weeks (or months) will be pretty crappy, but it gets better, and it's so worth it!
Good luck to all of you!!
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Re: Officially weaned
DD1: allergic to eggs & dairy
c/p 4/1/11
DD2: milk and soy protein intolerant, allergic to eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, bananas
MSPI Moms Check-In Blog
I think how you do it will depend a lot on who is watching your son. If it's family, it might be easier for them to figure out their own routine and spend more time getting him ready to nap at first, so you probably won't need to start working on it as soon. If it's a daycare, they will likely have less time to try to get him to sleep, so you might want to start sooner so that he's used to napping without nursing.
DS was nursing 3-4 times a day at 11/12 months. Once when he first woke up, once for each nap (while he was taking two), and once at bedtime.
We dropped the morning feed around 13 months (I think) because it was getting progressively longer (at least 45 minutes) and making it impossible to get out of the house before 10am. We had about 5 days of rough mornings, but I dropped the feed by substituting something new for nursing. Instead of taking him to the rocking chair in his room when he first woke up, I would take him to the kitchen and give him a cup of cheerios. I would cuddle and hold him while he ate the cheerios. At first, he was not happy with the switch, but within about a week, the first thing he'd do when he woke up was ask for cheerios.
He dropped the nighttime feed himself. At 14 months old, he said "no" when I said "do you want some milk?" at bedtime, at that was it. I never offered at bedtime again, and he never asked for it and went to bed happily.
I dropped the naptime feed cold turkey. I don't think decreasing the time would have worked for us, because he nursed until he was asleep and then would wake up when I tried to unlatch him, so I had to repeat the process 5+ times before he was asleep enough for me to put him down (that was the main reason I decided it was time to wean. He was taking progressively longer to fall asleep, and because he was nursing while half asleep, he was swallowing a ton of air, so he would wake up within 45 minutes of being put down because he had to burp.) One thing I did was change the words I used. I used to always say, "do you want to take a snooze?" and so he was at the point where he associated with word "snooze" with milk. Instead I started saying, "it's time for bedtime" or "do you want to read some books?" Starting the first day, I just read him a lot of books, then rocked him on my shoulder until he fell asleep. He asked for milk once, but that was it. When he asked, I stood up and bounced him instead of rocking with him on my shoulder so that I wasn't in a position (sitting and rocking) where he would expect milk. I am still putting him down in his crib already asleep, but I think that as more time passes, I'll be able to put him down awake like I do at night.
For the record, my son has never willingly taken any milk (either mine or cow's milk) from a bottle or cup. We just make sure that he eats a healthy, balanced diet that includes a lot of cheese and full-fat yogurt.
Good luck!
No problem! Nope, other than a handful of times when he was a few months old, I didn't pump. (Because of his tongue-tie and the corrective procedure at 6 weeks, we introduced a bottle pretty late, and so he just never took to it. I think the most milk he ever drank from a bottle was less than an ounce.) I didn't have a problem with engorgement when dropping any of his feeds - I think my breasts felt full the first few mornings that I didn't nurse him, but never uncomfortably so - but I think that's different for a lot of women. In your case, I would maybe try to only drop one feed at a time (or pump to replace one of the nursing sessions) so that you don't risk mastitis or a clogged duct. By the time we dropped his naptime feed, he was only taking one nap a day, so I didn't have to worry about dropping two feedings at once.
When we were down to 2 feeds, he was nursing for approximately the same amount of time that he had always nursed, so I assume my supply was fairly close to what it had been before. I would sometimes add in an extra afternoon feeding on especially cranky days, and there was always milk there for him. By the time we were down to one feed a day, I think he probably was only getting a couple of ounces at a time, but again, on days where I nursed him an extra time just to help with crankiness, he definitely got milk, although not a ton.
Same here! How much liquid does your son drink? Do you do juice or water? I am trying to wean and his nutritionist is suggesting I replace nursing with 16 oz of oat milk a day (he's MSPI), but he only takes a few sips here and there. I can't imagine him drinking that much every day.
He drinks water all day long, but I don't really measure it. As long as he has plenty of wet diapers and isn't constipated, I assume he's fine. I offer him his sippy cup of water with every meal and periodically throughout the day, and he also asks for it whenever he's thirsty.
We've tried coconut milk, almond milk, cow's milk, soy milk and Enfagrow, and he is just not having it! He will take a sip and then spit it out all over himself. I've tried offering all of them multiple times in different cups, and it's always the same.
The only thing our pediatrician was worried about with him not drinking milk is him getting enough Vitamin D, so we still give him vitamin drops (mixed in his morning oatmeal.) He eats a lot of yogurt and cheese, so I'm just not worrying about it anymore. We got a free four-pack of Enfagrow with a coupon we got in the mail, so I'm still offering him that every now and then just to see if he changes his mind, but it has all been wasted so far. When I use up (waste) the last one, I'm done trying to convince him to drink anything other than water.