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Advice on transition to WCM

st.augbridest.augbride member
in Attachment Parenting
Hello, I am interested in the AP thoughts on how to transition LO to WCM. Dd will be one year old in a week. She still nurses, though not very frequently in the day anymore (I feed on demand, so can't say exactly how often--and she nurses to sleep for naps and bed and still during the night, though I think mostly for comfort). When I am at work and she's home with dh, he will offer her bottles of pumped BM twice and at most she takes 1-3oz per and rarely more than 4oz total these days. She eats 3 solid meals (whatever we eat) now and I give her a cup of water with each, of which she will drink 3-6oz per meal. Anyhow, how am I supposed to go about offering her milk? With meals instead of water or in between? If with meals, do I just offer water in between? I don't mind still nursing her, but I'd like to stop pumping at work and offering the bottles in the day, and only nurse when we are together or at night. Anyhow, I find it all confusing with the milk! TIA!
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Re: Advice on transition to WCM

  • nanabanana06nanabanana06
    I personally take a very hands off approach to things. At 1 year I replace all bottles with a straw cup of milk. By the time they get to their 15 month appt things are down to a good 16-24 oz. I mean, the cups we use are small. So 6 0z of milk every 3 hours equals about that amount anyways.
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  • Emerald27Emerald27 member
    You could offer an ounce or two of milk in a separate cup in addition to water at solids meals and see if she likes it.

    If you would like to transition away from her getting BM while you're at work, you could have DH start by offering a one-ounce bottle of WCM in place of one of the bottles of BM, and do the rest BM. A few days later, replace 2 oz of BM with 2 oz of WCM. Repeat until she takes all WCM instead of BM while you're away. As you pump less and your freezer stash runs out, her system will have become used to the WCM and it won't be a problem.

    *If you notice that she is fussy (i.e. upset tummy) or becomes constipated, go back to giving less WCM for a while, and transition up more slowly. Sometimes it can take LO's systems a bit of time to become used to dairy. It's so so different.

    As for no longer pumping at work, you may want to try spacing pumping sessions a bit for a few days before dropping one. If you feel engorged, you can either pump a little or hand express to relieve the pressure. No longer pumping at work will decrease your supply, but as long as you're nursing on demand when you're at home, you should maintain the supply required to meet her needs.
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  • erbearerbear member
    I think I started just offering milk in a cup with snacks and water at meals, and still nursing morning and evening. I remember worrying about the amount they were getting for a while until my pedi mentioned that it doesn't actually matter as long as they are getting liquid and calcium.
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  • blu-eyedwifeblu-eyedwife member
    At around 11 months we offered him milk just to see how he handled it, would he drink it or not. He drank it fine, so I didn't worry too much about the transition. At 12 months, I weaned from the pump, but still had a healthy freezer supply, so I nursed at home, and sent in the freezer milk at daycare. At 13 months I was out of my stash, so I nursed at home, and sent in WCM at daycare. Our daycare worked by just keeping a half gallon in the fridge for him, so I don't know how much he drank or how often, but he still nursed on the weekend when he was home with me. Eventually, as he dropped nursing sessions we just gave him milk on demand. When he asks for it, he gets it. Whether that's at meals or between.
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  • ReeceFamilyReeceFamily member
    Just wanted to say that I stopped pumping at work cold turkey a month or so ago. I was worried about effects on supply, but DD is a pretty enthusiastic nurser at home/at night and my supply seems okay so far...
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