STM - Weaning

knitsandgiggles · January 2014

Since we're talking about a type of weaning, STMs tell me about your weaning experiences from formula and/or nursing, pretty please!

DD was winding down nicely and I thought she would be weaned from the boob soon, but we seem to have gone backwards a bit. She is constantly reaching for my shirt and yanking on it. This behavior primarily occurs at home. When we are out, she's not interested.

If i rry to redirect her, she gets frustrated. Sometimes I am successfully able to redirect her to water or very rarely, whole milk.

She eats plenty throughout the day during meals and snacks. So I don't know where to go from here. We went from 4 nursing sessions back up to 6 or 7.

Maybe it is for comfort? She never took a pacifier so I don't know what other substitute to give her if she is just looking for comfort.

Advice, suggestions, anything welcome at this point!

Edit - even with proofreading, I always find a typo after posting, argh!

bullybutt · January 2014

This is my DS to a T. He seems to be comfort nursing more now than he has in the past couple months. I'm sure its just a phase. I also prayed that he would self-wean, but he loves his boo-boos and has to have them when he wants them.

runrinserepeat · January 2014

I don't know. DD is still nursing, though at this point I can't believe she's getting much, if anything at all. It seems like it's all about comfort now, so I'm slowly trying to cut back. My boobs get so sore when I skip a feeding, though. It's ridiculous. Maybe just the pregnancy-sore-boobs + a little extra milk? IDK.

AnotherPreggo · January 2014

DD weaned on her own because my supply dried up from M/S at 14 months... so my experience with weaning is not really of any value to you haha.

Perhaps the sudden increase in nursing sessions is due to teething? As for the WCM, I always would offer it with meals. That would be the only way DD would take it at first... and even then it was a battle. Eventually she would drink a cup of it without food. I know some people try flavored milks to make it more tempting.... I didn't go that route, though recently we have been giving DD flavored kefir and she is obsessed with it.

Do you do snacks in between meals? I tend to offer DD something to eat every couple hours. That might help? But... take my "advice" lightly, as I don't really have weaning experience! GL mama!

allardr · January 2014

We weened DD at 1 year. I just cut a feeding every few days. I made sure she was 100% comfortable drinking out of a straw cup before this. So I just gave her 1 of those with milk with each meal.

She didn't care in the least. I left last night feeding and morning feeding for last. Honestly it was me by then that prolonged those. As much as I wanted a break from nursing between DD & getting pregnant I was sad for it to end. But honestly I just cut her one day and she never pulled or wanted it really.

I do always have a water cup available to her and milk in a cup at every snack/meal. Maybe make milk available in a cup even more in your house that way just because she can't nurse she knows she can still have milk. Sorry I'm not more help. DD1 was easy here

AutumnBonfire · January 2014

DS just finished weaning last week. He turned one on Sept. 10 and was nursing three times a day until I went back to work at the beginning of September. He then nursed first thing in the morning and then once before bed. I decided not to pump milk when I went back to work. He didn't have to much interest in the frozen breast milk and didn't really want cow's milk in the beginning, but he eventually got used to it. We dropped the before bed feeding after I was at work for maybe a month because it got to be too much in the evening. He dropped the morning session on his own last week.

knitsandgiggles · January 2014

Thanks all for your thoughts. Sounds like all babies do this on their own schedule! I will try different snacks and really just redirecting her.

I don't know how much milk she is getting at this point anyway so if this is a comfort behavior, maybe I give her tons of snuggles instead. Trial and error until the phase has passed!

@klemck - my soreness stopped between feedings once I stopped with all of her nighttime nursing. I was engorged the first few nights and would pump before going to bed myself. Eventually my supply figured it out. Since then, No more soreness.

@anotherpreggo - you might be onto something with the teething. She has new teeth coming in after months of no new teeth.

@lori_n_lior - jealous!

pfeilele · January 2014

This was DS for a while, I think he was either bored or actually thirsty. I basically told him no and found something to play with to distract him, or told him to get his milk. We started him on rice milk (dairy allergy) at 10 months to go with his meals so he learned to love it and now it's his favorite thing. We fully weaned on New Year's Day because he got a cold, was only nursing in the morning, and was frustrated. Now, he doesn't miss it at all. He lifts my shirt these days to blow raspberries and he thinks it's hilarious

runrinserepeat · January 2014

@knittylady we haven't done night feedings in over a year, I don't think. I feed her once a day most days, and I definitely notice when I skip that. It's probably just normal pregnant sore boobs and I'm being a wimp about it, lol.

Is it foolishly optimistic to just hope that this all sorts itself out by July? Because forcefully weaning her seems like so much work right now...

alyss0nl · January 2014

We weaned DS off Formula just shy of his first birthday. He seemed more interested in eating solids rather than the bottle. In the end, he would have 3 6-8oz bottles a day. It really just depends on the child. We really followed his cues more than anything.

loulou1212 · January 2014

She pretty much did the daytime weaning herself around 12 months. For nighttime, I just stopped going into her room. My husband would comfort her, but I wouldn't. Middle of the night took 3 days.

Then for first thing in the morning and before bed, my husband started getting her up and putting her to bed with a cup of whole cows milk around 14 months (this was about a month ago now). She refused all but the nuby trainer cup, but she would take milk from that. I think it helped that we already had a bedtime routine established (white noise, reading, songs, etc).

mrscurlygurl · January 2014

DS weaned finally around 19 months. We had been slowly cutting back to just mornings and before bed then to just mornings. Over the summer, he did go through a period of asking for it during the day more, which was unusual. It was just a phase though and sounds like what some of your LOs are doing. I went on a girls trip in August for 3 days and thought for sure when I got back that he would be done, but he wasn't. Redirection and offering water/milk in a cup are really the only suggestions I have as well.

PortermansWifey · January 2014

DS is 16 months and has always been a big nurser and I was sure that he would nurse til he was 3. He randomly stopped nursing 9 days ago and hasn't even acted interested. He just stopped. We cut out night nursing about 2 months ago and he was only nursing 1-2 times a day. I've been kind of sad about it honestly because it was our cuddle time and it was such a comfort to him. I am thankful that it was a struggle for either of us though.

Ecomom17 · January 2014

knittylady said:

Since we're talking about a type of weaning, STMs tell me about your weaning experiences from formula and/or nursing, pretty please! DD was winding down nicely and I thought she would be weaned from the boob soon, but we seem to have gone backwards a bit. She is constantly reaching for my shirt and yanking on it. This behavior primarily occurs at home. When we are out, she's not interested. If i rry to redirect her, she gets frustrated. Sometimes I am successfully able to redirect her to water or very rarely, whole milk. She eats plenty throughout the day during meals and snacks. So I don't know where to go from here. We went from 4 nursing sessions back up to 6 or 7. Maybe it is for comfort? She never took a pacifier so I don't know what other substitute to give her if she is just looking for comfort. Advice, suggestions, anything welcome at this point! Edit - even with proofreading, I always find a typo after posting, argh!

From my experience once you start cutting down on nursing sessions it's very normal for kiddo to suddenly want to nurse more. I think it's mostly b/c they're like, hey, wait, am I still gonna be able to do this thing I really like? I think it's just wanting reassurance that it's not suddenly going to disappear. And comfort nursing is pretty wonderful if you ask me.

You've probably heard/done this, but I think dropping one session at a time is maybe easiest. But I would definitely say redirecting is pretty effective. So if, say, during the day she's a bit tired or in a quiet mood she's going to be looking for that little comfort. Probably the easiest thing for the kid is to start off combining some comfort nursing with something else that's comforting (like, maybe she has a favorite blankie or stuffed animal) and then gradually replace the nursing with the comfort object.

You said she's getting frustrated with redirection; a little frustration is ok. It's just part of the process. And if she's looking for comfort rather than actually needing a drink, it might help to try redirecting by, say, reading her a book or something else calming.

For me the most difficult session to drop was the nap nursing. I had finally broken us both of the habit of nursing to bed at nighttime sometime over this past summer, but had a really tough time not nursing him down for a nap. Eventually I realized that it was ok to have him just have quiet time in his room and if he fell asleep, great, if not, okay, at least he was getting a restful period (although he was close to 3 then and your DD is about 1, right? so maybe too young to have quiet time by herself). Anyway, it was more me than him at that point that didn't want to give it up, mostly because I just wanted him to nap! He did fine when I told him we were done with nums.

Sorry this was kind of rambling! Hope some of it was helpful!

Oh, another thought: I kind of remember around age 1 that DS did up his sessions for a bit. In fact he started waking up a few times at night for them, too. In my case, though, I wasn't looking to wean yet so I rode it out (not that it was fun, haha) and he dropped back down after awhile. Age 1 there are a lot of changes, so that could be part of it, too. LO just looking for something familiar while she's busy going through all these growths! GL and let us know if you have other questions!