Breast Feeding - Copperas Cove,TX

I weaned my son at around 11 months. Hopefully your DD takes a bottle already. I started mixing breastmilk with formula (half and half, then smaller amounts over a few days) and feeding my DS out of the bottle for most of the feedings. The night feeding was the worse one to get rid of because my son usually fell asleep while nursing. Eventually I worked it down to just all bottles with formula and he forgot all about the boob. When he turned a year, I started mixing formula with whole milk and then he was weaned completely off a bottle and taking warm milk from a sippy cup.

*Make sure to invest in some tylenol and warm compresses for drying up your milk. My boobs were rock hard and hurt extremely bad for a week. That was the worse part about quitting breastfeeding. They got so full of milk that I was soaking thru nursing pads in a half hour and once I took my bra off milk would squirt about ten feet. Hopefully yours goes better than mine did. Good Luck !

Mix breast milk with formula a little at a time. Maybe one ounce of formula with each bottle and then increase the formula each day until you are at all formula. It will also let you see if she is and help her to tolerate the formula when you introduce it gradually. Good luck!!

I think you've done a great job nursing her this long. I agree with the posters who say wait a little longer and wean her at 12 months or so when she can go straight to whole milk in a sippy cup. Breast milk is really lots better than formula if you can do it. Certainly the first few months are the most important, and you can stop now if you wish. Infancy is such a brief period in your child's life and your own. I guess we just don't understand why now is the time. Sometimes when nursing you do feel very tied down to the baby. But, as I said, it is a short time. But none of us are in your shoes, so do what you feel is best for your baby.

Why on earth do you want to wean her to formula?!? Breastmilk is SOOOO much better for her. If you don't wish to continue breastfeeding for whatever reason, it would even be better to pump and give her the breastmilk instead of the formula.

Many babies go through a fussy nursing stage around 8 or 9m, doesn't mean they're weaning. Babies are healthier and happier if they are allowed to self-wean. Don't push it, breast milk is THE healthiest food & med for them. If they were 'weaning' themselves, they wouldn't take a bottle either. Since she is too young for all table food, keep nursing if possible. If not, transition by replacing ONE feeding at a time, allow 3-4weeks per feeding that you change/drop. Remember they nurse and get more out of you than a pump can. So if you don't see much in the pump, pump more often if you want, that will help, but remember by 8m they are efficient nursers and your milk is condensed so it's not how many oz that matters, but what's in the milk. Good luck, I hear whole oats help too.

I would have a small bottle of formula ready, let her nurse a little bit and then introduce the bottle and let her finish with it if she's willing, or start with the bottle and then put her on the breast.

For weaning to "run smoothly" you will both need to be on the "same page" so to speak. Has your DD started eating solids, like bananas?

You may be pushing the transition a bit, for whatever reason. If you don't mind, you might want to review why you want to wean at this time. For more information, you can ask questions or just search articles about weaning at http://www.lllusa.org/ (look for "Breastfeeding Help" tab or section).

What I see, from just 30 minutes since you posted your question and from your "So What Happened?" post, is wanting to continue giving your DD breastmilk but not nurse her. I apologize in advance if I'm off on a tangent here, but breastfeeding her is easier than giving her a bottle!!!, saves money and builds up the baby-mother bond a great deal.

Anyway, if you wish to pursue the weaning, one tip is to have someone else offer the bottle. Your DD will continue to equate you with breastfeeding and will most likely accept it if you are not in the room (say, out of hearing distance). It is a good idea to continue to include some snuggle time with your DD, without nursing, so you are not cutting out this bonding time.

One other thing, I think it a bit risky to start up the fenugreek (which can increase your milk supply) when you want to wean. You risk becoming engorged and possibly getting plugged ducts (which can easily get infected == yuck!).

I had a lactation consultant explain to me that one way to measure how much breastmilk your baby is getting is to look at how much goes into the diaper. When nursing, your DD can be getting 8-12 ounces of breastmilk a day but you may see 4-6 ounces from a breast pump (much less efficient in comparison). It's not fair to say, well, my DD must be getting 6 ounces a day!

I hope you have family (and friends) who support your breastfeeding. I would like to be such a friend! Send me a private message, if you would like.

Good luck!