Need Advice on Weaning 10 Month Old.

I just started giving my daughter a bottle for one of the feedings. Since she is 10 months old, you might want to try and get her to take a sippy cup instead of a bottle. If she has never had formula, you might want to ask her doctor about just giving her whole milk. If she needs the formula still, you might just want to slowly add whole milk. Add an ounce or two and slowly increase the milk until she is drinking only milk. Good luck.

I stopped pumping when my older son was 9 months old as he was on enough solids at that time BUT I was still able to nurse him at lunchtime - that along with morning and 2 evening feedings was enough. I would avoid the formula if at all possible - cow's milk is really difficult for humans to digest. It's actually abnormal that someone would have NO problems - I personally believe many, many health issues are from dairy - it is correlated with diabetes, reflux, anemia, etc. and the potential for problems is high. Also, soy (processed as it is in the formula) is also very unhealthy.

So, if you could just keep up morning and evening feedings, then she should be fine. Also, she will continue to keep the very, very important health benefits for her immune system. Given this swine flu, I would think this is one of the absolute worst times to consider weaning an infant. When my older sister was breastfeeding her first child, the worst flu I have ever had (and one of the only times I ever got the flu - I've had it 3 times in my life) hit everyone in our family and my husband's family EXCEPT my sister and her daughter.

I, too, am weaning my 9 month old son, but due to business travel and decreasing milk supply, have had to supplement with formula. The one that most people recommended to me was Good Start Protect Plus (it is in the green canister). It is a gentle formula with DHA, ARA, natural cultures, and comfort proteins. My son has had absolutely no spit up issues, gas, or other formula related issues that he had when we tried the free Simulac that came in the mail. Not to mention, it does not have that strong powdered milk smell that is absolutely nauseating!!! This just smells like a powder with no real odor. Good Start may be more expensive, but that is because it is the much better product. They usually have good deals at Target.

Good luck! I'm down to morning nursing and plan to stop when I leave on a business trip on the 2nd. This is a pretty emotional week for me, knowing it is the last.

hi E.
this probably sounds like a lot of work but its what we did...my milk supply ran out when my son ws 5 months old and i started him on Similac Organic. i would give him his a bottle of say 5 oz of breast milk( i can't recal exactly how much he had since he's now 2!!) and then i'd give him 1 oz of formula and increase the formula and decrease the breast milk. You could also just add it together or just add the powder into the breast milk.(thats what they did at the hospital for my son to help him gain wt since he was a preemie) Not sure if this helps but good luck!! :)
S.

Since you mention that you pump, then I'm assuming your daughter is already familiar with drinking from a bottle? Because if she's never been bottle fed than you have two items that need addressing -- first, getting her used to a bottle, then getting her to drink formula. I don't recommend doing both at once because most kids balk at too much change too soon.

But if she is already familar with the bottle, then to switch her to formula I found the best method to be mixing breastmilk w/formula. The first 4-5 days the mixture should be 3/4 breastmilk and 1/4 formula. Once she has accepted that willingly, then go 1/2 and 1/2, etc. This allows her to get used to the different taste of formula, and also allows her digestive system to adjust as well. If all goes well, in about 3 weeks she should be all set! And then you get to do it all over again when she turns 1 and can start drinking whole milk.

If your daughter hasn't been bottle fed before, then I suggest first getting her used to drinking 100% breastmilk from a bottle, then follow the above instructions.

My personal experience is that I wasn't able to produce enough milk for one feeding once I switched to formula. My body seemed to need to be doing at least 3-4 feedings to sustain milk production.

I have used Simulac Organic for both of my babies. That seems to work. Also, when I weaned both of mine I just started mixing formla into the breastmilk. Little, by little, I would increase the mixture to more formala. I would pour the breastmilk into the bottle first -maybe 75% breastmilk to start; then the 25% formula. Then just slowly start to increase the formula percentage.

One suggestion you did not even ask about but that I wish I had done when I weaned my son at about the same age was to skip a bottle and go directly to a sippy cup. We went to a bottle with whole milk, the doctor suggested since he was so healthy whole milk would be okay, then we had to wean him from the bottle. That weaning was more of a nightmare than weaning from the breast. He cried for that silly bottle for three full days. I hope all goes smoothly. And yes children are a gift from God. D. H.

With the Swine flu scare escalating, I'm awfully glad my little one is still nursing, and I'd be reluctant to wean until I'm fairly certain that the danger has passed. I'd hate to have provided mine with all those immunities, only to cut him off right when he needed them the most.

Not sure on the organic formula, they didn't sell organic very widely when we switched to formula for my son who's (only) 3.5. To wean/switch you need to have an idea of how much milk she takes in, I'm assuming you use a bottle occasionally. So start with 1 oz of formula made to the specifications and the rest breast milk ex. 4 oz if she takes a total of 5 oz for about 4-5 days then add another ounce of formula and reduce the breast milk to 3 oz for 4-5 days until it's all formula. The whole idea is to introduce gradually because it's going to be kind of rough on her tummy - different protein make-up and the slower you do it the better. It may cause some constipation so don't be freaked out - some "p" fruits should solve that problem pretty easily. Also, invest in a formula pitcher, you can get them at Babies R Us, it will make it much easier because you can mix the required amount of formula for the day instead of making it at each feeding. (It might also be a good time to get her used to the idea of using a sippy or straw cup too!)

If you have exclusively breastfed for the last 10 months, you should continue for the next 2 months. You can start weaning the baby to whole milk at 11 months. You will probably have a hard time getting your baby to take formula now since she hasn't had it before. My suggestion would be to keep breastfeeding until she is 12 months old. You will continue to produce milk as long as you continue breastfeeding.

K.

I use Bright Beginnings™ ORGANIC Formula and purchase it from BabyOrganic.com. When you buy six cans you get free shipping. It's the least expensive organic brand I have found and is just as good as the other organic brands (ie, Earth's Best). They even have links to compare the Bright Beginning's formula's nutrients and ingredients with the other brand.

All babies are pretty different on weaning but there is good advice on parenting.com and babycenter.com.

It's amazing how your body adjusts to supply and demand. I breastfed for 18 months with my first. I eleminiated the daytime feedings first, and got down to morning (to empty me out!) and nighttime. I eventually nursed only at night (to empty out before going to bed!)and was amazed that I didn't spend the rest of the day engorged. Your body really figures out when you need to be "stocked up." We weaned when my son was 18 months old while we were visiting family over Spring Break. he was so busy with everything going on and getting spoiled by grandparents that he barely noticed. When he asked to nurse (signed "more") I just told him no, there was no more, and offered him a sippy cup (he had used a bottle since 2 months old when my hubby would give him pumped milk and occassionally formula just to get the taste of it, and sippy cups from 6 months). H ecomplained a little maybe the first 2 times, then just made the switch. Now he was a very easy going baby, I won't pretend he wasn't - but it is possible!

Hey E.,
What I did was substitute one meal per week with the formula bottle. That way he was totally weaned in about a month. I will tell you that very last feeding was an emotional one...and I'm not even a very emotional person! Best of luck to you!

I weaned my dd at about this age. Stop one feeding at a time, replacing it with a bottle. My dd was fine with formula (she'd had it to supplement since 10 wks old), and barely seemed to notice the change. As another poster said, stop one per week--this will give your body time to adjust, so you don't end up engorged. Your body WILL keep producing for whatever feedings you keep with. At the end, I was just bfing once per day after work. DD actually ended up weaning herself--she liked the real food better, so at the end I was forcing her to bf, which just seemed wrong. But I agree it can be emotional to stop! GL!