Stopping breastfeeding at a year

My ds is almost 1. For those who stopped bfing at a year, how did it work with your dc getting adequate milk. My dc barely nurses during the day, but seems to enjoy it in the morning and night. I can't picture him drinking that same amount in cow milk. Also, do you offer cow milk first thing in the morning? So far, ds doesn't seem to like cow milk. He takes a few sips. I could continue bfing, but I am interested in having my body return to its pre-pregnancy state.

Message edited 3/22/2014 9:09:07 AM.

Stopping breastfeeding at a year

wondering the same.....

Re: Stopping breastfeeding at a year

lol anybody, anybody??

Re: Stopping breastfeeding at a year

My DD is only 6 months, but I was wondering the same thing.

Re: Stopping breastfeeding at a year

My DS was already used to getting bottles because I sent pumped milk to daycare. Around a year I started mixing BM and soymilk in bottles (DS had MPI) and replaced each normal nursing session/or pumping session with that (eventually just soymilk in bottles) and nursed am/pm till around 13 months when I started bringing a soymilk bottle in with me in the am to replace that session. My supply tanked when I went to am/pm nursing only and so he was barely getting anything before bed. One night I just brought in a soymilk bottle (no nursing pillow in sight) and he took that instead of nursing. We were totally weaned by the end of 13 months.
Weaning off the bottle now is a totally different story As we have tried to replace bottles with sippys he wants nothing to do with milk in a sippy so I think this is going to be the end of milk entirely. We are down to bottle in the am/pm only and he refuses milk otherwise during the day (he is 21 months). Technically after "weaning" around a year my pedi said they don't really need milk anymore. We are the only species to continue milk passed weaning.

Stopping breastfeeding at a year

I weaned over a few months. I introduced soymilk at 13 months (found out DD has a whey allergy). I was still nursing 3x a day but cut down to 2x soon after. I offered soymilk in a sippy during the day and sometimes she took a little, sometimes none. Eventually I started offering the sippy before I nursed her before bed but planned to stop that session last. I had DH get up with her in the morning when I was ready to stop that session and he would give her a sippy and then breakfast before I got up so she was nice and full before she even saw me. I stopped the bedtime session when we started having all kinds of sleep issues, DD wasn't satisfied or comforted by nursing bc my supply was so low at one point, and no one was sleeping at all. We decided to CIO and kind of last minute decided I might as well wean at the same time. It worked great and DD rarely asked to nurse although she still did occasionally for a few months.

As far as how much milk she drinks, it's often only a few ounces. On a really good day she takes 10-15 oz. The ped just said to make sure she gets her calcium one way or another and it doesn't have to be from milk. DD yogurt daily as well as other sources of calcium like cheese and waffles.

Stopping breastfeeding at a year

I stopped BF at 13 months.

I started around 11 months cutting out the day sessions and offering an 8oz bottle. It would be 2oz cows milk and then 6oz breast milk. I kept this up for about 2 weeks, gradually changing the amounts of breast milk to cows milk. By the end of two weeks he was having all cows milk. Then I slowly cut out the bedtime feed by offering the bottle (since he was already used to it) and he took to it seamlessly.

I was attached to the morning feed, so I let that one continue on another month until he bit me hard one morning. I just offered him the bottle of milk after and he didn't seem to mind not BFing.

My DS would drink milk all day if I let him. Now we are down to 8oz with breakfast and I still do an 8oz bedtime bottle (he's 16 months). He has a TON of dairy during the day, so it's water the rest of the time. He loves his water in a sippy, and he will drink his milk out of a sippy if I give it to him, but it's usually followed by tears between sips. He still prefers a bottle and honestly, I'm not worried about it. He'll transfer to a sippy for milk when he's ready.