Weaning at a year, MSPI transitioning help!

So my Daughter is around 11 months old and EBF (eats solids too). I'm hoping to wean around a year because she has Milk/soy protein intolerance and dairy allergy and I'm ready to be able to eat food again(selfish but a whole year w/out a single restaurant visit is getting to me hehe). I will likely offer her some type of alterna-milk like almond or hemp given her intolerance and allergy.
I don't remember how I did this with my son I currently pump at work (which I have to give up at a year) and Breastfeed her when I'm home. She is currently breastfeeding (or getting pumped milk)
at 7am/11am/2pm/6pm/9pm. I know she probably doesn't need that many feeds as she is often quick to get distracted but I don't know how to cut them out and if I should be offering some alternative milk in a bottle instead of bfing or giving pumped milk. With my son once I stopped pumping I started drying up pretty quickly and couldn't maintain morning/bedtime feeds only (he would suck but the tap was dry hehe).

How many times does your 11mo/1yr old get milk or breastfeed, when I cut out a BFing session should I offer milk in a bottle instead?? I feel clueless and its my second time.

Re: Weaning at a year, MSPI transitioning help!

Do whatever works for you. At 1 year DS went between 2 or 3 milk bottles a day. DD will be 1 next week and still takes 4 bottles of milk a day. Yesterday was 5!

Re: Weaning at a year, MSPI transitioning help!

I EBF my mspi baby to a little past a year and by a year old he was down to 4 nursing sessions/bottles per day. Wake up, mid morning, mid afternoon and before bed and eating 3 meals a day, maybe a snack or 2 but i forget. The nursing/bottles may have been his "snacks" at that age. At a year I wanted to cut out workday pumping so I dropped a pumping session every few days and would send frozen BM to daycare. I still nursed morning and night. After a year, I started testing the waters with alternative milk to use in bottles once my small freezer stash ran dry. MSPI baby or not, I've never been a big proponent of pushing cow's milk on kids. I'd prefer to get the good fats and hydration from other sources.

Because I was weaning to an alt milk, you lose the fat content of breast milk or cow's milk which is still important for kids under 2. I just made sure to have lots of good fats incorporated into his food everyday. Everything was cooked in olive oil, I would put coconut oil in oatmeal, avocado, nut butters, etc. If he had been better at drinking lots of water after a year, I wouldn't have even done bottles of alt milk. He just needed the hydration from it. His nutrient needs were mostly being met with food after a year. It took a little cajoling to get him to drink almond milk from a bottle. I bought unsweetened, but would actually add a tiny bit of sugar myself to ease the transition from naturally sweet BM. I preferred to be in control of how much sugar was added, rather than buying the sweetened kind. If i did it again, I may choose coconut milk over almond milk. I think the flavor is more appealing. I continued to give almond milk in a bottle but water was always offered in a straw cup with meals. Eventually, he became less and less interested in his almond milk bottles by about 18 months and was drinking plenty of water by then, so we stopped offering bottles too and never looked back. Occasionally now he will drink an alt milk in a straw cup but mostly water.

Re: Weaning at a year, MSPI transitioning help!

Thanks for the help so far!

Re: Weaning at a year, MSPI transitioning help!

My son just turned one a few weeks ago. I've been half-heartedly weaning him for the past month or two. I'm down to twice a day generally. So I breastfeed him before bed (about 8pm), then he sleeps until about 6/6:30am when I breastfeed him again, then during the day he gets two or three bottles (one in the morning, then in the late afternoon usually after his nap) of about 5 ounces each of pumped milk but he usually doesn't finish it all. So he has breastmilk 4-5 times a day (the 2 breastfeeds & 2-3 bottles) & I'm guessing he gets about 4 or so ounces each time. He also eats lots of solids. Once I'm done with my freezer stash & cut out the two breastfeeds, I guess I'll start giving him regular whole milk with his meals, when he wakes up & before bed.

Weaning at a year, MSPI transitioning help!

My DD only had the milk/dairy allergy, so she was able to have soy milk. We tried coconut but she refused to drink it, so we stuck with soy.

I knew I wanted to stop pumping at a year. I had pumped 3 times a day and was over it. When she was about 11 mo, I dropped one session. I still BF on demand anytime I was at home, but I started pumping less. Once we ran out of freezer stash (I hardly had any, I barely made enough milk to make it to a year as it was), we started cutting some of her daycare bottles with soy and eventually kept increasing the soy in her daycare bottles as I continued to pump less and eventually, it was all soy in her bottles.

I still BF every morning and every night and all weekend for about another month after I stopped pumping at work but one day, it was just gone. She kept trying to get more and more milk and was frustrated so my DH just made her a bottle of soy milk, she sucked it down and that was that. I had hoped to make it longer than 13 mo and I know many people who could stop pumping and continue to BF, but it didn't work for me. I was more than happy to start eating dairy again though! Silver lining, I guess.

Re: Weaning at a year, MSPI transitioning help!

Message edited 5/13/2016 3:06:42 PM.