Help!! Trying to wean.

[misty316]

Today is dd 1yr birthday. Yesterday she was with my mom all day did fine and today when I skipped nursing her to nap she did fine with dh. This nap however she is giving him a fit. I'm in the other room she is screaming. We are not having her party today since we just had a party for my 12yo last Sat. and since we are busy redoing there bedrooms today. I sure hate to celebrate her birthday like this. I am so little and just feel like I have to get her weaned while dh is off for a few days to help. Ok I think she stopped now but she had been screaming for a while before I finally decided to type this. I don't know if we should even try night weaning or not. If I don't while hes off I can't but I hate to do it all at once. I sorta feel like she is more of an all or nothing sort of baby. Even though I wanted to keep nursing part time for a while.

[L J]

If you wanted to keep nursing, why are you trying to wean her? Is there a reason for weaning?

[marliah]

I don't get it either. Why would you wean then nurse part time, talk about confusing a child.....

[misty316]

I thought a lot of people just nursed at night or just during the day and night wean. Instead of all at once cold turkey take it all away. Besides isn't that how you slowly do it by taking away one feeding per week. Maybe I typed it wrong. I know I can't just cold turkey stop nursing I would be in a mess engorged. No one really tells you how to wean. I am just really little and don't want to lose anymore weight, is one reason I feel I need to wean. She still nurses to sleep, I wanted to try and transition her to sleeping without nursing to sleep. I def. don't want to be confusing her though.

[heatherz1982]

I am sort of in the same boat as you. My son turned one a few weeks ago and I am ready to be done with breastfeeding for the most part. He is probably not completely ready so my plan is to slowly wean and still nurse him but just cut back slowly. I think I will be okay with just nursing him 2-3 times a day and the other times he wants milk he can get organic whole milk in a bottle or sippy. He was nursing 6 or more times a day and now we're probably at 4 times a day right now. As my milk supply starts decreasing I have a feeling he will gradually lose interest in nursing. My main concern is the organic whole milk the best choice or would a toddler formula or full fat soy milk be better. I think its normal to be a little stressed because its the only way your child has been fed a whole year so its like what next. But as far as the weaning goes, I think a gradual approach should work well with our one year olds. I think you should be able to nurse part time with your daughter if that interests you and that would help you both be less stressed out. So far we've been mixing breast milk with the whole milk and giving him this in a bottle, he takes it well, he just prefers his warmed up and refuses it if its cold

[mom2cse]

We weaned by only nursing before naps and bed. Then, we supplemented with milk in a sippy or water in a bottle for one of those feedings. Every 3-5 days we would replace another nursing session with cows milk or water. They did fuss at first, but settled into the cuddling and took the cup/bottle.

I started weaning my first two once they reached 13-14 months because I had reasons that I needed to stop nursing. I just weaned my youngest this past week at 23 months. She seemed to be comfort nursing and not swallowing much so I didn't think I was producing much milk. I think she would go longer, but I have a few prescriptions I need to start on and I can't nurse her while I'm on them. We used the change in routine of a family vacation to get started. She seemed to want to nurse after we returned to her regular routine back at home as she pointed and asked for "milk" as soon as we were back in her chair. I told her milk was "all done" and she has done great just cuddling for a bit with a sippy cup of milk....easiest for me to wean so far.

Good luck!

[JeDeeLenae]

Could you only wean for naps and bedtime, and offer a sippy cup during the day? That would help. Eventually, the naptime feeding would get dropped, then the bedtime feeding, and you're weaned.

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[HugeBabyBoy]

I let my DD wean herself. After introducing finger food & sippy cups, she would nurse infrequently during the day. I just went at her pace, and then she gave up the before bed nursing to.

I would suggest, if you are trying to reduce her dependency on nap time nursing (like you said with DH putting her to bed), that you leave the house... talk a walk, clean out the car, run an errand, etc. She doesn't understand why you're a room a way and unwilling to nurse her, and it will be difficult for everyone to have her screaming (as you posted).

If you're ready to stop breastfeeding, then work towards committing to the bottle. If not, thinking about letting her go at her own pace... You can increase her solids and having her feed herself to help her self-wean. This helps her be more independent.

Good luck!