Advice on Weaning - Pickerington, OH

Wait until he is one year and then start dropping one feeding at a time. Whatever you do, don't introduce formula instead, it's not as good. And don't introduce a bottle, you just have to wean from that later on. If you want to use something, use a sippy instead.

I too weaned my baby at one year. I waited until a few days after she was one to begin the process. She was also nursing 4 times a day. I started with the feeding time she was least interested in and cut it out and offered her milk from a cup and a small snack. I then moved on to the next feeding after about a week. It is best to wait a week between dropping out feedings to allow your body to naturally slow down milk production. This helps keep you comfortable and hopefully pain free in weaning. I allowed her to keep nursing morning and night until she was 13 months and then cut out the morning feeding and then she stopped the bedtime nursing at 14 months. I plan on following a similar weaning schedule with my son who is about 11 months right now. I would definitely wait until after his first birthday to begin weaning since then you can offer milk and not have to do any formula. Good luck

For his age and you wanting to sleep through the night, first I would stop the 4 am feeding. If he wakes, try to rock him back to sleep or comfort him somehow.
Start with just taking one feeding away for 1-2 weeks, then take a second feeding away for 2 weeks, and then a third feeding, etc...
I quit breast feeding and pumping altogether in 2 weeks, and it was way too fast, and I had a lot of leakage, and am now EXTREMELY saggy.

Hello there! My son is 13 months old and I am still going through the weaning process. First, if you haven't introduced the sippy cup I would do that now. Just put some water in there during his solid meal times and offere it. I took away the feeding that he wasn't eating much at or that was the shortest. For my son it was the one before his solid lunch. Then he made up for it by eating more solid foods and still napped fine. I took away the one after his nap before dinner next. I just substituted it with a snack after his nap instead of breastfeeding and that held him over until his solid dinner. I am still doing the 1st thing in the morning feeding and the before bed. But I think both of those are slowly going away too. I will probably take away the morning one first. Then the evening. Hope that helps. OH- you might need to pump ( but only 1/2 of a full feeding) while your weaning....I got mastitis! yuck! if you have any questions feel free to send me a message. I'm no expert ..just currently in your situation :)

You've gotten a lot of good advice. I would eliminate one feeding each week, but you really wouldn't need to start yet in order to be done at age one. You could be VERY gradual and eliminate one feeding every two weeks. I'd also introduce the cup first, if you haven't yet. In my experience, I had a lot of anxiety about weaning my daughter (I started at age one). I expected her to fight it tooth and nail and she accepted the changes rather easily. She was completely done nursing at 16 months- so we did it very gradually, too. My advice about that is not to project your feelings or fears on the little tyke. Be positive. Offer more cuddles and lap time. Good luck.

Congrats on being a SAHM - it's the best! I did the bootle/breast tranfer at about 6 months and would recommend that you give a bottle of formula at bedtime. If you are running around during the day, chances are your milk supply isn't as strong in the evening. That will knock out the middle of the night feeding and help you both. I use Dr Browns bottles.
My daughter is now 16 months and only gets a morning and night bottle - she uses a cup during the day and eats like a champ too. Good luck!

It might help to read the book, "How Weaning Happens" by Diane Bengson.

It sounds like you've already begun weaning him. Around 11 months, just cut one of those out. Then another a week or so later, etc. until he's weaned.

Please, please do not think i mean this in a snooty way. You say you're a stay at home mom? Why wean at a year? I guess everybody's different but I wouldn't stress myself out too much just to get him weaned at exactly a year old. Just kind of take it slow. Babies do not have to be weaned right when they turn 1. I'm sure you already know this, and this is probably just your personal preference but, don't make it h*** o* yourself just to hit that 1 year goal. Since he already doesn't nurse that much you probably won't have that hard of a time anyway. I would say end up with just
the bedtime feeding though.

Hi D.,
I would suggest starting by cutting out one feeding at a time. Wait a week and cut another one. I would start now though if you really want to be done at a year. I say that only because I had a really hard time getting my daughter to take a bottle/cup instead of the breast. She was being very stubborn and it literally took months for her to give in. There were periods where she just didn't eat and I was worried. But I had to do that to get her to understand it was going to be a cup or nothing. I was ready to be done, so that's what it took. Good luck.

My daughter nursed only about 4 times at that age, too. I started weaning at 10 or 11 months and did it slowly, eliminating the session she was least interested in first, which was the mid afternoon one. Then, after a few weeks or so, I let her use a sippy cup after the after breakfast session, filled with water or juice. Then a few weeks later I eliminated the before nap session and by the time she was one, she was nursing only before bed and even though she got rotavirus shortly after she turned one, she never missed that night time session and went right to a sippy sup really well. Good luck!!!!