Skip Breastmilk During the Day?

Oh yeah, she will be fine. At her age, it is fine for her to have three breast milk/formula bottles a day. When my son got to be that age, I would breastfeed morning and night and if we went some where, just take a bottle of formula. When I did a bottle it was 8oz and he sucked it down! He loved it and it didn't impact his breastfeeding at all. If we were home I would breastfeed mid-day. It was so liberating, no more pumping!!:) As a working mom I think you are a champ for pumping for so long! Now she is at a stage where she is eating and you are able to introduce water, watered down juice etc. so if it were me I would put away the pump:) Best wishes!

M.,

Your daughter can drink cows milk at 12 months. If you are trying to wean her, then go ahead and skip the bottle/breast milk during the day. You may still need to pump during the day. Otherwise, you may get really uncomfortable. If she is eating food well and will take water for hydration, then I would allow her to catch up on breast milk at home. She really keeps you busy after work with the frequent nursing. I think it all depends on how long you intend on nursing. I planned to nurse until my daughter was a year old. I had a thyroid issue that cut things short. I weaned her at nine months and gave her formula until she was a year old. I switched her to Organic milk at a year. I wish you the best.
Take care,
Danabeth

If I was in your position, I would mix up some breastmilk in her babyfood during the day and go with that and herbal tea or water during the day. And then nurse on demand when you're together. No scolding here! Nursing is a form of mothering, and it's nice to have in your back pocket--it works so well for so many things!!

There are a lot of women that can only nurse at night. As long as she is getting either breast milk or formula during the day, then she will be fine. She probably needs at least formula if she won't take the breast milk. Not certain, but I believe they are only suppose to really drink formula and/or breast milk at 9 months. I was told I could mix 1 oz of apple juice with 1 oz of water for poopies, but that was it.

As for co-sleeping, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it in my opinion. As long as you are an aware sleeper she will be fine. However, at 9 months you may want to go ahead and move her to her own bed. I moved my daughter to her own bed at 5 months and from that point on, she only woke up 1 time to nurse in the middle of the night. Plus at 9 months, they should be sleeping through the night. She may keep waking up because of movement in the bed or just because she knows you are there and she can nurse. They are smarter than we think. I'm sure you are ready to sleep through the night.

Might be an issue at the school. I had similar experience and found that since our baby is in different childcare (Goddard in CP) that she feeds well and is happier. Good luck.

YES! It sounds like she is enriching her food interests. She is still getting plenty and you can add on YoBaby yogurt to make sure she gets the fat content she needs (I made this mistake at 9 mths when mine reduced her breastmilk dramatically and she lost a lot of weight by the 12 mth appt. Oops.) You may also find she occasionally chugs on the breastmilk at daycare because it'll be balanced out with other food interest.

Do what works best for you & your daughter!

My 7 month old has basically doing the same thing. Not much interest ing breast feeding during the day, but she nurses in bed with us at night. We feed her home made baby food and formula during the day. She nurses sometimes during the day, but it seems less and less. I dont know why, my other two nursed for 10 to 11 months and did not want a bottle. But my baby seems very happy so I guess it's all good. stay at home mother of three. ( 5 yrs, 3 yrs and d7 months)

I had the same situation where my son wouldn't drink the breast milk at the day care. If this is actually a problem for your baby, you will notice a decrease in urination, getting ill, and other symptoms of not enough liquid. I bet, though, that you are not seeing any problems like these and she is fine with drinking water at the day care. In fact, I am glad I encouraged water. I had another mom tell me she was so jealous that my son was drinking water and not so much sugary juice. It seems she had her kids refusing to drink just water.

You may find your milk supply dwindle. That was a problem for me. Or you may find that, during the day, you may have to express or pump because of the fullness. You have to watch out for mastitis if you try to ignore that your breasts are "full". In fact, pumping while your daughter is at the day care will make up, in a small way, for missing a feeding or two. The thing to remember is breast milk is produced based on the demand, meaning, the more your child nurses, the more milk produced; the less your child nurses, the less milk will be produced. Also remember that a breast milk pump is a poor substitute for nursing because nursing is much more efficient and no pump can actually duplicate it.

I have had wonderful experiences with co-sleeping in my family. I don't think the transition to their own bed was any harder than if we had not done the co-sleeping. Your motherly intuition and instincts will guide you best on this subject.

Good luck!
D.

I don't blame you for your frustration - that sounds like a good solution. My only concern (and every women is different regarding how their body reacts to such a change) is that your milk supply would drop. Mine would - to the point where I would be unable to nurse at night. You might want to consider continuing to pump to maintain your supply. Many women told me not to worry, that my body would regulate...unfortunatley, it didn't and I had to boost back up my supply with lots of nursing/pumping and stressing - not fun.

I completely understand about your frustration with the bottle and pump part washing. I'm a working nursing mom for 7 months. My LO had to be retrained to take the bottle at 3 months. At the same time, I have excess lipase in my breast milk. I have to heat inactivate the milk right after pumping. So, consider yourself lucky to have a 20 minute pumping session compared to my 45 minute session twice a day.

Breastmilk should be the main source of nutrition for the first year. Solids are to supplement and not replace feeding sessions. In my opinion, it would still be beneficial to your baby to continue the bottles at daycare. Maybe suggest different ways to give the bottle like change feeding positions, rock or swing, change rooms, play music, sing, etc.

Sounds like your LO maybe be getting alot of interrruptions during the night. She could be reverse cycling where at night she is nursing for your company and for hunger while holding out at daycare. I am an advocate for consolidated night sleep. If you ahve a happy, well rested baby, then do what is working for your LO.

You can place breast milk in the sippy cup also. She may gain new interest in milk during the day.

9 months is a long time. You're doing a great job. Babies transition into sippy cups during this time. So, you're almost bottle-free. Just hang in there. I'll be counting down the days with you.

Regardless of what anyone says, you have to do what is right for YOU and your family. If this is what you feel is right, then go for it!