Stopping Breastfeeding - Waterloo,IA

It's been 8 years for me...my son decided at 1 that he was done...so for me? I just had to STOP pumping and everything - it was about a week of being uncomfortable...

However, that being aside - stop pumping, cut one feeding out at a time for a few days, then the next feeding for a few days - usually a week...but EVERYONE is different!

I would NOT stop until he is one year old...talk to your pediatrician to see...but a baby should not get cow's milk before the age of 1.

Depending on the age...... He needs breastmilk or formula for a minimum of 1 year.

It sounds like he is still nursing often enough that it is still a main part of his nutrition........... That being said, if you plan on stopping:

You may just want to drop the snack first. Give that a couple weeks. And then drop the lunch. Give that another 3 or 4 weeks and then drop another meal one. Continue. The last one to go will most likely be before bed..... This WILL take a couple months to get him to adjust and he may start waking up multiple times at night if he is not ready to wean yet.

Good luck. However, it may be easier to wait another month or two and see if he starts dropping some on his own (again, depending on his age....)

Start by introducing milk or formula, it may take the baby some time to get used to the new taste so you can mix it with part milk part breast milk until he gets used to the new flavor. Depending on age you can try a bottle or sippy cup. If the child it 11 months or older, I would use milk, if not, formula or try pumping into a cup until he gets over 11 months. Once you have him taking a sippy (assuming he does not already) than start cutting out one feeding a day, and once he is ok with that feeding being gone, cut out the next. At night he will need to learn a new way to sooth himself back to sleep which may take a few nights once you get to that feeding.

You didn't mention how old your son is, so if he's under 1 then you'll have to use formula and if he's less than about 6 months your supply may suffer as you remove feedings and might not be able to continue breastfeeding at all.

I can tell you what happened with mine. I decided I couldn't handle the pumping anymore when he was about a week from his first birthday, so I wanted to wean him during the day. I took out one feeding during the day per week and substituted milk and a snack. He resisted at first (according to the sitter), but within a few days he was fine. I tended to give him a snack I knew he loved, oranges were his favorite at the time. I wasn't in a hurry to wean him completely, but the pumping was too hard at work and I wasn't getting enough to keep up with him. So within a couple of weeks I was done pumping and he was just nursing in the morning and before bed. After a couple of months he just asked to take his bath without nursing (our routine was nurse, bath, books, bed). Probably a month or so after that he didn't want to nurse in the morning and just wanted to go downstairs and get breakfast. So he self-weaned around 16 months. I'm sure not all kids will do that, but if the pumping is the problem for you I'd start with the daytime feedings and then let him lead from there.

No surer way to get a kid off the breast then to give him a bottle!

Maybe switch out one or more of those feedings with a bottle of half and half breastmilk and formula? Maybe increase the ratio to the formula side at little at a time and replace another feeding?

But I'm not sure why you would want to.

Why not wait til his interest starts feigning?

:)

Like the others said, it depends on the age of your LO-you will need to introduce formula or milk to replace the lost nutrition of the BM. If your LO is older you can do this by introducing a sippy cup instead of a bottle. Just instead of offering the breast offer the sippy/bottle one session at a time. I would start with the ones that you can keep his attention off you the most.

My son is 16 months and only nurses 1st thing in the morning and occasionally at lunch time. My first two stopped nursing suddenly at 9 and 10 months so this is the longest I've gone. The good thing was I didn't have to buy any bottles since we skipped right to sippy cups, woohoo!