Weaning at 12 Months

No bottle. I wouldn't do that at 12 mo. my little lady is 15 mo and feeds off of me in the morning and sometimes at night otherwise she drinks out of a cup and straw

If she's good with the lidded cup, then that's what I would go for. You can still give her a bottle at night or just a cup of milk then too. I understand weary of BF. I'm counting down the days until I'm done. (Please, Mamas, no comments. I know I should cherish this time, but I'm just beyond done after number 4.)

BTW, Take and Toss lidded cups are pretty much spill proof somehow. They rock!

... many things to consider.

From 1 years old, whole milk is recommended. If your baby cannot drink from a sippy or cup yet and does not take a bottle, then how will she get her liquid intake???? No matter what that liquid is???

If she does not drink from anything else, then breastmilk will be important for her to have, still.
Hence, you may not be able to wean, at that time.

WILL she, take breastmilk from the lidded cup with a straw?
If so then that is your only option, in weaning her. With that type of drinking cup.

And you need to watch... for Dehydration. If she is not getting enough intake, daily. Per liquids/milk/breastmilk.

You need to ask your Pediatrician.

Whole milk, is important, because the 'milk fats' in it is important for brain development. It is not only about the Calcium.

Keep in mind, if your breasts get full/engorged, you will need to self-express it out, so your breasts don't get rock hard or etc.

Milk in your breasts... takes TIME... to dry up and go away completely.
For me, it took MONTHS AND MONTHS, after my kids weaned from breast.
So be prepared for that.
Milk does not just go away, over night.

Milk before bed, helps a child sleep. Even for adults.

Use whatever apparatus (sippy or bottle or lidded straw cup), for your baby that she WILL drink from. Whichever she will drink from.

Hopefully, she will take milk from something.
Many babies, often will not take milk/breastmilk from anything except a breast. Because it is instinct. It has a "nipple."

Whenever you do wean, it is best, to NOT do it, at a Growth-Spurt period. Bad timing.
Do it at a non-growth spurt, period.

Well, I also tried to wean my DD at 1 and she didn't want to. She then nursed through my whole next pregnancy and then tandem nursed with her brother until she was 2 1/2. My DS weaned at 14 months and he actually probably would have weaned at 8 months but I really wanted to make it to a year. Do you dislike nursing? Is it becoming stressful to your relationship with your daughter? They are changing the nursing recommendations to 2 years now too because the nutritional value doesn't change when they turn 1. There is nothing magical about turning 1 that should automatically mean its time to be done BF. If it is making you weary then def cut down. When I used to get overwhelmed with it I would take an afternoon off and it helped so much.

After reading S.H.'s comments, I would hesitate to wean your baby in the summer heat. Unless you are sure she can get enough fluids, I would suggest waiting a bit longer.

If you've weaned before, you know that gradually is probably best, for your sake as well as hers, reducing by one feeding per day first.

Her routine to breastfeed will ebb and flow. Some days she'll be too distracted to nurse much, other days will be hard on her and she may need your comforting and love thru breastfeeding more. Her days of nursing every few hours are soon to be over, and the antibodies your breastmilk gives her will make you plenty happy to still be giving her once you start taking her to daycare or more playdates. A 1 year old who's not had bottles daily because of necessity - bottles are the main way to feed formula - should NOT be started on bottles at this time.

I would counsel you to wait it out... I cannot tell you the amount of times I grew weary of breastfeeding - but it always passed and things went back to normal. I would also advise you to look up nursing strikes and check out www.kellymom.com and www.drjacknewman.com about them and info about nursing past 1 year.

I would still do the morning and night time feedings. Then maybe twice a day then go to once a day then drop the morning then the night. good luck. Keep trying the sippy cups too. Or just use the cute cups with straws if thats what she prefers.

I definitely wouldn't go to a bottle... the point of weaning is that they aren't sucking anymore... kinda defeats the purpose...

You could experiment with different sippys. Or, there is a sippy out there with a screw on lid and a pop-up straw. that would probably work well for her until she figures out a normal sippy or big-girl cup.

My DD is 15 months old, and I am in the process of weaning her. I nurse her when she wakes up for the morning, at naptime, at bedtime, and twice in the night. Right now I am working on cutting out the night feedings. Some nights she sleeps through them, sometimes I can get her to fall back asleep without anything, and sometimes I just give her a drink of water. (My thinking on that is that she really enjoys nursing, so hopefully she will think that water isn't special enough to wake up for... so far it's pretty hit and miss, but more hits than misses!)

During the day, I give her a sippy with whole milk with each meal, and she has a sports bottle with water (sometimes I flavor it with a splash of juice) available to her at all times.

My goal is to have her off the breast around 18 months. (I read a study that said that breastmilk is proven to have significant benefits for health and brain development up to 18 months old... after the 18 month mark it's still good for them, but not as drastically. I'm not sure how much truth there is to it, but I figure that since I made it to 12 months with no issues, and I don't have anything going on that makes it inconvenient, I may as well stick it out for another 6 months. lol.)

I would forget about the bottles. There's really no good reason to use them at this point. If she's ok with a straw cup I'd just go with that!

If you are interested in the sippy (I personally love the convenience of the no spill cup), don't give up. I highly recommend Gerber or Playtex because they both have a valve. When both my boys were learning, I removed the valve. It was a bit messy for a couple of hours, but then they realized that this was where the liquid came from. It didn't take them long to figure it out. Also, they both were on bottles, so they had to be weaned from a bottle to a sippy. The first couple of days they did not drink as much as I would have liked. However, both were fine after the first couple of days and began drinking plenty. Give it a shot!

I don't advise going to a bottle, since she isn't taking one now and it's just another thing you'd have to wean from later. Try either to get her on the regular sippy cup, or let her use the kind with the straw since she's good at that. There is no need at all to use a bottle.

Also, if you are able to pump some extra milk, it will really help when you are ready to give regular milk. Mix the two together, starting with 75% breast milk and only 25% cow's milk, then gradually move to 50/50, then 25/75 until she's fully on cow's milk. It will help her with the shock of going from breast to cup.

My baby is 9 months so I'm not too far behind you. She doesn't do well with a bottle or sippy either, so I know it's going to be hard!

As for night wakings, you'll need your husband to help out. When you're ready to stop night feeding, have him go into your daughter's room and soothe her. She won't be expecting him to give her milk, so she might go back to sleep for him more easily than she would for you. I'm going to try that with my daughter this weekend! Cross your fingers...

K.
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