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Infant feeding

Stop breastfeeding single mum

13 replies

Trixyvix · 21/06/2019 19:05

My daughter is almost 7 months old and im over the breastfeeding! Initially she refused the bottle but as she started teething she chewed on the bottle and now happily drinks water or juice from bottle but refuses my milk or formula in a bottle. She's smart she screamed when I showed her the bottle of formula! Im at my wits end as currently im the only one who can comfort her. Her father has limited involvement and I feel her dependency on my boob is preventing him from stepping up his involvement eg. I've never left her with him for long periods of time, and my mum would love to be able to take her and get her off to sleep at night etc. I've read online babies seldom take bottle from the person with the boobs but sadly it's the 2 of us 90% of the time. My mum suggested taking her overnight so im not around and I wouldn't be concerned about my daughter doing that but my mum is older and a screaming baby all night seems a bit much. Any advice? Thanks in advance

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Dilligaf81 · 21/06/2019 19:18

My daughter refused a bottle completly until at 10 months old I sat her in her high chair with a bottle of milk on the tray. I grabbed one to drink through the teat and she grabbed it off me. A friend tried the same technique in your situation and after a few times of their dd seeing mum drink milk from a bottle she was taking it as well.
Might be worth dipping th putter teat in milk so it's not so plasticy and making sure the bottle itself is room temperature.

This small act optimises my whole daughter character 9 years later the stubborn little mare.

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TooMinty · 21/06/2019 19:43

Why don't you start slow and leave her with your mum for a few hours and see if she'll take a bottle? No need to go straight to an overnight and stress them both out. I never got either of mine to take a bottle though, although didn't try that hard. Weaned them straight onto sippy cups of milk, does she drink from a cup at all?

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Trixyvix · 21/06/2019 19:55

Yeah im already drinking eating & drinking her stuff to spark her interest, and yeah she can drink from a cup. But when she needs comfort there's only me she wants. My mum lives 2 hours away so stays over some weekends. I've left her with my mum for parts of day and I imagine she would be ok all day with water and solids. It sounds selfish but I don't want her to be dependent on me for her benefit that she feels comforted by daddy or granny etc.

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TooMinty · 21/06/2019 21:28

7 months is only little though, and they change fast. Maybe don't stress about it now and see how she is in a couple of months time? Daddy and Granny can bond fine just taking her for a few hours. Are you getting enough rest yourself?

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Trixyvix · 21/06/2019 22:03

Not really but im ok. Maybe im jumping the gun just a bit overwhelmed as all the focus up till now was to breastfeed I never imagined stopping would be an issue. She is still small but I'm scared if I don't make an effort now it'll go on long term. Kudos to the mums who go for years but I need to be able to leave her and get drunk on a whole bottle of wine lol

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TooMinty · 22/06/2019 07:31

You can have a couple of drinks while breastfeeding, just don't get hammered. Are your friends supportive or are they all out partying and leaving you behind? I'm an older mum so my friends are all settled with kids so happy to do lunch in a pub with soft play with one or two drinks rather than a big night out.

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Teddyreddy · 22/06/2019 07:40

If its not working for you obviously stop now but it does get a lot easier to cut it down in a few months time as their solid food intake increases. I daytime weaned DS at 11.5 months prior to going back to work and it was no problem dropping the daytime feeds. From 12 months they can have cows milk which makes the trying cups / bottles thing easier as you don't have to make feeds up / worry about how much the wasted formula is costing you. It does get harder to wean them / cut down from 18 months ish on as they become more aware of what they are loosing but at 7 months you've got a while before you get to that point.

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Teateaandmoretea · 22/06/2019 11:16

For what it's worth one of my bottle-fed babies totally refused milk from a bottle once she was eating solids. All this 500ml a day between 6-12 months is tricky. Is she actually taking that much breastmilk do you think?

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Trixyvix · 22/06/2019 23:39

No it's the comfort most of the time. Im a human dummy as she naturally refuses an actual dummy!

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Trixyvix · 22/06/2019 23:43

Lol it sounds worse than it is, just I can't actually leave her with anyone for a long time which I feel is important to start to introduce for both of us. My mum would love to tell me to go off somewhere but if she gets distressed only I can settle her. Eager to develop other soothing strategies I guess.

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TooMinty · 23/06/2019 15:05

Mine refused a dummy too but loved having a comfort blanket to cuddle/suck - that's how I convinced him to sleep without the mummy dummy!

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stucknoue · 23/06/2019 15:07

I reduced at first but the final weaning is somewhat easier if your mum (or another helps. If she wants to help it's worth trying

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Trixyvix · 24/06/2019 11:39

Thanks guys 🙂

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