Weaning breastfed baby off the boob whilst they have a dairy intolerance

[amy49]

Hi there guys,

Just looking for some advice, my little girl is almost 13 months old and is still exclusively breastfed. We’ve been gradually weaning off the boob a little - she will still feed in the morning, usually once throughout the day, bedtime and then through the night as required. I’m going back to work on Wednesday and I’ll be away from baby girl for over 13 hours each shift 😢 I’m starting off with dayshifts up until around mid March then I’ll also be nightshifts so ideally looking to have her weaned off the boob completely by then so she doesn’t give her dad too hard a time through the night. Baby girl is dairy intolerant so can’t just be switched to cows milk and recently when I’m pumping I’m not really getting much. I’ve got our dietician appointment end of Feb but ideally looking for advice before then! What kind of milk did yous introduce to your babies if they can’t have cows milk? Oat milk doesn’t really have the nutrients required. Ideally I’d be happy to continue expressing and giving her the option of feeding from the bottle but as I says, I’m struggling to pump a decent amount. I’m just getting stressed about making sure baby girl is still going to get the nutrients needed if I am needing to offer her oat milk or another alternative?

Sorry for the long message, I’m just a little stressed 🥲 thanks in advance! X

When I went back to work at 14 months I kept breastfeeding my girl when I was home, and she coped fine without it while I was at work. They understand that you're not around so don't expect it until you get back. So fine if you want to wean, but don't feel you have to just because you're going back to work.
The paediatric dietitian from the allergy clinic (my girl was also cmpa) told me that breast milk of course has the best nutritional profile, but in terms of a non-dairy cows milk alternatives the best option we have in the UK is Alpro Soy Growing Up Drink. It's a fortified soy milk that is nutritionally closer to cow milk than other plant based milks. There is also an Oat version of Growing Up Drink for kids that are also soy allergic, but they told me that soy was the better option for those who can tolerate it.
You can find it in most supermarkets next to the UHT milk in the non refrigerated section.

Could you start with some gentle night weaning first?

You'll feel less pressure to completely stop BFing if she's not waking in the night to feed and you won't have to introduce a different type of milk as BF babies will just take more at other feeds.

Once you've cracked the nights it will be easier to start dropping daytime feeds

There are a few oat milks out there that are equivalent nutrition to whole cows milk but they are at the pricier end of the market around £2.20 per litre. We get our barista in bulk through Amazon subscribe and save to bring the price down
For oat milks there is oatly barista and Alpro growing up milks there are soya equivalents too.
What you are looking for is 3g of fat and 120mg of calcium per 100ml and iodine.

My wife went back to work at 13 months and our daughter (who had a cows milk allergy at the time) started nursery 4 days a week. First week was awful as my wife was up multiple times a night then had to go to work.

So it was time to night wean, and basically our daughter had a load of breastmilk first thing in the morning before work, then some in the evening but if she woke in the night, I took her to a different room, held her for the 20 minutes maybe of screaming for milk, and then she went back to sleep. After about a week she stopped waking in the night. I guess this doesn't always work but does with some babies.

I went back to work when my dairy intolerant DD was 5mo.

she refused BM from a cup. Waited until I returned home!! (I was out 8-7 - 4 days a week)

She bf until she was 4yo. So the separation from the boob did not stop us! Nor did a long girls weekend away that I went on.

she used to nurse in the morning. And at bedtime if I was home. At the start she did what is called “reverse cycling” so we co slept for a few months. Then she stopped and slept through again.

she ate solids from 6m, but not much until almost 12m.

if your DD is eating a variety of solids then you do not need to introduce any replacement milks. Unless you are worried about her.

we avoided soya as that seemed to cause a problem (not uncommon with dairy intolerance)

we used oatly barista back then. Nowadays we use a gluten free oat milk which I have on subscription from Amazon.

we went for the higher fat version