Routine / 12 mth old bf / weaning?!

[RoseyD]

Hi,
I was after some advice. My dd is just turned 1 and is bf 3-4 times a day.
I have 4 months over which to wean her off bf and wondered the best way to go about it?
She has never taken a bottle/formula/expressed milk and drinks water out of a sippy cup with meals.

Also - off on a tangent - I feel I am not giving her a good enough variety of food. She often refuses what I offer her (which I have made!!) and will only eat cheese! Any tips on good food she may enjoy or ways to get her to eat what I offer her?

Thanks

Rosey

my son is 1 next week (but has been in childcare part of the week for ages). When at home, my repertoire of foods is...

toast
banana
many kinds of fruit actually
omelette
sausages
chicken strips
sweetcorn (on the cob particular hit, food with handles )
pasta coated in thick tomato sauce (made from simmered-down chopped toms in tins, and herbs and courgette slices)
barbecued courgette was a hit
porridge is our ever-reliable fall back option

Sorry that is not necessarily answering your problem. I think you just have to keep putting a variety of foods in front of her and as she gets older you can keep her at the table for longer to try to get her to choose something. If you always relent and hand over the cheese she is just learning that if she waits long enough she'll get it. As you're breastfeeding (so are we) you have a full calorie source so she's not going to go hungry, all you're doing is training her to accept a variety of solids. The sooner you do that, then you can move onto the other issue, weaning off bf in 4m (presumably to go back to work?).

Hi.
My ds is also just turned 1 and also never took to a bottle - he did for a while then just flatly refused. He is still bfed morning and night (and during the night, but that's another story) but drinks a beaker of full fat cow's milk from a sippy cup during the afternoon.

Not sure how we're going to drop the bedtime feed (he's not that fussed in the morning) so I'll watch this with interest to see if anyone has good suggestions.

Regarding food, I'd just give her whatever you are eating and make sure you eat at the same time, since they are at prime copying age just now. My ds had a complete hissy fit the other day during dinner and I couldn't work out why. Dh finally fathomed it was because I'd cut his sweetcorn off the cob instead of giving it to him whole like the rest of us. As soon as he had a chunk of corn on the cob in his paws he was happy! Don't underestimate what she is capable of handling!

HTH and good luck.

at x-post re: corn on the cob!

Hi,
My DD is 16mo and I have just stopped BFing her in the last week. I was really worried about it, but in the event it was just fine. She has only been feeding before bed and in the morning for about a month, before that she had one in the middle of the day, but I cut that out by just making sure she got lunch early enough to not be so hungry she wanted it, and distracting her by being out! I started cutting down over a week period with the length of time that I fed her for at the evening feed, I didn't time it or anything, just did it by feel. It did result in a couple of tantrums, but I just let her get on with it and gave her a cuddle when she had finished. By the end of the week she was not bothered about the feed at all. I asked my sister to have her for the afternoon, she did bedtime and tea etc and put her to bed- she didn't even look for it apparently!
I carried on with the morning one for about 3 days after that (for the sake of my boobs as much as anything!) and then just went cold turkey on it- got her up as soon as she started moaning and gave her breakfast straight away. She has taken it totally in her stride- looked for it a bit a couple of times but easily distracted.

She has never had a bottle and always taken all her drinks from an open cup. Since she has given up the BFing she has started taking far more from the cup, milk as well as water which she never used to be bothered about. As long as your LO is weeing plenty and poohing ok she will almost certainly be fine with the liquid that she gets from a cup/beaker. Chatting to your HV might reassure you about that as well (although the ones here can be pretty useless sometimes! )

Food wise, DD has days when all she eats is philadelphia and crackers, and bananas! She has things that she does like, and other things she always turns her nose up at, but I just offer her a wide range of foods, she usually eats with us and has just what we are having, and if she doesn't eat it I just take it away. She is good at yogurt though, so I do fill her up on that if she has not eaten much of her dinner. I try not to worry about it too much. I figure she will eat what she needs, as long as I am offering her a balanced diet I am doing the best I can! I know that it is recommended that you look at it over a week as well, rather than a day. That might help.
Am happy to post some of the foods that go down well with her/that I offer if it would help, but am aware this is already bit of a mammoth post!