BF at the 12 month mark - what to do?

[zoobaby]

Can anyone share their experiences of what happened at 12 months?

DS is EBF and I can?t believe that we?re almost at the magical 12 month mark. I?ve thought about giving up BF at this point due to return to work etc, but think maybe I?d like to continue with morning, night and days off for a while longer.

I dread night waking and then going to work a few hours later (oh the joy). Therefore I?ve been wondering if I should implement a regime that doesn?t involve BF as DP would then have to just deal with it on nights when I have work the next day. But then again I?d also have to ?just deal with it?, which doesn?t sound like a great deal of fun.

He also gets great comfort from nursing when the ol? teeth are giving him grief and I seriously can?t imagine what I?d do to soothe him if I couldn?t offer a bit of BF time.

Do you simply offer up cow?s milk in a cup and hope it?ll placate them? BF is such an easy solution!

Also, can you mix feed with BF and cow's milk? If so, how do you know he?s getting the right amount? Or does it not really matter, as he?ll take what he needs?

I got ds onto a morning and evening feed when he was 1 and I went back to work. He slept through by then but if he woke in the night and wanted bit of comfort I'd feed him. It's a nice way of settling him back off or if he was ill.

Nursery gave cows milk in a sippy cup 2x a day & the rest of the time water.

I'd give him snacks rather than a milk feed when I was with him. I liked not having to whip up my top in public any more.

I bf til he was 20 mo in this way. Then he stopped of his own accord. The morning feed was last to go. I was happy to stop by then as he was huge& wriggly & quite bitey.

Do what suits you and your dc.

My DS will be two in a month. Breastfeeding is still his favourite thing ever! He breastfeeds whenever he likes when we're home together during the day (whenever he's tired, bored, upset, in need of comfort etc.) and he feeds at night. However, I work (part-time) long days and he is absolutely fine at nursery 8-5.30 without breastfeeding. I don't notice that he then wants more milk in the evening after a nursery day. i think he loves breastfeeding for reasons other than the fact that it delivers milk, and I don't want to take that away from him. He just has water at nursery, and on days when he's away from me, no cows' milk. Once they are eating well milk is a supplementary food, so I don't worry about any nutrient deficit when he doesn't breastfeed for a whole day.

If you're still bfing and DC is getting milk in cereal, yoghurt and cheese then you don't need to bother with cows milk as a drink at all. In fact it's quite easy to meet the calcium requirements even without the bfing. My DS never took to cows milk so we never bothered. I went back to work at 13 months, DS was bfing morning and evening and was fine. I stopped feeding at 17 months and that was fine too.

You might want to consider night weaning so you aren't needed in the night. My DH started doing the night wakings and only called me in if he was having no luck without a feed. It didn't take that long till I wasn't feeding in the night at all (that didn't stop the waking but that's another story!).

Thanks for the replies. He does eat quite nicely, has milk on cereal and really likes his fromage frais and cheese, so maybe I needn't stress over it.

The extent of HV's advice was "one pint of milk a day" and she wouldn't really answer the continuing BF questions, just saying everyone is different, now get out the door so I can see the next person. Grr!

I had it in my head that cow's milk is the next progression, but I guess it's only true for FF. If it's really just for calcium, and he can get that elsewhere, then that's good to know.

I'm still feeding DS at 17 months. Never thought in a million years I would be but we both love it. It's mostly morning & night now as I'm back at work. I miss him in the day so it's a nice way to catch up

I also thought never in a million years would I/we go this long. I distinctly remember wondering if I was "tough enough" to last 6 days, and I also remembering revising the goal to 6 weeks. Before I knew it, we were at 6 months.