Advice please on whether/ how to wean 12 month old onto cow's milk from the breast

[helenainsworth]

My daughter has only had breast milk and solid food until her first birthday (yesterday) and now I am keen to stop her remaining 2 feeds (morning and evening) and replace them with cow's milk. Bu she simply will not take it- from an open cup, a spouted cup or a bottle. Any ideas? It is really distressing her. Should I jus keep going wiht the breastfeeding to keep her happy even though she is not gaining weight and she needs the fat and I feel like the time is right for us both to move on from the special time that is breastfeeding. Any ideas/ experiences/ advice gratefully received. Thank you.

I'd say if you'd be the one giving her the cows milk anyway, keep with the breastfeeds.

It sounds like she's not ready to stop and it doesn't sound like it's causing you any distress to continue, so stick with it.

The weight gain thing is pretty much irrelevant as long as she's happy and healthy - a bit of cows milk morning and evening won't make any difference, IMO. Does she eat cheese and yoghurt? My DS1 rarely drinks milk - I never replaced bfeeds with milk from a cup because it never occurred to me to do so - he asked for it sometimes, but usually drank water.

Depends how important it is that she drinks milk. My dd2 didn't stop her night/morning feeds until she was nearly two, but now she won't drink cow's milk. She does eat plenty of cheese and yogurt though.

Why do you say she needs to gain weight? Has she been weighed by your hv or does she just look small to you? My dd2 eats things like cheesy pasta and garlic bread which are good nutritious ways of getting fat into the diet.

Maybe she just doesn't like cow's milk. Some children don't but will happily tuck into cheese and eggs and broccoli (all good calcium sources). If you do want to wean her, then the kellymom site has some good stuff about gentle weaning - like 'never offer, never refuse'. But my advice would be to do it for you, not because anybody else thinks that a year is long enough for you to be bfing. My friend weaned her LO at 15 months because her family were getting on at her. She bitterly regrets it now, which is so sad because she did brilliantly well to bf a baby while having an older child. Re: weight. Most of my friend's babies aren't gaining anything very much now (at 12/13 months) and yet they all seem to be getting bigger! I can never understand it because the scales don't lie (though this is not what I think when I weigh myself each monday.)

THanks everyone- some great tips there. It is the health visitor and doctor who are a bit concerned about her weight but i can change a few things and see how it goes. Prob wont suddenly stop bf ing but will think about reducing i over the next few months. Is definitely for me that I want to stop but dont want to upset DD too much in the meantime!

Both my children weren't keen on cows milk. I bf both until about 15 mths. BUT they both loved, cheese, yogurt and would have milk on their cereal. DS also likes broc. Now DD (5) will drink milk (I find she does best drinking at school!! She gets a 250ml carton there, don't know what I'll do when they stop this at juniors!) She has milk with one meal a day. And DS will drink a bit of milk -- but not much probably less than 100mls.

If you want to give up, just make sure they get enough other calcium in the day (it is around 300mg -- but check this!) from other sources. Maybe she will take to cows milk later. It is a very different taste and experience!

It is easy to hide calicum, extra cream in baked potatoes, topped with grated cheese. etc, etc. Plus don't forget, some desserts are high in milk content e.g. cheesecakes, creme carmels, rice pudding, etc.

if you're really wanting to stop - then as long as she's eating lots of other dairy products (yoghurts, cheese etc etc) I honestly wouldn't worry about her drinking cows milk.

I always intentded to stop feeding DS1 at 1yrs (well it was going to be 4 months, then6 months, then 9 months = you get the picture). But was stilling trying to get him to take cows milk at 14 months..........in desperation I went to see my HV and she quizzed me about his diet and announced that as long as DS was having enough other dairy products not to worry if he didn't drink the milk.

We stopped feeding withing two weeks (he didn't miss it a bit and ) and he was about 3yrs old before he would actually drink cows milk!