Weaning from the breast?

[Midori1999]

I need surgery I've been putting off for a couple of years. So sadly this means I have to wean DS, who is currently 9 months, from the breast. I had hoped to continue nursing him until he self weaned, as I did with DD, so it's quite hard to come to terms with this. Plus, weaning him just seems so much like hard work.

How do I go about doing this? I am thinking I can drag it out another couple of months or so, until he's almost a year old and the just switch to cows milk. Is that ok? He is a bottle refuser and up until now doesn't really have many drinks at all except breast milk. Just some sips from a cup and solids when DH looks after him. Do I just offer more solids and drinks instead of breastfeeds? Will that work? He can get to sleep without nursing, but not with me, so after a while should DH start doing bedtime? Maybe that could be the last thing? He still has a lot of feeds at night, although he has slept through a few times recently.

Oh gosh. Help?

Do you really have to wean though - could you just do a temporary break then go back to it?

If you do then Kellymom website has lots of suggestions :)

Sorry that wasn't much help

I suppose the first question (and sorry if you've already investigated this thoroughly already) is whether you definitely have to wean for the surgery? Having personally experienced an idiot locum GP informing me that I definitely had to wean to take a particular drug that turned out to be perfectly safe (fortunately I got a second opinion), I am always inclined to suggest further investigation when a medical professional says you must stop BF - eg if there are particular drugs involved to check with the BFN helpline/Wendy Jones, or get in touch with Dr Hale.

If you do have to stop then yes, you can switch to cow's milk at a year (or, y'know, not, if he doesn't like cow's milk and is getting enough other fluids and calcium eg other dairy). I found around 9 months was when both my boys really ramped up their solids intake/started drinking water properly, and just dropped feeds by themselves, so you may find the process starts quite naturally. And yes, getting daddy to do bedtime if you want to drop that feed sounds like a good idea. No other suggestions, alas, as DS1 self weaned and DS2 is still feeding.

Good luck!

Thank you. Sadly, yes, I do need to wean for the surgery as it's breast surgery. I shouldn't have put it off for as long as I have really and I will need to wait a while after stopping breastfeeding to actually have the surgery, but I wanted to complete my family as I won't be able to breastfeed at all afterwards.

I will try offering more drinks for now and hope he takes to that as well as he has done solids. Then see what happens over the next few weeks and change my plan if something more urgent is required. Hopefully I can do this in a gentle way for him.