Want to start weaning off breast feeding - how.

[Writerwannabe83]

DS is just under 6 months and is EBF. Weaning onto solids starts next weekend

I was originally planning to go back to work when he was 10 months old and ideally wanted him off breast feeds altogether.

However, I may be going back to work a few months earlier (end of December) so need to seriously start thinking about how to stop breast feeding.

Has anyone done it in a period if 3 months and how easy did you find it?

How did you do it?

Main problem is that DS has never had a bottle and any attempts to get him to drink from one have failed.

We have started to introduce a sippy cup and although he will nibble on the spout and take the water/EBM he isn't proficient.

I'm just scared that it's going to be a nightmare process and I won't do it in time.

Thanks in advance for all advice!!

I weaned my DD off the breast over a 3 month period, though I didn't manage to start until she was 8 months. I tried to introduce a bottle after 6 months of EBF but she was having none of it so I waited until she was eating a good variety of solids and happily using a sippy cup for water. At 8 months she was happy to try formula from a bottle but she still messed around chewing the bottle instead of feeding, so I gave her formula in a sippy cup and she downed the lot so we just used cups from then on. I started replacing her mid-morning breastfeed with formula, then replaced the afternoon feed a few weeks later, then the bedtime one (not through choice, she was biting, but it has been much harder getting her to sleep now I am not cheating and feeding her to sleep!) and then finally the first thing in the morning feed when she had just turned 11 months.

I found it easier to drop the daytime feeds first as I found it more convenient to breastfeed at night, particularly as the formula feeds were with cups, which would have woken her up more as you need to have the baby more upright than with a bottle.

The little tinker wouldn't take formula made up from powder though, only the pre-made stuff, so it cost us an absolute fortune! Much relieved that she has now turned 12 months so can have cow's milk (she switched from formula with no problems, did it gradually over a couple of weeks).

Why do you need to stop? I went back to work full-time when bottle-and-cup-refusing DS1 was 8 months old and carried on until he was 17 months old. He just had more yoghurts and expressed milk mixed into food to mark up the calories. It was a really nice way to alleviate my working mother's guilt to feed him as soon as we got home

*make up the calories

If you want to introduce formula, it might be worth using a sippy cup rather than a bottle, as the advice is to drop bottles at 12 months anyway.

I appreciate you want to stop breastfeeding altogether, but I personally found it a lovely way to reconnect with my DS after a day at work/nursery. I fed him in the morning and evenings on nursery days and as normal on non nursery days. He was 11 months when he started nursery so was having mainly solids in the day anyway.

In your position, your DS would be a bit too young to go through the day without milk feeds of some kind. You could start transitioning one daytime feed to a formula feed in a cup now, and then in 2-3 weeks change another one. Then by the time he goes to nursery, all his daytime feeds would be formula from a cup.

The problem is that I'm a nurse and will be out the house for about 15 hours. He will be asleep when I leave (6.30am) and asleep when I come home (21.00pm) so I'm not going to be able to feed him

That is a very long day, and not compatible with breastfeeding.

Maybe a bottle rather than a sippy cup might be better for morning and evening feeds in that case. You'll need to transition feeds slowly to avoid too much engorgement and to decrease the mastitis risk.