How to stop breastfeeding at 12 months without too much upset??!!

[LimesMum]

My DD has refused a bottle since 4 months despite me trying beyond belief. It has since taken me ages to get her to drink from a sippy cup type thing which she now does but only water - she absolutely will not take any formula or cows milk, just spits it out. I've tried and tried and tried.

We now do a 6am and 630pm bf and that's her only milk.

I am now going back to work which involves overnight and weekend shifts and there's no negotiating out of these sadly so I really really need to stop the bf.

Please has anyone else been in this position? How did you overcome it? She doesn't seem to take loads at bed time but it seems to calm her down a bit pre bed but first thing in the morning she literally is desperate for it and guzzles for about 20 mins non stop.....

Hope someone can help me?!

Dd1 was the same I just fed her if I was home but if DH had her he tried her with a cup of milk (which she never drank) story and cuddle.

By 14 months she stopped feeding but she never really took more 2 oz of cows milk in a day but we just made sure she had lots of dairy in meals etc. she is 2.5 now and still has about 2oz per day I just think she is not a milky child.

Will you be doing the overnights every day? You can still BF on the days you're around and just offer cup on days you're not. That's what we're doing when I go back to work.

I've got a bottle refuser too and was only having small sips from cup until recently. I know you've probably had all these suggestions already but have you tried just a normal open cup, no lid spout etc just a normal cup? I was surprised how well my DS took to this even aged 5/6 months he drank a lot more easily than from a sippee cup. After a few weeks drinking from the open cup he then started drinking a little more from the sippy cup too. Milk or water. Not huge quantities though.

I think like McBaby mentioned with her child, I think some babies might just not be 'milky' kids, they're happy getting their nutrition from solids and sips of water etc. I do feel the anxiety around feeding though, especially when I look at formula fed babies guzzling huge 250ml bottles down in one sitting whereas I'm lucky if mine even has 50ml from his cup. My instinct tells me they would drink whatever is offered if they really needed it though so I just keep offering!