need to get 7month old off breast - help!

[perkywoo]

Sorry to repeat myself (first time using this). I have a 7 month old daughter who is not interested in a bottle or cup, but I have to stop breast feeding within the next fortnight! She is not too interested in the day, but she still wakes at least twice at night and I'm worried I won't be able to get her to sleep without the breast! All tips greatly appreciated.

Why do you have to stop bfeeding in the next fortnight?

I am returning to work in January, but have to have a minor operation at the beginning of december so would like to have finished by then. I only planned to breastfeed for 6 months and feel ready.

go out and leave her with someone else for a day or two ..

Twiglett. Not an option I'm afraid. With my eldest I was exactly the sameand really worried, but I got a stomach bug and literally couldn't feed him; my partner gave him a bottle and he wolfed it down - I was quite disappointed that he wasn't more bothered!

She may very well still wake.

If you are set that you want to stop bfeeding, you have to find a way to get her back to sleep without bfeeding her. Lots of people do this, though I'm not one of them, so can't really help you with that! Do you have a partner who will support you with helping her back to sleep at night without feeding?

If you decide it's too hard to get her to sleep and you do want to carry on, it's perfectly possible to have an operation, to work and bfeed. But if you really have had enough, good on you for getting to 7m and I hope somebody who knows more than I do about weaning at this age will be along soon!

Hunkermunker. Thanks for the advice. My partner works really long hours and I feel guilty asking him to break his sleep more than normal, (that's not to say he would mind). We are going to Centre Parcs in a couple of weeks and I thought maybe we could go for it then when he doesn't have to get up for work.

Does she go back to sleep quickly with a bfeed?

I am a great believer in getting as much sleep as you can, the easiest way you can.

How do you feel about bfeeding her at night, but not in the day?

Hunkermunker.
I think she would wake less in the night without the emotional comfort of the breast. She literally wakes up has a quick feed and falls back to sleep, but she also 'nibbles' which is what I think she wants, not the milk. I didn't want her to have a dummy but did try in the early days and she refused, she does suck her fingers, but it obviously doesn't provide the same level of comfort.

I wonder if she is just doing this to get herself off to sleep.

My younger one had this wish to wake up, have a quick suck on the breast and then go back to sleep. Someone said to me that babies (and people generally) need to learn to sleep, because we do all wake in the night (but don't notice it) and that he needed to learn another way of getting to sleep. Because he wasn't getting much milk at night (and from what you say, same might be true of your daughter), I tried going in when he was crying, picking him up to calm him, and then putting him straight back in the cot without food. He was really really angry (unlike his placid brother, he was angry a lot as a baby), but after two nights of literally lying there screaming at me, he stopped, I assume because he learned to get off to sleep without the breast.

I should say, that despite inheriting my low sleep requirements, he is now a really happy boy (3) who always sleeps through the night and is happy chatting to himself in the cot if he wakes up early, so I don't think I scarred him for life.

It feels pretty mean for a day or two, but it really worked for him and might be worth a try for your daughter.

FredArthur. Thanks for the advice. I thought about trying the pickup/putdown method (from the baby whisperer), but didn't know anybody that had tried it. I think I am going to find it more difficult than my daughter because I'm worried that she might actually be hungry, (although I know deep down that this is probably not true). I suppose guilt is getting in the way of being practical. Thanks again.