I am thinking about stopping bf, how do I do it sensibly?

[Emskilou]

I have been thinking about doing this for a little while and I would like to know how to do it sensibly for both me and my ds. Any advice would be gratefullu received

I don't know about the best way, but I did it very gradually and it worked really well - DS never 'asked' for it afterwards and I don't think he was 'traumatised' by the change, ifkwim. I started by introducint EBM in a bottle from about 5 months old, one bottle a day, and it took some time and effort for him to accept the bottle but I never let him cry over it. I'd just offer the bottle, let him play with it, and eventually he figured it out (at first, he'd blow in the bottle, bite it, push it, play with it). Then I increased to two bottles a day (during day feeds, first at lunchtime, then the PM feed). And gradually I introduced formula, which he took really well, and I gradually stopped the night feeds (I gave him a bottle a water instead of milk at night, and it worked OK, but he did cry a couple of times over not having his milk). The last time I BF him was about two months after the process began, and it was on a flight back from Canada. I never offered it to him after, and he never 'asked' for it either. Anyway, I was pregnant so I had to stop!

I know it's not the easiest method, or the shortest, and some people go 'cold turkey'. One point I should mention is that I never really BF him 'on demand' except in the very early days, he settled in a flexible 'routine' so it was easy for me to decide which feeds will be bottle and which ones will be BF.

Thank you for your reply, ds is 10 months old now and has a routine of sorts and has really been bf on demand so I think this is going to be tough. It has got to the point where I am in agony when he feeds, the pain you get the first time you feed your newborn baby, its due to the fact he no longer comes off by himself and will happilly stay there all day so I have to take him off and with 6 teeth its quite painful, I was almost in tears in the shower this morning it was so painful.

DS1 bf on demand until I stopped at 11 months. I just gradually dropped his daytime feeds and gave him a bottles of milk (cows) during the day. I dropped his day time feeds first, then his morning and finally his night. I did it over over a period of about a month and he didn't seem to mind t all and has never requested additional feeds from me. I found that he started sleeping through the night and generally wanting fewer feeds as soon as he stopped bf. I guee he would always take more calories in fewer sittings with the bottle. Good luck.

Does he drink from a bottle? I had to try different types of bottle to start with, so it's a bit expensive, but if he's 10 months old why don't you skip the bottle altogether and offer him a beaker or cup instead? I know many mums who did this. You can start with EBM and move to formula. One tip though, don't buy cups that the baby has to bite for the liquid to come out (ie. Tommy Tippee Easiflow cups). Basically next time you will offer breast he will bite even more. One cup that worked really well with DS is AVENT Magic Cup with Soft Spout, but there are many brands of this type on the market. Really I think you've done extremelly well to get this far with BF and there shouldn't be any guilt involved in stopping now.

the advice about maybe skipping the bottle is good. DS1 is now nearly 2 but will still only take milk form a bottle (he spits it out with a look of horrow if I put it in anyother receptacle).

Through bfing I he would take EBM from a bottle.

I did exactly same as BlueberryPancake - worked well for my DS, and for me. The risk with 'cold turkey' is mastitis for the mum & trauma for the baby, although plenty of people do it successfully. But I didn't want to risk it so introduced one 'no pressure' bottle per day, then once DS was happy feeding from it, started increasing one by one during the day. It took some experimentation to find bottle he'd feed from (Tommee Tippee - the silver packaged one... Still won't feed from any others!) It was tricky initially but once we got to 4 bottle feeds per day my DS started preferring the bottle and the rest was plain sailing. He also drinks from beaker/sippy cup - but usually has water from that & milk from bottle. Good luck!

Emski would you be able to carry on if breastfeeding was not painful? I would ring LLL who will be able to talk it through with you and should be able to advise you on how to make feeding more comfortable, and how to stop in a gentle way that doesn't leave you prone to infection or distress your baby too much. Their number is:

0845 120 2918