11.5 month old BF - help

[crace]

I have a gorgeous, stubborn 11.5 month old that has been exbf for her entire life. She's not once taken a bottle (of any type, I've literally tried them all) and won't take ebm or formula from a doidy/beaker of any type either. She will take juice/water however from ANY vessel.

The problem is that she is still feeding every 2 hours or so, and eats only nibbles of finger foods. Has no interest in giving up bf for food. It's not been an issue until recently where I just can't/won't be able to feed her as often.

I need to have my life back a little more, she is still bf through the night 3 or so times and through the day.

How do I get her to be more independant - particularly with her first birthday in 2 weeks. I can't leave her, she won't eat/drink while I am away, even now. Help! Any advice is appreciated.

Carrie

My dd2 was the same as yours until about 11 months old. Then, suddenly, as she started to learn to walk, her appetite and interest in food really increased and now at 14 months she eats really well and is bf only evenings and mornings. She started in a creche about two months ago for a few hours a week and at first it was really hard - she wouldn't sleep or eat there - but gradually leaving her for longer and longer each time she started eating there and now seems quite happy there.

There is hope! Some babies just take longer then others to eat , but they all do eventually!

Aww bless her...I was in exactly the same position as you with my dd1...
Exclusively breast fed her until she was about 16 months I recall.
She refused a bottle, refused formula milk (infact all 3 of mine did that)
Happily drank juice from a beaker though.
I started dropping breastfeeds in the day at first when she was around 12 months.
She had me right where she wanted me as she wouldn't sleep unless she was suckling to sleep!
I cut out the daytime feeds gradually, I was very worried about cutting out the night time feeds as they were the only way to settle her if she woke, so thats why it took me until she was 16months to stop BF completely!
I stopped the night time feeds very gradually too. I think because she was not having daytime feeding, stopping the night feeding was easier than I had expected!

I also made sure she had plenty of calcium rich foods, such as yoghurts and cheese during the day.

HTH

What did you do about getting her to eat more food? My daughter has pretty much zero interest..

My ys , even though he was a big boy, wasn't much interessted in solids/fingerfood 9we did BLW, until he hit 13 month...and then there was no stoppping him (sadly he also weaned himself of the boob then)

Once she was having less milk from feeds she seemed to be more interested in food in general.
Yoghurts were a firm favorite. I have to confess that she was still eating various tinned baby foods for a long time (she could eat lumps etc, and all the normal finger foods but she just prefered the tins)
It will come with time...