Alternative Milk and Breastfeeding Advice Please

[LorraineQuiche]

Hello mumsnetters

My sister is looking to gradually wean her breastfed baby from breast milk as she is returning to work full time which includes travel away. Baby will be 10-11 months when she would like to start reducing feeds and it will just have been babes first birthday when my sister returns to work.

Does anyone have advice how to wean a baby from breast at this age? It seems crazy to start formula this late on and possibly too early for cows milk? Also, cows milk allergy runs in the family so would prefer to avoid this. If we need to use formula, what is the best way to introduce this and are there any ethical formula milks or alternatives?

Thanks so much in advance

Formula is made from cows milk so you would need to find out for sure if there is an allergy. I don't think any are more ethical than others tbh. At nearly 12 months it would be cows milk that would be the usual choice.

No need to wean from breast unless she wants to - working mothers often find it works fine to maintain some breastfeeding alongside whatever other milk she's offering (though this will depend on how long she is likely to need to spend away from her baby - if she's talking several days at a time it might not be something she can do).

If she gives other milk, then so close to a year, seems to me ordinary milkman's milk (whole variety) would be fine, especially if her baby has a variety of solid foods. But she can discuss with HV.

All standard formula is indeed cows milk, and none are more ethical than others - if your sis has problems with the dairy industry, and she might if ethics are an issue, then she's a bit stuck.

Thank you for your replies. My sister is looking to give up as she can be away for up to a week at a time and has a very active three year old leaving little time for expressing. She would like to start gently transitioning to an alternative with a view to give up breastfeeding by her return to work.

Just go straight to cows milk. I breastfed till my dc were 1 and for a couple of weeks leading up to stopping I started giving some cows milk in a cup or bottle. I mixed it 50 50 with expressed milk first few times to introduce the new flavour as it is much less sweet than breast milk. Drop one feed at a time. By 10 months I was feeding the morning and night so dropped the morning one at 11 months and just gave them breakfast first thing. Then dropped the bedtime one and gave milk in a bottle or cup instead at bedtime.