Nursing strike or self weaning in 12 month baby ?

[salsaqueen]

My dd has refused her bed time breast feed for the last 2 nights. I resorted to a mix of formula and cows milk in a bottle which she downed both times. I offered her a bf this morning after her usual bottle and she accepted and drank a bit but was obviously not too hungry after the bottle.
The question is - has she had enough of breast feeding or is it a nursing strike ?
I was not planning to cut out the only remaining (bedtime) bf just yet, as I wanted to try and encourage her to take milk from a cup first (water OK but not milk yet). She was down to 1 bf before bed and formula at other times. This has been mixed with cows milk this week as she is now 1. BF has been gradually reduced from 4 to 1 over several months without problem.
The other change this week is that I have returned to work and she has been at nursery 2.5 days, where she seems perfectly happy. I have read that stress / changed situations can be a cause of nursing strikes.
Any suggestions as to which it is likely to be, and what I might do to encourage her to feed, or just accept the end of BF. Need advice soon before milk disappears and its too late.

It sounds like she may be self weaning to me. Thats just my opinion. I don't have any experience of this as such. Except my dd is gradually cutting back her bf too.
She is much less interested in the bedtime feed and just plays about and wants stories. She'll feed for a short time after books been put away. Its a bit sad but she's growing up. She has a very quick feed in morning, maybe 2 minutes. The only time she'll feed for any length of time is if she wakes in the night. She's 20m.

with your dd maybe it is because of the changes with nursery etc and she'll go back to how she was after a while. what do you think?

Maybe someone else will be more helpfull.

From what I understand, the main difference between a strike and self weaning is that the former is very suddent, and the latter tends to be more gradual. However with only one bf I don't really see how you would be able to tell the difference! My ds went on strike (suddenly) 4 weeks ago (he is only 8 months), and has not gone back to it, but there is lots of advice about things to try to encourage them if you want to.

Try La Leche League especially for lots of articles.

Whatever happens you have done brilliantly to get to 12 months, so well done! Good luck.

Hi salsaqueen - you might have noticed my thread on the same subject.

My 8 month old dd has just returned to feeding after a 6 day strike. I think the cause was tiny ulcers on her tongue which I hadn't noticed initially.

On the advice of LLL counsellor, I just kept calmly offering and one day she accepted. The counsellor said that it can take anything up to 2 weeks for them to go back, but they generally do.

My plan was to express and keep offering for 2 weeks and then accept that she'd given up. The counsellor suggested lots of skin to skin contact e.g. in the bath and lying on the bed. Also try to feed when they are drowsy or even asleep which is what worked for me.

It does sound like starting at nursery seems to be the trigger, although I'm sure she loves it. An unusual separation from mum can be the cause of a strike, even if not necessarily stressful.

I was also worried about milk disappearing, but counsellor said don't worry as you will be able to get it back with a bit of effort. Apparently you don't need to have a baby to be able to bfeed which was news to me! I would suggest expressing if you can so that if your lo does suddenly accept the boob there will be something there for her.

Good luck - really sympathise with you as I was distraught about the whole thing.