i want to stop breastfeeding

[hippyracer]

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I wish I knew!!

Does she depend on breastfeeding for sleep? If not it will be easier I suppose. I would try replacing a feed with cow's milk and just keeping on with it every day consistantly so she gets the message that this is always going to happen. When she gets used to it start replacing the other feeds.

I wish I had the energy and the patience to do this though as I am starting to hate breastfeeding now. Maybe when DDs sleep gets sorted I will have the energy to make some changes

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I changed her over during the day at first, then a few weeks later dropped the morning feed and kept the just before bed feed for awhile longer.
I then changed nightimes after the bedtime feed so if she woke in the night she got warmed cows milk just to get her into the idea of it being comforting, I did 2 days of all before 12 feeds being cow and after 12 being me, then changed over to all cow...
When she was about 13 months she started refusing the breast (I was pregnant!) but still wanted a feed at night IYSWIM so I would put cows milk, that I knew she would take in a bottle and feed her in the same position she would BF in.

HTH!

Oh, I changed the nightime feeds to cows milk when we were away (as I had gone to pub for first time in aaaaaaaages and was too drunk to feed her so had to get MIL to do it!) and she took it fine!

Hi Hippyracer

My DD is 10 months old, has always been BF too. I've wanted to start reducing BF too and introduce cows milk as a substitute for at least the daytime feeds, and have found that the two daytime feeds have been really easy to drop and replace with milk/water/juice (whatever she will take) so far.

I feel she is taking in less fluid overall, but I make sure to offer her fluids all day, and she also gets a snack of fruit or biscuits (not sweet ones) when she would have had a BF. So far so good, will leave it a couple of weeks or so before thinking about dropping the morning BF and replacing with cows milk

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There is a lovely book published by LLL called "How Weaning Happens" which suggests methods to try at different ages for gentle weaning. I would recommend it for anyone thinking about weaning, and also for those who are breastfeeding older children and worrying that their child will never manage to wean!

Sorry, didn't realise she didn't take a bottle, don't see why a beaker wouldn't work as well though, I just gave it to her at the same time I would have BF her, which for me was right before going into cot. (I didn't give her milk before her bath as she used to vom it up in the water!)

For getting DD to take the milk during the day I started with the afternoon feed as for this BF she only fed for 5-10 mins anyway. I didn't offer a bottle as I don't really want to get her started on bottles now, so used a doidy cup instead, half full of slightly warmed milk. As I said, she didn't take much, so I made sure to offer lots of water all day too. She took a few days to get the hang of this, but didn't miss the BF at all. Have offered grapes/biscuits too at the same time. After a week or so of this I changed the mid morning feed over as well, same process, and it was fine.

I have noticed that with dropping the am and pm BF and replacing with cows milk, she is eating more at lunchtime and supper now, and drinking more water then too. I did bring supper forward 40 minutes or so too, as she seemed hungrier earlier. I've made more of an effort to include milk at these meals - cereals and cheese sauces etc. Also, she isn't making up for the missing BF at the other feeds, so she is obviously happy with the new arrangements.

Haven't yet thought of how to change the remaining 2 feeds over!

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No hippyracer, I read your OP and understand that you want to stop now - the book does discuss the benefits of waiting until your baby is ready to wean, but also gives advice for gentle weaning at any age, when the mother decides it is the right time for her, as I said. I thought it would be appropriate for you as you said you wanted to do it slowly, and that you felt she needed it for comfort, so I thought a gentle method would be best for you both.

I hope it works out as you want it to.

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I'm planning on weaning soon, infact this morning she took a cup but at bed she was still hungry after bf so also had 2oz from bottle.
I'm glad you asked the question as reading the threads it's helped me too!
My dd is 7.5months & I also want to do it gradually.
I've read the when weaning happens book & think I need to read it again, it does have a lot of examples of weaning naturally and weaning when you decide, it's a very interesting book & I also would recommmend it.