anyone else conned by stop at 6month BF myth!

[Daisymum07]

Have BF DD for 7 months now and after a rough start and 5 bouts of mastitas, have mostly enjoyed it but was looking forward to the 6 months mark so Icould stop, but now I cant! Baby has refused a bottle for months now, she takes a little by cup and is on some solids but still needs me lots. Getting really fed up and want to stop and get my life & body back now feel conned that lots pressure to BF but not much help/infomration on how to stop, and how difficult it will be! Any one feel the same? How did you cope?

5 bouts of mastitis - wow. You have earned your spurs Daisymum

Can't help as I mixed fed from day one due to a few problems with bf and I know that is supposed to be a bad thing but I think it made weaning off bf much easier.

What bottles have you tried? I hear some are better than others.

i felt exactly like you at the beginning of the summer...

i think the problem is that there are loads of other things going on at six months (teething, mobility, eating solids, sleeping issues) and it's difficult to throw another one into the mix.

suddenly between seven and eight months things clicked for us - DS started eating proper amounts of solids, so we could cut out some of the milk feeds altogether, and gradually replace the others with bottles (he suddenly decided formula was OK after weeks and weeks of refusing it). he's now 9 months; i stopped feeding him a week ago and he's on two or three bottles a day.

it'll come together eventually, you won't be feeding her when she's six.

oh yeah and tommy tippee boob-shaped bottles worked well for us. they even squirt like real boobs.

i breastfed until dd was 8 months old. seemed so much easier to just carry on for a few more months rather than faffing with bottles for 6 months having put a lot of energy into getting bf just right.

she never took to a teated bottle, instead she preferred a spouted cup, her best being the avent green spouts with 3 holes so a fast flow, took the valve out and she liked it even better. by that point she was happily being baby led weaned, eating loads, milk consumption went down, so a couple of bottles a day was ok. went to cows milk at 10 months, even easier.

with hindsight i wish i'd just carried on the bf until she was a year, or at least expressed for her to that point. however it didn't quite fit with my working evenings and nights, needed her off bf to sleep routine..hence bottles so dad could do it. could have made it work with expressed milk though.

Didn't feel conned by it tbh, just have always wondered why stop at 6 months when you've got past the difficult bit and it all gets easier. I also don't understand why 6 months is put about as a good cut off date when milk is the primary source of food for a baby until at least 1 year. Not meaning to sound judgemental, sorry if it does - just my honest feelings about it.

It sounds like you've had a hell of a time and by the sound of it been a bit of a supermum to get to 7 months. If you really want to wean you could try cutting out 1 feed at a time and encouraging the cup - both my dds wouldn't take a bottle and therefore found cups with valves very difficult so we used those little Tommee Tippee ones that are free flowing. There is some information here about weaning that might be of use.

I found that by 7 months both my tow were on 3 breastfeeds a day which I was happy with. First thing, mid afternoon and bedtime.

When I eventually started dropping breastfeeds ( older than your lo) I found the afternoon one easy to switch to a cup of milk and a snack, then the morning one got replaced by a prompt breakfast and the bedtime one was the very last one to go ( I really enjoyed that one ).

At 7 months I would personally skip trying bottles and keep looking out for a cup that suits - you may need to try several before you find one that your dd likes. Maybe keep a separate one for milk drinks from whatever drink you give her at meals. Also keep her milk times as snuggly as the breastfed times were so she knows she's still having a peaceful feed with you IYSWIM.

All the best

okay without meaning to hijack, I've been trying different cups trying to find one for ds (6m) - what do you do with the rejects??

Thanks for advice, gives me bit of hope that by 9 months i might be able to retire from flopping out boobs.

we are on the 4 or 5th cup ive tried now in 4 motnhs ;-) We have had fast flow, suck flow, chew flow, pink, blue, green, clear plastic she gets all excited when I have another one I think yippee she feeds from it a bit for a couple of days then gets bored. What worked best is with out any lid and she sips but its really messy as she gets soaked and I concerned that when she starts nursery next month they wont have the patience, plus I dont want to be at work with big huge engorged boobs they are big enough already!

thats months doh thats middle of nights feed brain or lack of think all brain cells are in hibernation..... hoping will soon be able to drop nights feeds first ohhohhh heres hoping.....

You could try a doidy cup which has a sloped side and is easier for feeding without spilling. FWIW my breasts adjusted quite quickly when I went back to work, even though dd1 fed as normal on the days when I wasn't working.

Have you tried NUK bottles? Ds started on those, after refusing the avent ones. I had to stop b/feeding dd at 7 months (had to take medication), I thought she'd have starved as before then she had never taken a bottle (apart from when she was unwell at a few days old). She woke up in the middle of the night and she took the bottle from dh.
Both dc refused to dring milk from a cup though and always preferred from bottles, have to say.

oh will look for that cup, thanks :-). We did try nuk bottles and she had a little, then tommee tippee then avent, i figured it wasnt worth persisting with bottle when she turned 6 months and have just tried with the cup. Funnily she will take water from the cup but refuses formula and I not sure if thats because its that brand (hipp) or just because its formula, but i reluctant to have a shelf full of diffenrent formulas to go with the shelf of bottles and cups heeehee

daisymum, my daughter takes much less from any sort of cup than from a bottle. It's more work so she just gets bored, whereas she loves her bottle last thing at night and drains it to the last drop.

I also found once the feeding was well and truly established, milk consumption fell off too. I know you are supposed to aim for 1pt a day but I would have had to force feed her that - she has been eating pretty much everything since about 9 months so less reliant on milk.

I just recognised when you said your DD got bored...Perhaps keep on as you are for a while or persevere with the bit she's getting from formula till she's eating everything and then the milk becomes less important?

who could blame her though, formula milk doesn't have the best smell ever, does it? I think becuase milk has always been a comfort thing for them, my dc 've always wanted a bottle, and possibly to drink it while held by someone... how often does your dd feed (bf) and is she on solids?

The best advice I had was to choose one type of bottle or cup and stick to it. Just offer it at the same time every day, if dd refused I let it pass and just offered it again the next day. Both DS and DD were really stubborn and I thought dd would never take a bottle but one day she just took it. Also don't immediately offer the breast after a refusal and don't offer a bottle/cup when she was too hungry. Good luck you will get there.

i breast feeding 6 times in 24hrs mostly every 3-4hrs with solids at 7.30amish/11amish/5pmish we tried the bottle so oftern, with my dh offering it and my mum and dad but she no no, ironic that she had had ebm for the most of first 10 days hence why we were so suprised at 12wks when she refushed the bottle, i just wish id been told that bottle refusal could be such a problem, it would have made my life so much more restful if i could have shared the feeding instead of being a 24hr milk machine for the last 7 months.

I think bottle refusal is quite common, I had it with both dc and dd was actually even more determinined than ds. When she was 5 months old we started trying with the bottle (I was knackered, as she was feeding every 3 hrs) but she refused it. I stopped offering it for a while and when she was six months I started with solids, which she refused until she was 7 months. Then I had to start overnight taking medication and had to stop bfeeding. As if by miracle she took the bottle. I'd love to be able to give you good advise other than lots of empathy, as I know how exhausted you might feel. Perhaps it could be an idea to stop for a week/ten days and then start afresh? Children tend to like to surprise us!

(stop offering bottle/cup I meant)

I am still breastfeeding my 9 month old, and it has just got so easy now. I am back in my wonderbras, as I know when she will need a milk feed now (at the beginning she could want a feed anytime), I have my body back (I am sure that it is bf that has helped me lose all my pregnancy weight and more,) I don't leak now so don't need pads.
But I also have all the benefits of bf, food there whenever she needs it, the superior nutrition bm provides, the lovely end of the day feed when she and I just lay together feeding as she falls asleep. Also I am really really lazy, and there is no way I am pacing the floor with a crying baby at night. Much easier to give a little feed in bed!
Between 6 and 9 months it really does get so much easier.
Also, she just signed "milkies" for the first time while she was feeding yesterday, which has to be one of the loveliest things I have ever seen.

doidy cups worked for us as dd wouldn't take to a bottle. nct website sells them.