Tips on coming out the other side of a nursing strike please

[Swaliswan]

I had been wondering why DD was fussing so much at the breast recently and now I've found out that I'm pg again. Anyway, during the night she would barely feed and then started shouting at my breast, pinching and slapping it. She refused point-blank to have any more milk although she normally nurses for just over 30 mins about 4am normally. She would not settle back to sleep so DH and I gave her some formula. She took 25 ml which is a record for her. Previously I've tried giving her a bit of formula so that I know that she would take some milk if I'm ever not there and she has alwys refused. I was absolutely gutted when she made far less fuss over having a cup of formula than she did breastfeeding

It seems that Bfing DD is ending now and although I'm very sad I know that I've been advised to stop (whether rightly or wrongly) because of problems I've had during my last pregnancy. I think that it is the right time to stop for us.

But.....how do we go through this transition period with as little distress to DD as possible? I've handed DH a cup with some formula in this morning and sat in the other room while she only took 25ml again. Is it a big problem if she slowly builds up how much she will drink over a few days and that means she doesn't have much milk for a few days? Could we mix some EBM (from the freezer) and formula to try and get her to drink more?

TIA

How old is she?

oh and congratulations

She is 8.5mo.

How much milk is she having now anyway? If she stuggles with the actual 'drinking' of it you could always add it to her food, I think the guidelines are 1 pint of dairy a day, so you could add milk to breakfaste.g porridge, then give her yogurts and cheese etc. This is if you are worried about milk intake. (She can 'eat' full fat cows milk now.)

As for her drinking, you could just try water in a bottle / cup for a while to make sure she's not getting dehydrated?

It's difficult to give exact advice as each child is different, but when my DS was 8.5 months he was only on 3 6oz formula feeds a day and by the time he was 10 months it was 2 feeds and 11 months it was only 1. I didn't drop these, he just did it himself by gradually taking less and less until I stopped them, he didn't seem to miss them.

She does have a good dairy intake and I make sure that she has formula to make up her breakfast cereal. She really wants to nurse but she seems very angry when the milk does come and she is struggling to get it to let down/let down quick enough so my poor pg (.)(.) are getting whacked a lot I'm not convinced that it's going to be long before she gives up on milk that she doesn't like

Your poor poor (.)(.)'s. As I am pregnant too, I do feel for you, no one can even touch mine, let alone get their lunch!

I Don't know what else to say other tan perserverence with the bottle, I'm sure she'll soon get the hang of it, although it is sad to give up the breast, you'll be doing it all again soon!