Scared they won't stop breastfeeding

[Tiddybiddy247]

I have a love hate relationship with breastfeeding. It's been very difficult and at 12 weeks my baby still doesn't latch great. But he's gaining weight and lots of wet and dirty nappies so... it's really the worst last thing at night when he's too sleepy to concentrate and likes to use me as a dummy.

I really want to wean him at 6 months to alternatives. We introduced a top up formula feed at week 2 , at which point he's had a 60ml bottle with his dad every night while I've had a break. But around the 6 week old mark he suddenly started refusing the bottle or fighting it. We persevere and he will sort of take one.

I've read about dropping their least favourite feed etc but it's so hard to know as their doesn't seem to be a routine as such, I just respond when he seems hungry, which is roughly every 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs during the day.

I've seen lots of threads where people say it's so difficult to get them off boobs it's scaring me.

What's your experience been? Can it be done and what advice would you give?

We're in the process of reducing as ds has got to a year old and is now in nursery where he refused bottles. We feed morning and night and I'm trying to just follow his lead on it. I was curious about your latch issues actually. Has your wee one been assessed for a tongue tie and had it released? Just asking because ds had a tongue tie and it made feeding way harder than after it was released.

Are you keen to bf to six months? Is that your personal target?

If so I would suggest waiting til you get there to worry about it. Things change rapidly at this age and by six months you might not want to wean as quickly as you feel you do now (which is totally understandable when it's so tough, tiring and the latch isn't great - no guilt about that!)

X

I agree with the PP who says just do nothing until six months. Tomorrow's problem is often resolved naturally with breastfeeding.

He had a tongue tie that I had to battle to get cut. Literally beg for but they did it at 9 weeks. Things have improved a bit but his latch is still not great. But we get by.

I don't want to breastfeed until he's 1 and I've just heard so many stories about how it was so hard to get them to stop. But also appreciate he's still really young. There are definitely pros and cons of breastfeeding

Keep trying a bottle once a week or so but other than that agree with others not to worry about it until you want to stop. My DS has never been over keen on a bottle but we gave them every now and again and then at six months he’ll happy take one a day (I don’t want to give him more than that as I’m happy breastfeeding but I know if I wanted to switch I’m sure I could). A lot changes at six months with solids etc as well.

Ev ry child is different. My advice would be to try not to overcomplicate things.I have three children who weaned themselves from me at 11 months, 7 months and 4 years. It might not be an issue at all. From about 5 months give your baby a beaker with water or formula in to fiddle with. When my older DC were young we had 3 months nat leave and weaned at 4 months. DC2 was fully self feeding and had most drinks from a beaker by 6 months( carried on with morning and night bfs for another month) . I didn't have to engineer it. Just nudge them in the direction you want but always remember that 4 weeks is an aeon in baby's development so try not to worry about the future months away easier sss as I'd then done I know.

Are you having any RL help with the latch @Tiddybiddy247? For now, I'd try and concentrate on improving that, if you can.

As fir stopping at 6 months, I wanted to do that with my first but by the time I got there I found BFing to be so easy that I just carried on.

BFing is very personal though and should stop when either you or LO is ready.

Do you want to have stopped completely by 6 months or start reducing BFs at that age. Just asking as the plan would be slightly different