BFing for 12 months - please share your experiences

[fadingfast]

DD is 6 months and I had planned to exclusively BF for 6 months, and then gradually reduce feeds and use formula instead in time for returning to work at 10 months.

However, BFing is going well and I don't feel that I want to use formula (and she's none too keen on taking a bottle). I would be happy to continue until she is approx 12 motnhs, but probably not much beyond that. I'm hoping that by the time I go back to work she'll be ok on just two feeds a day. Does anyone have any experience of this? Also, my main worry is how difficult will it be to give up at 12 months? Will it be difficult to wean her off at that age?

I weaned dd (now 2) at 12 months (actually 13 months because BF was so convenient while travelling on holiday). Not difficult to do. Lots of distraction whn she wanted to feed, cutting out one feed at a time. We moved on to organic follow-on milk which she took surprisningly easily. I stiil regret having weaned her tho, when I see friends who don't have to go back to work still feeding their 2 year olds.

DD bf until 13 months,then self weaned.I managed fine on bf morning and night from about 9 Months,she had a balanced diet,had lots of yoghurt/fromage frais,and drank water/dilute fruit juice when not having bm.HTH

I bf till 12 months and then ds sort of 'sacked' me!! I would have gone on longer but he was ready for something different. You may find that the situation resolves itself when she's a bit older. Carry on bf as long as you can. My son is a very healthy, allergy free 6 year old and I'm sure bf helped a lot.

still bf at 18 months. never ever imagined we would be going this long and dont see a reason to stop just yet. i am back at work full time and she has bf morning and night. it is going grand for us - she gets water or milk in a cup through the day and is happy with that. i dont knwo what it will be like when we eventually stop but i know that she dropped another feed really easily - we just replace that time with lots of distractions.

I think DD was having about 2-3 feeds a day at 12 months. i fed her til about 15 months. It all happened quite naturally, really, I don't remember having to activley 'wean her off' so to speak, as she was eating lots of different foods and liked having a cup, so in some ways it could be easier than doing it earlier.
Don't ask me though as I have a terrible track record of getting very broody after weaning, and then getting pg agian soon after.

ds1 was on 3 feeds a day till about a year but was clearly bored and restless at the breast long before. When offered a cup of milk and a book instead he was delighted and never looked back!
With ds2 I had to go back to work when he was 10 months; he was completely anti-bottle and cup at that age so I didn't stop bfing. I cut him from 3 to 2 bfs a month before and he settled into having 4 "solid" meals instead of 3. He drank practically nothing in the day at that stage but ate fruit puree. He still has supper of porridge and toast just before he goes to bed now (18 months) and is still bfing. It would be easy to stop, though, now.
I work long and irregular hours but ds2 doesn't seem to mind if I am occassionally not back when he goes to bed. I just feed him later, when I get home.

I was the same as you fadingfast. I really struggled with BF at first and didn't think I'd make it to 6 wks let alone 6 months. I was sort of counting down to the day DD turned 6mo and I could give up (terrible to feel that way in hindsight but I was finding it all so hard). Anyway, somewhere around 4-5mo it all fell into place and by 6mo I couldn't see any reason to stop.

DD just turned 12mo last week and we're down to just one feed at bedtime. It's been fairly easy to drop each feed, some easier than others, and I've done it very gradually.

TBH, I'm not sure she'd care now if we dropped the bedtime feed as she's drinking loads of cow's milk and eating lots of cheese and yoghurt etc but I'm not quite ready to give up BFing altogether. I might do it soon though.

Anyway, if you want to carry on, do carry on. It won't be any harder to give up. Good luck and well done for getting this far!

DD2 never took a bottle but from about 8 months had bf morning and evening, with ff in a beaker mid-afternoon (which she rarely drank much of) and lots of dairy in her diet. At about 10 months she dropped her morning feed and we just went downstairs for breakfast straight away, and then we stopped bf very naturally at 11 months, much like DD1 who stopped at 10 months. If I had been keen to carry on at that stage, I'm sure I could have carried on feeding them, but as I was quite relaxed about stopping, we just let it stop naturally.

I bfed DS who never took a bottle and never had formula - and he didn't need to take a bottle when I returned to work - just managed on water and solids during the day and two bfs a day.

I had initially imagined weaning at 12 months but when I got there, I found I didn't want to (and neither did DS).

So I think don't worry too much about what may or may not happen in 6 months time - you might not want to wean, or you might find it easy. There's no way to predict, really.

I found it was a lovely way to reconnect with DS after a hard day at work, and was pleased that we were still nursing. However quite a few friends babies in the same situation self-weaned, and several more weaned with no problems (or at least, no more problems than at any other age - I think detaching a real boobaholic is always a challenge and largely down to how much the mum wants to wean).

Good luck whatever you decide...

DS is 9 months, has never had formula and is a complete boob monster. I work 7 hours a day 2 days a week at the moment.

He is now taking a bottle fine but unless he's feeling a bit off will happily go all day without milk. He does make up for it a bit at night if he doesn't have anything in the day but he's absolutely fine with it. This is compared to around 3 feeds during that time when I'm around.

When you're not around they definitely act differently - I used to work 3-4 hours at a time (once a week) from when DS was 3 months and he'd go without milk (he hated the bottle at the time). Sometimes he needed distracting (a walk would generally work) but he was quite happy. At 10 months its highly likely that your DC will be fine all day without breast milk, or may well take some expressed milk from a cup.

We're not planning to wean until DS is ready, although if he's still very eager by maybe 2.5 I'll probably encourage him to stop

Will watch this thread with interest as I also never thought I would bfeed until 12 months and now DS is 11 months and showing no signs of slowing down - eek! He was dropping feeds until I went back to work and that combined with a bit of separation anxiety kicking in seems to have made him into a proper milk monster again. Some reassuring replies here.

I started work a couple of weeks ago and now feeding 12 mo ds morning and night. I plan to drop the morning feed and take dropping the night feed a bit slower. He won;t drink formula or cow's milk now (he did for a little while) so he gets milk with porridge and yogurt, custard, cheese during the day which I hope is enough!
TBH I wanted to give up before now but it just became part of our relationship.
DH keener to stop completely!

Hi fadingfast

DD was a year old when I went back to work but developmentally younger due to the fact she was prem. Once on solids, she had around 5-6 bfs a day from 6 months corrected, then quite suddenly (around 8 months) started ditching most of her daytime feeds - first the morning, then the afternoon so it was usually 7pm, 10pm and often at night, then first thing in the morning. She started having a bottle at 7 about a month before I went back to work and for 2 months after I went back I fed her morning and evening. We stopped around 15 months and she was not too bothered - altogether it was very gentle. No tears from her, no pain or engorgement for me. Part of me wishes I'd gone on for longer but.....

I don't think it will be difficult to waen her off but you don't have to either, just carey on until it happens natutally - if it suits you bioth.

Hi Fadingfast

I had a similar experience with DS. At around 13 months he started losing interest in daytime feeds and I tried to cut down feeding at night, because I was exhausted. We continued a bedtime feed until 19 months.

Muddler - my DH is also keen for it to stop! Oh I wish my DS was one of those babies who stopped of his own accord!

Thanks for all your responses - it has encouraged me to carry on for now and hopefully to 12 months. It is interesting that it generally seems to be the boys who want to carry on for longer, but I'm sure there are plenty of girls out there who are equally as keen!