am I kidding myself in thinking I can give up bf when dd turns 1?

[deaconblue]

she's a bottle refuser, won't even have milk on cereal so have continued to bf her and am happy (She's 8 months) but have convinced myself once she turns 1 and milk is not so essential to her diet I can give up and she'll take a cup of milk if she wants it. Even as I type it sounds like a no-brainer. How have you found trying to give up bf at a year old?

I thought I would give up bf when dd1 turned one. I think if I'd really wanted to I could have done - she was perfectly able to drink out of a cup - but actually when it came to it I found I didn't really want to stop yet. She still seemed to be getting so much from it. Also just after turning one she had her first proper bout of illness and refused to eat for a week - so I was mighty glad to be breastfeeding or she might not have taken anything.

I think if it's what you really want to do you'll be able to, as long as you've prepared the way in terms of introducing a cup and maybe offering milk at set times rather than just on demand. But you might find your ideas change when you get there!

My DD now 2 still won't drink cows milk, refused it ever since I tried from 11 months. You just need to get 2 pieces of dairy into them a day - which I find a struggle still. I BF her until nearly 23 months when she self weaned (I was pregnant). Pregnant with no.2 and I would like to feed until a year to be honest next time, and gently wean off BF around then. I tried that with DD but she was very very keen on BFing even though I night weaned her at 12 months. However, DD has always been bad at eating solids so that led me to keep feeding her.

DD only has 4 bf a day and they are pretty much at set times rather than on demand and I don't comfort feed (not that I think there's anything wrong with it, she just hates it if there's something else wrong and I try to feed her so there's no point).
I think she'll be down to 3 by her birthday so I thought I could start by giving her a cup of milk during the day and just do morning and bedtime feeds for a couple of weeks and cut them out gradually.
she's fine with yoghurt, cheese etc so I guess that would be ok

Are you giving milk or water in a cup with her meals? What we did was start by doing that (water initially, he didn't have much at first but would sip a bit). Then when he started to need less milk as he got older, we cut out first one and then the other day feed (we were on 4 like you around that time) and replaced them with some water in his cup and a little snack. As these feeds weren't always at exactly the same time anyway, he didn't seem to feel that he "should" be getting BF then. Kept on for a while with just 2 feeds a day (morning & bedtime), but in the meantime we started to sometimes give milk in his cup at meals instead of water - usually at breakfast. Then once or twice when I was out of the house, DH gave him a cup of milk instead of his morning or evening feed, just as a one-off so it didn't matter if he hardly drunk any as he would make it up the next day. Once he was used to that, we stopped his morning BF and now just give him a cup - at first he still didn't have much but then by giving him milk with breakfast too, he got enough altogether. He was a bit grouchy the first few times when I gave him the cup myself (rather than DH), probably wondering why he couldn't have BF instead, but got used to it fairly quickly. Now at 13 months we've only got the bedtime BF left and I think we will soon stop that, just by doing the same - get DH to give him a cup a few times while I am well out of the way, and then eventually he should accept it from me too. I hope! Will be a bit sad when it stops, but I think it is the right time for us.

DS1 wouldn't take bottles - but would drink water from a cup. I breast fed him to just over 12 months - by then it was 2 feeds per day. I didn't find it a problem to stop at all (when I found out I was pregnant with twins and decided I couldn't nourish all of us on my own ).

You still have 4 months to go - things can change a lot in that time - I wouldn't worry about it until nearer the time and then reassess.

she does happily have water in a cup with her meals. thanks for advice everyone, sounds like it is achievable