Breastfeeding past six months

[confusedfirsttimemum]

I've been exclusively breast feeding DD,who is now 12 weeks. It has all been going really well .

I had originally set myself the goal of exclusively breast feeding to six months. However, now I would like to look a bit further ahead.

We have had limited success with bottles of EBM, and so my questions are:

1. How old are most babies before they can drink from a cup (I realise that there's likely to be a massive range of answers here)and don't need to use a bottle;

1. How long would I need to breast feed to let DD skip formula all together? In all honesty, I probably wouldn't want to breastfeed on a really extended basis (although I respect those who do), but could probably keep going to a year. By that age, is food, water and cow's milk enough?

hello!
the cup thing is a HUGE piece of string answer, but definitely somewhere between 6mths-year ime. my dd's could both drink through a straw at about 7 months, which was massively useful.
yes is you bf to a year, you won't need to use formula at all.
well done :-)

Can I recomend this book:

Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food by Gill Rapley and Tracey

Just finished it and loved it. Gives guidance on using a cup as well

Yes, I might have an agenda

GoingToGetVeryMessyWithDSTiggaxx

I'd planned 6 months too, but am still going at 3.5yrs!

Around 9 or 10months for a cup for dd, but later before she would drink any sensible volume that way (she wouldn't use a bottle at all). Ds will drink water from a doidy cup now and he's just 9 months.

one year is all you need to skip formula.

Dawntigga - I am just abut to order that book. I love the idea of allowing DD to explore food. All her 6-9 month clothes are going to be purchased in bright colours to hide the stains. Me, I think I'll just have to dress in bin bags!

Ok, good news on the one year thing. I now have a supplementary question! So, if I went back to work at 11 months, I wouldn't be looking to have to express for very long (not sure how many breastmilk feeds I could expect DD to be needing during the day thing, and I could still do morning and bedtime).

Cantsleep - You never know, you never know...

Hi confusedfirsttime mum (again), I have exclusively bf my DS (he never liked bottles so no EBM either). I can't answer your first question (you just try them and see, really) but as for the second I never used formula or bottles, but did express for baby rice / breakfast cereals for a while. He's been drinking water from a cup since 6 months and regular cows milk from a cup since 12 months, both alongside bfing.

We use doidy cups, nuby soft-spout cups and tommy tippy flip-lid cups.

At 11 you could have water in the day and bf morning and night.

I breastfed my first till my dd was 2 (had heard that 'they stop when they're ready, but after seeing programme 'Extreme Breastfeeding' decided to stop while I had the chance (before dd got big enough to help herself!).
I found that once I started weaning, the number of feeds got less anyway, so at one year (when she started nursery) we were down to just two feeds (1st thing am and bedtime).
I never had much luck with EBM since my daughter wouldn't drink from a bottle.
We never used formula as a drink to replace feeds, only to mix in to food, since my dd doesn't like the taste of milk (apart from breastmilk obviously!), so the calcium thing did worry me quite a bit, however I gave her cheese and yogurt which are both calcium rich, and then started her on 'hot chocolate' which she loves.

Omicron - Thanks. Can you tell DD is having a nap and I'm asking all my mumsnet questions at once?

Oooh, this is all so exciting. Sounds like keeping going until DD can use some form of cup and skipping formula altogether is a real viable possibily.

Possibility, obviously. Very poor typing!

I have to say that DD had one formula bottle a day from 6 months which was fine, but with DS it has been kind of liberating in its own way skipping bottle altogether. It appeals to the skinflint side of me, I think.

Definitely a realistic aim. I have 2 children aged 15 months and 3yrs, and I have never owned a bottle or pureed a vegetable.

1. Mine could drink from cups held by me from about 7 months, and could hold a cup and drink from it at about 12 months. For mess minimising I give them straws when we're out of the house.

1. Exclusively bf to 26 weeks, then introduce solid food. Keep up the milk feeds to 12 months. You might find you keep going anyway.

By 11 months my DD was down to just morning and evening, by 12 it was just evening and at 13 1/2 she decided to drop that one too!

I was completely led by her and like you re planning to, never had to use formula. I never tried DD with a bottle (had control issues about who was going to be allowed to feed my baby!) and am now so glad I stuck to my guns. My DD and her group of friends are now 21 months and all those who introduced a night time formula bottle (or solely ff) are still using bottles now and their mums are agonisig about how to stop!

I quite like the idea of skipping the bottle, not just for the altruistic reasons you can imagine but, like you Omicron, I'm a bit of a skinflint. I'm also lazy, and bottles look soooo complicated comparing to whipping out a boob. I find sterilising bottles for EBM complicated enough, let alone making up the formula safely...

You might find that it's never a concious decision. DD2 isn't very fond of bottles, spoons or purees and we've just fallen into BLW. I am happy to keep breastfeeding her for as long as we're both happy with it, but I think that I'm going to stop being happy once she reaches her first birthday. I'm starting to think wistfully about having my body back.

When DD was 15 months I got pregnant, I know some people bf through pregnancy no problem but I didn't enjoy and we gradually wound down so she stopped at 18 months. This time round I've found that as the number of feeds decreases, my body feels more 'mine' again, without having to stop (DS is 15 months now). I am rediscovering spots, PMT, but also my libido .

My ds is nearly nine months and I'm still BF for the same reasons as you are; he refused a bottle and EBM, then I could be bothered as BF was working well for us. He now is only on 3-4 BF meals a day and enjoying weaning - it looks like only morning and evening BF at 11mths when I go back is realistic, so hoping, like you, to avoid bottles/formula completely - never thought I would when I was pregnant!

Hope it works out for you

(sorry, should read couldn't be)

Hello - I went back to work at 11 .5 months. I bf DD morning and night, no formula needed. Eventually we went to 1 evening bf and then stopped altogether when DD was about 2. We did blw too - I never pureed.

Oh I meant to add that my DD managed a straw before a cup - I can't remember exactly when, but it was v early and defo a long time before I wet back to work

I haven't read the responses to this, so forgive me if I'm repeating something.

I'm a bit confused though, why don't you want to use formula? If you don't plan to bf for longer than a year then formula suited for 12 months on will suit your baby's needs much better than plain cow's milk? Is it because of all the bad press formula gets? It's not poison... (no offense to you, just some people seem to think it is)

The cup question is tricky. Do you mean a sippy cup or a normal cup? My first who was exclusively ff started drinking from normal cups at 7 months old, believe it or not she was great at it but couldn't work out the sippy cup!!!

My second and third dc, (both bf -not sure if this is relevant) admittedly not as bright as dd1, worked out straws at about 8 months or so, but used for ages baby bottles with handles rather than sippy cups.

HTH

mummygirl - its not poison but why use something that's been artificially modified if you are happy to keep breastfeeding until they will be fine with a balanced diet.

Apart from all my personal opinions about formula companies and their morally questionable actions, particularly in third world countries, if you have a choice between your child getting their nutrients from natural, unprocessed foods or artificially produced vitamin supplements (whether in formula or as an ordinary vitamin supplement), which would you go for? Supplements are great when they are needed, but if there is a natural alternative, why not try for that?

At 11 months I personally would give cows milk in a cup (if they need milk during the day).