12mo old with cold refused BF

[MrsMong]

DD is just about 12mo and for the past 2 months has been down to 2 BF a day - first thing and last thing. She's a bit choked up with the cold (listening to her snoring at the mo!!), but this hasn't stopped her BF ever before!

I tried to give her the normal bedtime BF but she had a couple of sucks then stopped and wouldn't go back on. As we all know, you can't force a baby to feed to I just put her in her cot and she happily went to sleep without BF (normally she would have both breasts).

I am ready to stop feeding but was holding off for a couple more months as she's just started nursery and I didn't want to rock her wee world too much at once!

Perhaps this is just a one off, but I'm in two minds about using tonights refusal as a signal to drop the evening BF, or if I should continue to encourage it until she is settled at nursery?

Also, if I decide to keep feeding a bit longer should I express tonight to keep supply up (god knows where pump is!) or will one evening off not impact on supply?

Thanks

It's up to you of course but if she is poorly then any breastmilk you can get in her will help her get better.

I don't think missing one feed will affect your supply at this stage, I went from 2 to 0 feeds when DS1 was 20mo and it took a good couple of weeks for my milk to go completely.

It is a tricky one isn't? I can feel for you, as the same thing happened when my DS was 13 months. I had carried on feeding him because like you I thought it was important not to change too much when he started nursery.
How do you feel about stopping? like the op said if poorly breastmilk is good for your LO, but also it is a good break and could be continued.
One thing I would say is I noticed how quickly my milk stopped when I finally did cut out all the feeds, so everyone is different, so if you have doubts it might be worth expressing.

Good luck and hope your LO feels better soon.

Thanks Ladies! I had overlooked the benefits for BF when DD poorly, so thanks for the reminder!

Will see how she is tomorrow and play it by ear.

It feels like such a good opportunity to make a break, but perhaps the timing isn't so good as she's not settled at nursery yet.

So, the cold seems to be pretty mild, however she has also sprouted one more tooth with another nearly through. I suspect this explains the grumpiness and temperature as these are normal teething signs for her - can't believe I didn't think of it!!

For 2 nights she has refused her bedtime BF so tonight my DH put her to bed without a BF. She wimpered for about 20s then all went quiet and 5mins later was asleep.

She's still not very settled at nursery so part of me feels like I'm changing her wee world too much at one time, but she seems happy without the BF and I love the idea of a bit of freedom!!