If you want to stop breastfeeding at 12 months...

[Frog253]

How do you do it? This is my 3rd child, I stopped feeding the other two at about 6 months; I'd introduced a bottle early on so managed the switch from breast to bottle easily. This time however I just kept bf, it's been much easier mostly because I knew what to expect. Anyway, I am now on parental leave because DS2 (11 months old) didn't settle with his CM so I had to leave work after a mere 5 weeks. I am hoping to return to work in September but I wonder if he was soooo miserable with the CM because there was no breast to comfort him (he doesn't like dummies).
Ideally I would like to feed morning and night with water in between, I know people have done that but wonder if I need to stop completely otherwise the breast is still available (in his mind) but not because I am absent. So my straightforward question is have any of you switched from breast to cow's milk at 12 months? If so how did you introduce it? How much did your dc drink per day? And if your dc didn't take to cow's milk as a drink what did you do? He will not drink from a bottle but drinks from a cup well.

Re cows milke, you could try expressing bm and giving him that in a cup, then mixing with cows milk gradually - so say 75% bm, then half, then 25%, then fully cows milk - I know a few people who did this to wean from bm or formula.

I would say you can go to morning/night bf only. I did this - just lots of distraction at feedtime in the day. But my DS wasn't a snacker or particularly boob obsessed - only 3 feeds a day so it was only one feed I was having to distract him from. The morning/night feeds were more about comfort but day was about a drink, so we managed to switch this relatively easily. Also, it may not be quite the right time for your DS - my DS was fairly chilled out at around 12mo and not clingy, and I stopped bf around his birthday fairly easi;y, but about 6 weeks later he was much clingier and I think trying to stop then would have been much harder. So you just need to pick the right moment, and don't despair if it doesn't work first time.

The important thing re milk at this age is to get calcium inside them, so if your DS doesn't take much cows milk as a drink then makes sure his diet contains lots of cheese, yoghurt and other sources of calcium like green leafy veg.

Not had much joy at expressing, tried each time but only managed to express very small amounts.

I think that I need to plan this carefully and start with plenty of time. If he's happy at 12 months then I will distraction techniques in the day so he's only feeding twice from me and I will try giving him small amounts of cow's milk. He might like it for all I know, am just assuming the worse. He is definitely a boob monster...

DS wasn't keen on cowsmilk until I gave it to him cold from the fridge, before that I had been warming it up for him. So try just offering cowmilk when the pressure's off and you might find he'll get the hang of it. Also I've foudn that DD (second child) will steal a swig from DS's cup if he's put it down, forbidden fruit always sweeter etc...

DS2 is 13mo and I've just dropped the afternoon feed so he just has a BF in the morning and bedtime. I haven't bothered introducing cows' milk as a drink in the daytime, he just has water from a cup, and a favourite snack (eg grapes or cheese) after his nap when he used to have milk. Seems to be working fine so far.