When did you drop the last breastfeeds?

[Rugbylovingmum]

We started blw with DD when she was 5.5 months old and she took to it straight away. Now at 8 months she eats 3 HUGE meals a day plus snacks (I don't know where she puts it all). Luckily that made it quite easy to reduce her feeds to just 2 a day - one in the morning and one before bed - before I started work this week. My mum was asking today about how/when I would drop the last feeds and realised I have no idea how long they 'need' these feeds or when people tend to stop feeding. She refuses to take ebm or formula from a bottle or cup although she drinks loads of water from her cup. She eats lots of yogurt/cheese/rice pudding etc but I still feel she needs the milk for now.

I was hoping to give up the feeding when she is about a year old (so no rush) but I am just wondering about:
1 - if she won't drink cows milk will she get everything she needs from her solids as long as I include plenty of dairy
2 - I still feed her directly before bed. She doesn't fall asleep when I'm feeding but it definitely helps her wind down. Would I be better to change her bedtime routine over the next few months so I feed her earlier so it's not a cue for sleep. Do I try to replace her last feed with a cup of cows milk?

1. How will I know when she is ready to stop the feeds? Can't see her ever refusing a feed so I'll have to be the one to decide to stop.

Thanks in advance for any advice/experiences.

Hi
1 - keep trying with the cows milk, it will makee life a lot simpler when she's older. Offer it in a cup at her tea time.
2 - You could re-jig it so you do the bf then read stories then in to bed. Keep bf as long as you or she wants. They grow up so fast and you'll never get these precious moments back.
3 - She'll just not be interested eventually. The natural age for self weaning in a child is around 4. Though of course many stop well before that. Some children do what is known as a bf strike at around 9-10mths and many mums see this as a cue that their child wants to stop bf. But if you carry on offering the breast they do come back to it.
I was told by my LLL leader that if I wanted to stop by around the age of 1 then its best to start stopping before they are one as they do become very attached to the bf and it can be harder to stop the older they get.

I stopped feeding my youngest DC when she was 10mths and some times I really wish we still had the bf between us. She's 15mths now and not a baby any more and I'm sad that they're both growing up so fast. It really is such a short time that they're babies in the true sense.

Thanks bumbums. We are still offering her formula in a cup with her morning and afternoon snacks. She just spits it out at home but she took a little at nursery yesterday so she may start to take more over the next few weeks. I did think about trying her with cows milk now rather than getting her used to formula then trying to switch but I think 8 months is still a bit young. I will try switching her bedtime around but if I do stories after her feed she tends to get very excited and want to grab the book and swing it around and bash it on the wall or bed . She is a strange girl sometimes .

It's interesting that your LLL leader said to stop before 1 if you don't want to carry on too much longer. DD doesn't seem all that attached to the bf just now - I really think that if I just got her up and gave her breakfast in the morning she would happily miss that feed and at night she is so tired it is sometimes an effort to keep her awake long enough to feed but I still feel she needs the milk. I can see how she could become attached/used to the feeds again though. I don't want to carry on much past 1 year as the thought of feeding a child who can walk and talk makes me feel a bit weird (no offense to anyone who does, I'm certainly not saying that I think it's wrong. I think all of these feeding decisions are completely personal and if you both still enjoy the feeds and it works for you then that's fantastic, it's just not my personal choice). I'll have to think about when the best time to stop the feeds might be.

I will be watching this thread with interest as my DD is very shortly to be 1 and I also want to give up the bf before she gets too attached and knows what it is and that she might actually miss it, IYSWIM. She only has a feed after breakfast and sometimes after lunch, and just before bed, but she doesn't seem too bothered about the daytime feeds and has had formula in a cup sometimes, and drinks water/juice quite happily as well, and a couple of days ago I gave her cow's milk and she had a bit of that.

I'm a bit worried though about the bedtime feed as she usually still feeds to sleep, although she has taken EBM in a bottle from DH before bed and goes to sleep OK. Am nervous about changing the bedtime routine around as it works pretty well at the moment, but I don't still want to be feeding to sleep when she's 2 (no offence to anyone who does, I think it's lovely, but want more flexibility really)

We were nervous about dropping the bedtime feed, but she didnt even notice it! DD was a bit older, 21 months.

And when I dropped the final feed (morning) there was no trouble either.

But, I do work 3 days and often DP would do the bedtime routine or the morning wake up, so it wasnt as if she wasnt used to cows milk in a cup.

Thanks for the responses. Hopefully she will take more milk over the next few weeks/months and I will feel a bit more confident about dropping her feeds. At the moment it is less about upsetting her and more that I'm worried she won't get enough nutrients if she won't drink much formula or cows milk. I know milk is still very important until they are one but even then I think I'll worry she needs the milk.

Don't worry. My DD wouldn't touch cow's milk initially, but loves it now. I started dropping her feeds when I found out I was pregnant with number 2 (DD was about 17 months). Dropped morning and lunchtime feeds initially, but hung onto the bedtime feed for the same reason as others - she wasn't fed to sleep (well, not always!) but found it v soothing part of bedtime routine. Also, I wasn't ready to stop completely. When I dropped the first two feeds, I started mashing a bit of a banana into some cows milk, which she'd take at breakfast time, and kept offering plain cows milk throughout rest of the day, as well as loads of yoghurt and cream cheese etc. She got the hang of cows milk after a while, and started having a big cup of that plus the breast for a few minutes as part of bedtime. She's 20 months now and finally dropped the bedtime feed last week. Just said 'no' one night, and went back to her cows milk.