Weaning off of breastfeeding at 12 months

[Dove88]

I’m weaning my 12 month old DD at the moment. It’s going ok so far, my lactation consultant told me to start eliminating one feed at a time, whichever was the easiest to eliminate. We’ve got rid of all day feeds, she feeds before we get up and again just before bed. I’m on day five of this routine. She still asks for milk though (she can sign it) in the morning and afternoon when she’s getting tired. I usually just distract her, giver her cows milk or put her down for a nap. But I was just wondering, for those who have been through the same, how long it took before they no longer asked for or wanted milk?

Hi there!

I found your post as I am also starting this process now. Starting to wean and have dropped one day feed already. He is on a morning, afternoon and evening feed and one night feed.

how did the weaning go and how did you manage night time wake ups? I am most nervous about those.

tia!

Hi, it went so much better than I thought it would! It was bumpy for a few days but then she got the idea and although she’d still ask to feed, she just accepted it when I said milk had all gone.

We cosleep so maybe a bit different to your situation but instead of feeding to sleep, I put a sports bra on so she couldn’t get to my boobs then just cuddled her until she fell asleep. We sat in the same position that we’d feed in. It took a long time that first night to get her down (over two hours) but the second night it took half an hour and now usually ten minutes. She used to wake to have a quick feed several times a night but since weaning she sleeps through. I think once they get used to not having something in their mouths for comfort they stop needing it if that makes sense. In the beginning though I just tried to cuddle her back to sleep and made lots of shushing noises, I think she found the rhythmic noise quite calming. There’s also some lavender scented baby rub made by Vicks that we used a couple of times when she got really worked up that seemed to chill her out enough for her to have a cuddle and relax.

I was so worried about weaning, and worried that we’d lose some sort of connection but honestly the connection is still as strong as ever. She still comes to me when she wants comfort etc and it’s nice that it’s because she wants me and not milk. It is a really scary process but you will be fine, good luck!

Thank you so much for this and the reassurance!

at 11 months I already stopped feeding to sleep and I sit next to him while he is in his cot, also took a while at first but he’s totally used to it now. Just doesn’t re-settle at midnight without a feed - i also co sleep so try to cuddle etc but three times this took an hour so i resorted to feeding. Its just once a night so no biggy, going with it for now.

ah i do also worry about that, its such a nice comfort tool to have in the bag for when he is upset / hurt but I look forward to the cuddles!

Only going to drop the afternoon feed in a couple weeks so will see how it goes ☺️ thanks again!

@Dove88 thats so great it’s been a success for you! Can I ask if there were many tears? And we’re you feeding to sleep? We still are for both naps and bedtime, so not sure how I’m going to drop those feeds!

@OneBigToDoList yes we were feeding to sleep for naps and night time. The naps were a bit harder to be honest. For the first week or so I had to take her out in the car or carry her in the wrap to get her to sleep. I can get her down with a cuddle now though. There was a lot of tears the first night, second night was better then it was fine after that. I didn’t leave her, just cuddled and sung and shushed her. She knew phrases like ‘all gone’ already so I just kept repeating that and she understood. She will still ask for milk occasionally if she’s under the weather but doesn’t get upset when I say no.

@Dove88 thank you! I’m going to try once he’s settled at nursery so it’s so good to know what I might expect x