Stopping breastfeeding

[Edellondon]

DS just turned 1 and im still breastfeeding. I never planned to breastfeed this long but he wont take a bottle so only way to feed (and also settle to sleep as he won't take a dummy). Im due back to work and id really like to stop, I want my body back and i think he is relying on the feeding to get to sleep and I think it's impacting on the amount he's eating. He has taken cows milk in a sippy cup though not a lot.

How do i go about stopping breastfeeding, would you replace one feed with a cup and then increase that over time? Or just stop completely?

No advice here as still breastfeeding my 2.5 year old but I wish I stopped earlier! She is relentless and feeds all night and day still 🫠

How many times a day is he fed? The advice I was given by my infant feeding team (I stopped at 15m) was to drop one a day so they gradually get used to it and it reduces risk of mastitis. They told me to keep the most “high value” feed and drop that last - ie the one most useful to you. For me that was early morning feed as I had an early riser and CBA getting her up and downstairs at 5am for cows milk when she could just come into bed with me for a feed. I can’t remember exactly what order I dropped the others but it was probably any in the middle of the day first and just had either cows milk, water or a banana or something instead. Mine always had a bottle at night so no advice on the feeding to sleep front sorry! Good luck

When you go back to work you might find they are happy with just food and water when you aren't about - both mine were and it got them into the routine of just a morning and bedtime feed even on the days we were together. My older DD never drank cows' milk. My younger DD had a beaker some days.

I dropped feeds one by one (he ate a lot) in anticipation. When his birthday came I replaced the final feed with cow's milk and that was that

Do you have a partner who could help?

My DH had to help end it for both my children. He did all the feeding from a Friday night until the bank holiday Monday. By then my supply dwindled a bit and DCs had got over it.

I found when I cut night feeds at 18 months, I didn’t then mine a couple of day/evening feeds and we kept going until 27months. The last 2 months he only had a feed before bed. The night time feeds I cut in one go, I’d reached my limit. I just said ‘all gone’ and repeated that. He protested but in the same way he would if I said no more chocolate etc. after that, he’d settle with just a cuddle and night wakes went from every 45 mins to just two per night.

I stopped when my eldest DC was the same age OP. I did the thing of dropping one feed at a time, a week apart. Also don't panic if he doesn't take much milk in a cup - mine didn't - he can get his dairy requirements from milk on cereal, cheese, yoghurt etc. For me it was much easier than I expected so hopefully you find the same!