Breastfed baby, how to start weaning off?

[Avie29]

Hey 👋 so thinking about starting to wean baby of the breast, shes 6 and a half months, food weaning is going fab, ive tried her with a few different bottle brands but not really persevering as im not desperate to wean her off boob yet- but she won’t suck a bottle, she just chomps on the teat, same with sippy cup, looking for some advice so when the time comes it can go a bit smoother for her, thanks xx

La Leche League have some great resources. I
went with “ don’t offer, don’t refuse “ with my two. But they were both around the 12 month mark.

I think you mean weaning from breast to bottle? If you have never given a bottle before now it will be tricky! I tried a little later and it was too late so I just didn't wean!! Soon they can take a sippy cup anyway so you can try formula there. Sorry no tips on bottle.

Do you think it was easier to wait till 12months? On the one hand i really enjoy breastfeeding and wouldn’t mind doing it until 12months but on the other im kind of looking forward to having my body back as my own haha xx

Yes breast to bottle- last time she had any bottle was a few days old before my milk came in, and i feel like now shes having food that she looks at bottle as food and just chomps on it rather than sucking 🤷🏻‍♀️ i have got a sippy cup but she does the same with that xx

I have breastfed 3, DC1 was easy. Took the bottle brilliantly so I just swapped out a feed for a bottle and stopped completely by 10months. DC2 was a nightmare, wouldn't take any other milk from any cup/bottle until he was 12months. So once he started nursery at 10months I cut out the day feeds. Then when he suddenly drank milk from a straw cup at 12m I stopped. DC3 is almost 11 months and still bf but takes cows milk from a straw cup. Plan is to cut day feeds out once he starts nursery in a few weeks then stop the morning/before bed feeds after that. I have had mastitis a few times really badly so I like to wind down very slowly!

When you say cut out day feeds, do you mean no milk? Or just no breast? Xx

@Avie29 no breast. In an ideal world you will swap a breastfeed for a bottle of milk, however DC2 wouldn't drink any other milk so he just had snacks instead.

@Justbecause19 so if all else fails i can just offer snacks- good to know, shes great with her solids, i have 4 older kids but shes the first one ive ebf so new territory for me, still learning on baby number 5 haha xx

I was lucky with mine that they took a bottle quite easily. You might have to try a few different teat styles, my youngest preferred a traditional type bottle rather than a "boob" shaped one strangely!
Maybe she'd prefer milk in a sippy cup too, the straw type ones are meant to be easier for EBF babies to get the hang of - mine couldn't manage a traditional sippy cup until a bit older! You could BF just in the morning and bedtime then try a cup of milk through the day.

@Avie29, yes that's what I have done. I know they still 'need' milk but I would give them a yoghurt pouch or something very dairy based instead. DC2 was 99% percentile for weight for a while so lack of day feeds didn't hurt! Haha I know, always learning something new with kids. I'm so impressed you managed to get to grips with bf with 4 other kids around!

@dbeuowlxb173939 oh i didn’t know that straw ones are better for ebf babies, i will have to get one, i just picked up a tommee tippee one cause its the same cup i used for my other kids when they were little, i have tried 3 different bottles so far (tbf i haven’t really pushed it too much yet) and shes not sucked any of them, just chews it xx

@Justbecause19 yoghurt is good she loves her yogurts lol breast feeding was easier this time round my older kids are 13nearly 14, 12 and 9yo twins (she was a surprise baby haha) so they are all pretty independent xx

I let my DD figure it out tbh, one day around 12 months she just refused milk in the day. I offered for a couple of days and she refused so I didn't offer again. She is still breastfed first and last thing.

If you're open to continuing with breastfeeding it might be easier. My DD would not take formula at all. I noticed that when weaning was established she started to drop the number of feeds anyway. By the time she was having 3 meals a day, she was feeding 4 times in a 24 hour period.

Waiting might be a good idea then, atm she isn’t a great sleeper, only sleeps 3 hours tops in the night and 2-/40 minutes naps in the day so she is still having quite a few feeds in 24 hours at the moment, she has a feed in the morning about an hour after she gets up, about 7:30-8 feed for mid morning nap about 10:30, then lunch 12, feed for afternoon nap 1:30, feed at about 3-3:30 dinner 5 and then we go up to bed at about 6 as she is knackered - she will be on the breast “stocking up” for an hour, then pretty much every 3 hours in the night too, is that alot for 6 month old?xx

@Avie29 for me it was easier but doesn’t mean it will be for you. I planned to feed both a year and I was fortunate that they were happy to and I could. And that when they weaned off it wasn’t a battle (they could also have cows milk, although weren’t interested). My advice would be don’t make it harder for yourself, whatever that looks like. It’s entirely your choice. I definitely understand wanting your body back. I feel like, with 2 children and a 2 year gap I’ve been growing or feeding a child for 4 years. And my body is shot. It used to be commonplace to wean babies into formula but that isn’t the case now. I know people who have fed 2 weeks (and not at all of course) and others for over 2 years. There’s no right or wrong.

Have you tried a cup instead OP? If she's refusing bottles it might be easier to go straight to a cup.

BF babies take on average 25 floz in a day, so roughly a Floz an hour. So if you can get her to take 1 or 2 floz from a cup you can count that as a feed

Keep persevering with bottle. At around 5 months with both of mine I started offering formula as last feed before bed. My daughter didn't start taking it until over 6 months. I just offered at the same time every time each evening with no pressure, didn't let myself get annoyed and then she eventually took it. They both drank water from sippy cups fine.

Then at 11-12 months I weaned off bf completely. Gradually started replacing feeds with a snack and a cup of milk. But once they took a bottle I probably could have stopped feeding earlier if I'd wanted to, but after 6 months it's a lot less intensive anyway.

I have tried some water in a cup with her meals as i didn’t want to waste breast milk (glad i didn’t as she ended up soaked haha) but she just chomps the sippy bit and only gets a few drops, i will keep trying with some water at meal times, hopefully when shes a bit more capable of taking water from it i will switch to breast milk, do you think it would be a good idea to put some formula in her cup?
I tried her with some freshly pumped breast milk in a bottle yesterday and she just chomped on the teat, pulled a face and spat it out haha, she now has breast milk lollys as i didn’t want to waste it lol, also if anyone can help- i pumped with electric pump for about 10-15 mins (about the amount of time she feeds for and i only got 3oz tops, is that enough? Im sure my ff babies were having double that per feed at 6months xx

You could try some warm formula in an open cup? We started offering it when they were on the bath so it didn't matter big they tipped it all over themselves and actually the novelty of having a cup of milk in the bath got them to drink a bit.

We used a Doidy cup.

You could always offer the cup outside too? Both of mine were summer babies so you can't really offer a cup of milk outside to a 6 month old when it's minus 6

Oh good idea 👍🏻 although im not too worried about her making a mess, just wasting the breast milk.
never really thought about using an open cup 🤔 it would mean she wouldn’t have to suck so could work well- thanks, those cups look good- don’t need to tilt back so much with it slopped like that, it is in my amazon basket will order it when i get paid haha, will let you know how she gets on with it xx

Having breasted twice, I would say it’s easier to wean around 12 months because then you can go to cow milk and an open cup and they also don’t rely on milk for food anymore.

Maybe you could just breastfeed mornings and evenings. Mine naturally tapered off when they started solids it just took a few months. By 12 months one was not bothered about breastfeeding and the other would have continued indefinitely for evenings 😂 but was fine during the day. If you have no particular need to stop I would just wait and see how it goes with solids. I have had two bottle refusers though so maybe I’m just scarred by the experience!

Also while i have plenty of bf mums on here, when did your periods return? I know ebf stops your periods for a while but i expected mine back by now at nearly 7 months? xx

18 months both times

If I remember right it was around 8-9 months after birth. Maybe a bit earlier on the second.