Weaning off the boob

[Mumamia86]

Hi all

I was hoping for some advice please.

I've decided to start weaning my 9 month DD from the boob but am really struggling. She currently has 3 meals a day as well as boob. The trouble is she absolutely LOVES it and uses it as a comforter as well as a milk supply.

I've tried her with expressed milk in bottles/cups/sippy cups/straw cups but she won't have it. I've also tried formula in each of the above which she can't bare, she spits it out as soon as its in her mouth. I've since tried blending a banana with the formula but she'll only drink it at meal times so still wants boob in-between. I would replace those feeds with snacks as she loves food but I'm conscious that she still needs milk.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to find myself in this position - does anyone have any ideas please?

Thank you!!

How does she sleep at night OP? I’m just wondering if you’re lucky enough to feed a lot in the day but she has a reasonable sleep at night?

She has just started sleeping pretty well actually, the norm tends to be 7 - 4 when she'll have a feed and then go back down until 6. She started this from 8 months before that it was diabolical!

I've found that its not the breastfeeding itself I especially want to stop, its all the things that go with it - the fact that no1 can help, the pulling down of my top whenever I pick her up and I can't comfort her unless its through a feed. I've just started to really struggle with it.

Following, because I also have a boob monster!

If you do want to stop, or are at least considering it, I’d talk to a BFC on one of the Helplines. They will be able to help you to cone up with a plan of how to stop. If you have a look in the MN archive there will be a lot of previous threads on bottle refusal. At 9 months though I wouldn’t bother introducing a bottle only to have to take it away again at 12 months, I’d just go straight for a cup.

As for your partner helping out, he can! He can play with her, take her out, bath and dress her, try to settle her at night and bring you drinks and snacks while you BF. If you swapped to formula would he honestly buy the formula, make up the feeds and feed her the majority of the feeds? I know my DH wouldn’t have, but then he is quite lazy

There’s some info here on BFing Manners which might help with the top pulling.

If she settles when you BF her and you find that annoying, I think you need to think how you are going to comfort her when if you stop BFing