Weaning off of breast

[kazdi1]

Any advice as how to do this. My baby will not take a bottle- never has done- but will take some milk from a doidy cup. Health visitor advice to go cold turkey and leave her with husband for the day. Is this harsh? must have her off the breast for nursery. Help!! I am scared it will distress her and me !!

HV advised the same cold turkey remedy for me bu tmy DD has just turned a year old. How old is your child? If she is over 8 months you can still BF her morning and night and she won't suffer too much if she doesn't drink any milk in betwee,

Same as Tapster asks - how old is your baby? My DD has also just turned one and has been in nursery since she was 6 months. Although she'd take a few sips from the doidy cup (she's a fellow bottle spurner), she never really got the hang of it. So the nursery mixed milk in with her food. As she got bigger and started eating solids it became less of a problem - she just feeds a lot in the morning and in the evening.

Hope this helps.

Mind you, I want to wean DD off soon and don't know how I'm going to do it. So worried she won't compensate by drinking cows' milk instead.

Thanks for this. Nice to know I am not the only one. DD is 6 months and will be 7 months when off to nursery. I had planned on trying to keep the last BF of the day until I drop this 11pm feed entirely.

I did both of mine cold turkey. It was fine, and really the only way I could have done it. We did it the same way both times- I would distract them if they asked for it in the day and at night time my dp would put them to bed.
They never had bottles and never liked cows milk. They got their calcium through food and drank water, never had a night time drink or anything.

I was in the same situation as you with my 1st - at 7mths went back to work but he really wouldn't take any milk at all until I picked him up and feed him - just shunned any bottle cup etc. They cope fine and just make up with solids. Carried on this way until 11 mths when I finally went cold turkey and gave him cows milk in a cup morning and night - he soon adjusted. It really was so stressful for hubbie and I to leave him to try and feed that looking back it really wasn't worth the trauma! Now have no 4 who is 6 mths old and am in completly different situation - she really doesn't want to bf and is thriving on the bottle and I hate it. She is def my last one and would have been happy to carry on bf for as long as possible but she isn't having any of it. Don't worry about it too much - in a couple of months you will wonder what all the fuss was about - they really do take what they need.

Thanks manchita. It's good to hear it worked for you. I may well be back here in the new year asking for more tips!

kazdi1 - don't worry if it takes time for your DD to get used to nursery. We had a horrible time at the start as, although she seemed very happy there, she wouldn't eat or drink and lost weight. BUT....we got there in the end and now she eats much better there than she does at home! And she is putting on weight despite not having much milk in the day.

i used to feed dd mornign and evening anxd in the day she would be offered sips of water in a cup, she was fine, she ate loads at nursery, better than she did at home where she would just want to latch on. so if you plan on continuing to feexd, just carry on with evening and morning as long as you have a supply.

if you want to stop entirely then cold turkey is the way to go. i left both ds with my mum for 24 hours and they soon took a cup of milk, i didn;t offer a bottle but they were both over 12 months same with dd. minxd you over 6 months i would offer a cup instead of bottle to avoid the issue of weaning off a bottle at 12 months.

Hello. I have similar problem and I'm so stressed out about it. My baby is 6 months and I want to stop breast feeding- long story but I want my cycle to get back to normal so I can start to try for another baby. Well, have tried changing a feed at a time but absolutely no joy- won't take any formula in cup or bottle and gets so upset that I end up giving in. So worried about not getting 600ml a day? Am I panicing over nothing?

Hi Bex

When I was having the same problems with DD at 6 months, my health visitor said 'the protest will stop'. She was right. It will be hard but your baby will adjust.

Have you tried someone else offering the cup? Sometimes they won't do it if the breast service is in the room!

My dad actually got the little tyke to drink 40ml today, so I guess some progress!! Interestingly, I think he seems to prefer SMA to Aptamil.. I tasted them and I can't thnk why!!!

Great news, Bex.

Well, I left babe with hub on Sat all day and he took a whole bottle with him that evening. TOday he took two bottles from me- I never would have believed it! Yeh!!