How to stop breastfeeding 8 month old

[Ineedsleep2024al]

My DD is 8 month old and I'll be returning to work at 12 months. She took a bottle and dummy just fine alongside breastfeeding and at the point I introduced her to solids at 5.5 months she refused dummy, bottle and didnt take kindly to solids. Any advice on how to stop breastfeeding? She's only just started solids again, some days are hit and miss.

She has water from a straw sippy cup which goes everywhere and doesn't like breastmilk or forumla in it. I don't want to go cold turkey either. Feeling anxious returning to work in 4 months time, any advice?

you don’t need to stop if you don’t want to! By 12 months she’ll manage with a feed before drop off and a feed at pick up! I felt like this with my first she was a bottle refuser but she started nursery at 11 months and she was fine

By twelve months my kids were consistently eating solids for meals and snacks, so I only bf twice during the day, once in the morning and once before bed. Assuming you don't work shifts or something would this work for you? If you want to give up completely but baby won't take a bottle, you'd be much better to wait until around 12 months if you can.
(I'm assuming it's just convenience/issues with returning to work etc, rather than mental health issues or anything like that).

Thanks @Fupoffyagrasshole @Pyroleus she's my first so I'm a novice with all this. I love breastfeeding so don't want to give up if I don't have to. I'm planning to put her in nursery from 11 months as well to ease her in (and me!) so was panicking about that too. Knowing this has made me feel so much better, thank you.

She wakes up for 2 feeds during the night still as well, usually around 2am and 6am and wakes up at 8.15. I am planning to change her wake up time to around 7/7.30 slowly so it fits around work. When did you drop night feeds?

It's advised not to drop the night feeds until 12 months.

Once they hit 12 months the phenomenon rate of growth they've been having starts to slow and they should be fine with milk, whether that's BFing or Cow's Milk, and solids in the day.

There's a guide on gentle night weaning here that you might find helpful.

Agree with the others. You don't have to stop BFing of you don't want to. Mine had a Bf in the morning, one on pick up and one before bed. She'll be fine with that at 11 months.

BF babies tend to take the same amount whether they feed 12 times or 4 so she might just feed for a little longer

@Ineedsleep2024al can I ask you how you get her to sleep? I have a BF eight month old and also wanting to stop but currently feeding to sleep and feeding to settle about ten times in the night, really looking to break the cycle! Sorry to high Jack just sounds very similar

@Thewildthingsarewithme I fed her to sleep until recently, she loved it! Last week she started to regress a bit and my party trick stopped working, hoping it will pass. She was waking up 6 times a night at one point and I had to bite the bullet and rock her instead for about 4/5 days, it was gruelling but managed to get night feeds down to 2. I think she was waking more for comfort than anything. Hope this helps?

@PolaroidPrincess thank you! The gentler the better for me and the little one, will stick to the 12 month recommendation until she stops waking up (with a bit of luck 🤭)

Hi! My toddler is still breastfeeding, we're both happy to continue. She is 2y old end of November, wanted to get to the WHO's recommendations of '2years and beyond'.
I work full time and returned to work when she was 10m old. She fed before I left, fed when I returned, fed in evening and in night (still does - feel like she 'reverse feeds'). She happily takes water and food from 360 sippy cup from 6 months, now on open cups of course.
I like feeding/don't mind feeling like a zombie as this is our bonding time as we miss each other in day. I have noticed some feeds dropping naturally. I also expressed x1 when I first returned to work (just to keep supply) but she only ever had the expressed on her cereal the next day.

The breastfeeding Mentor on Instagram.FB is great for gentle weaning when you're both/one of you is ready. Hope this helps.

Also keeping the breastfeeding up while she starts nursery will massively help her immune system and fighting off all those nursery illnesses!! So that’s a definite bonus of keeping it going for a while :)