Anyone who breastfed until about 9 months - help on weaning off BF please!

[SamJohnsMum]

My DS is actually 6mo but I am planning to BF for another few months and I want some kind of a plan!!

I left introducing a bottle too late and now he won't go near one. He will take a few ml from a cup but nowhere near half a feed, let alone a full one. I was getting very stressed over this (I had wanted to start doing more bottle feeding about 6mo) so I have decided to carry on BFing for a few more months and not stress myself out so much.

He has been enjoying one meal a day of puree/mush and today started having some baby cereal for breakfast too.

However, I'm thinking ahead and wondering how I will reduce his night feeds (still usually twice between 7 and 7) and how I will ensure he has the recommended amount of milk/formula. Just to add more confusion, there is a possibility he reacts to cow's milk protein - but that needs more investigation.

So, does anyone have any experiences of this? Help me please!!

i think that you may find a natural progression to less breastfeeding. i did with all mine. ds (12 mths) still feeds at night a maybe twice a day but i could reduce this i think. i found introducing other drinks helped - almost like it was a new non-milk flavour so he has baby juice now ~(i will so get flamed for admitting this i'm sure!). ds 3 had milk allergies but grew out of them. use alternatives if you need to - we used soya, oat and rice milk.

Still BF DS, 9.5 months. I work full time but he hates the bottle and only ever takes a few oz of EMB whilst I'm at work then guzzles all night to make up. Absolutely no idea how to begin weaning - DS loves breastfeeding so much and can't imagine not doing, plus at my thinnest ever so not really motivated to stop anytime soon! Downside is that I'm exhausted from all the night feeds. Good luck!

Ok, I'm still BFing but only twice a day now as I'm back at work. DS (8 mo) doesn't feed at night and has 3 or 4 milk feeds a day.
I think as you progress to feeding 3 fairly decent meals a day (this will happen slowly but you will get there eventually), you might find some of the day feeds getting less important to your DS and he will start to taking water with meals rather than milk before them.
Keep persevering with cups at meal times, it doesn't matter how much he takes at this stage, just a few sips with his meal is fine, he'll get better at drinking from a cup with practice so just keep giving him the opportunity. But try lots of different cups - we get on better with a little espresso cup or even an eggcup that I hold for him. Now he's ok with a sippy cup but not great with a doidy.
You may find when he's having more solids his night feeds become less important and he's just waking from habit (you'll have a feeling for this I think - smiling, clapping hands when you go to him probably is more a social call than a hunger cry etc), so you could try just offering water in cup then for one of them, say the one after midnight. You might find he just decides it's not worth waking for water, mine seems to have thought like this.

Basically, you've got to get him drinking from something other than you so just keep letting him practice - he had to practice bfing in the early days several times a day to get it right...it's the same for learning the new skill of drinking from a cup (likewise a bottle...maybe worth trying those again at mealtimes treating them just like another drinking vessel, rather than a replacement for mummy, might take the pressure off and persuade him to give it another go? - just an idea)

samjohnsmum, i had similar situation with dd...i just kept offering her a bottle before bfing her and gradually she took more and more from it,it took weeks though. and as she was eating more food she slept better too. literally in the space of a week or so she went from bfing three times a night to sleeping from 6 till 6. however, once having full feeds from a bottle she very quickly lost her latch and bfing has now stopped completely as she doesn't seem to get anything out of my breast, i can tell her sucking is different. i was quite sad at this but having decent sleep for first time in eight months makes up for it.
as for how much milk to give, i was totally confused by this as of course how do you know how much your bf baby drinks at a time? the guidelines on the tins of formula were useless to me - dd drinks anything between 3 and 12 ounces of formula at a time! i make her at least eight ounces for her day drinks, and 12 for her bedtime drink.....my theory being that she will drink as much or as little as she wants, like she would from a breast. hope you are getting on ok :-)