UPDATE! What to do if they won't wean?

[jd11365]

So "just for kicks and giggles" so to speak, I thought I'd put a little organic milk in the 'ol sippy to see if she would take it...or self-combust... Sure enough, she drank it up like a champ. So I figured, "what the heck" and filled it with a whole 4 ounces...which she chugged right down...even cold out of the fridge. This from a girl who doesn't drink all day (other than nursing)...not water or even juice. So, I think I'm going to cut out one of the afternoon nursing sessions for a sippy of milk...and then at 12 months take both afternoon sessions out. DH said, "Great now you can stop BFing!" which made me a little sad...not ready to give it up completely yet, but happy to know I don't have to be a vending machine all day long. ;) Thanks for all of the support. Hopefully, since many of us are going through this...or are about to...we were able to support each other!

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So DD never used a bottle...refused from day one. She will take from a sippy cup...but only a sip or two. Not because she doesn't know how to use it...she uses it just fine. She doesn't like to drink water or juice. So if she doesn't like to drink and is not used to a bottle, how am I going to get this kid to sit there and drink a whole cup of milk? I am ready to wean. We are almost at 12 months, which was my goal...and I think I've done great with it and I'm proud of my efforts. I don't mind continuing to nurse first thing in the am or last thing at night, but I'm sooooo done during the day. I almost want to go pick some milk up (I don't drink it myself) and give it a go and see what happens. I know there are many of you that would say just continue until she's ready, but I don't want to be nursing all day until she is 3 when she finally decides to wean on her own. Any suggestions? Was anyone else in my boat?

TIA!

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[mamicka]

I'm definitely in your boat. I would like to be done with nursing entirely immediately & it's not because I don't enjoy it - I totally do. But I can't take the extra weight (the girls) anymore & how they interfere with EVERYTHING. I know, it's going to be a slow process & I'm willing to do slowly but I really don't know where to start.

DS also CAN drink out of a sippy & also a regular cup, with help, but has never taken more than 1 oz of ebm that way in a day. I'm thinking it may be in the genes, my mother nursed me until I was 3. sigh.

Hope someone can offer good suggestions.

Allison

[COElizabeth]

James never took more than a couple of ounces from a bottle, either, and even that much was rare. He did learn to use a straw cup pretty early, but he would never drink more than a few sips. I waited a few months longer to wean him (we just finished last week, at just over 18 months), but he still wasn't drinking much.

As we were weaning, I tried offering cow's milk plain, in Instant Breakfast, and in orange cream, chocolate, and strawberry flavors. No luck. My ped said as long as he gets 3 servings of dairy products a day, though, he doesn't care if he drinks milk at all. And if James doesn't eat 3 servings of dairy, he said he would rather start him on a calcium supplement than try to force him to drink milk or eat more cheese and yogurt. I'm not sure he's quite getting 3 servings a day, but I am going to monitor it in a couple of weeks for a 2-week period and decide whether we need to ask for a calcium supplement.

As for fluids in general, he still drinks very little compared to other children, but the doctor again didn't seem particularly worried. He said some kids just have a "low native thirst" and that he would rather him not drink much than to get hooked on drinking very sugary beverages. Fortunately, he will drink Pedialyte in large quantities when he is sick, but at other times he gets water and/or a diluted water and juice mixture. Some days he drinks very little, and other times he drinks more. He does drink a bit more now that he isn't nursing at all anymore.

One good thing about the bottle refusal is that when we got that 1-year handout from the ped's office that said we should start getting rid of the bottle, I looked at DH and said, "Done!" No problem there! :)

HTH.

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02

[bluej]

Ryden sounds just like Kayla...he CAN do it, he just doesn't care to do it. I'm starting to stress about weaning myself. Both of my other two self-weaned. Alex at 8 months and Caden at 11 months. They loved drinking out of a sippy cup. Ryden prefers to have a few quick drinks from me when he gets thirsty. Which is fine when we are home, but not so fine when we are out. I have no idea how to go about weaning but I'm thinking it's something I need to look into now so we can start soon. I guess I have no advice, but know you are not alone.

[ktdid74]

Hi Jamie- I just weaned Mackenzie cause I was soooo ready. We made it to 11 months and then I cut back to am/pm, then just am, then right at 12 months I stopped it all. My DD did ok with the bottle which doesn't help your problem. However, you may want to just go ahead and see if she'll take cow's milk from a bottle. Some babies just won't drink EBM from a bottle cause they know it should be coming from the boob. Maybe try to give it to her when she's hungry but not starving. Or have DH give it to her. I didn't even ease DD into it which might not be the best idea but she did great. I just tried 4oz to start and she loved it. I warmed it so it wasn't ice cold and that was that.
I really wish you luck cause I know that feeling of "I'm done!" Now I can't wait for my boobs to go back to normal so I can get rid of the old nasty nursing bras and go to Victoria's Secret :)

[jd11365]

Elizabeth...I just love you. Dairy...not necessarily milk...ah ha! Kayla has a Yo Baby yogurt or plain organic with fruit every day, so that's at least one serving...maybe more if I figure out the ounces, and she has cheese...which now I will be more sure to include...and hopefully she will take some whole milk (which I doubt). I will nurse her in the early am and/or at bedtime to fill in if necessary...but I guess it shouldn't be any different than what I'm already doing as far as dairy is concerned. I will continue the 4x until next month, then I guess I can just take the 2 during the day away and make sure she has plenty of yogurt and cheese and cottage cheese. Ahhhh, feeling much better. And again, it's not that I don't enjoy BFing...I do...and always have. It's just not so easy anymore during the day, nor is it really enjoyable during that time. She is so big, so squirmy, doesn't like being covered and will sling off the blanket in public offering a free show...it's not like when she was a tiny little motionless baby anymore. As long as I know she's getting enough of whatever she needs in the dairy department, I'm good. I feel some kind of pressure to wait for her to wean on her own...like I'm a bad mommy for helping the process along...and mind you, it's my own pressure...friends and family can't believe I've gone this far to begin with!

Glad to know I'm not in the boat alone...just hoping we all have paddles! ;)

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[jd11365]

Thanks so much you guys...it's nice to know we are in this together in some way... And I plan a large order to Victoria's Secret next month! ;)

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[bluej]

Hee hee, I'm REALLY looking forward to doing that as well! Anything remotely sexy and please smaller!

[houseof3boys]

Bad mommy? Never....

She'll be fine and you will always get great advice here since so many people have gone through it. Then I can learn from you guys since I am a month behind you! :)

[heidi_timms]

Jamie, I am right there with you. Kayla and Kailey are just a few days apart. I made it to my goal of one year and I'm done with nursing until baby #2. We will definitely be doing the weaning thing together next month!!!

~Heidi
Mom to Kailey Ashlin
4/27/03

[sunny2003]

And I hope Kayley is right there with you.

Thus far I have been able to knock out a 2 pm nursing - what happens is that I try to give her 2-3 oz of formula in a sippy cup and when she inevitably refuses it, I mix in cereal and feed her that. Someday I hope she will take the sippy cup like one day when she just started to feed herself! My plan was to then cut out the 11 am nursing, but K got sick so I have postponed that - still, she is not nursing at 2 pm so that's a start! One day last week (before her stomach bug really took hold), she even went from 8 am to 6 pm without nursing without any real effort (she was sleeping during usual nursings).

Good luck - we are going through the same things!!

Viv
Mommy to Kayley born on 4/28/03

[apfb]

We call our DD the "boobie addict." The first sign she learned was milk, meaning breast milk. She would emphatically do the milk sign with both hands right in our face, indicating, "Don't you get it?!?! Milk right now!"

We are in the process of a very slow wean, down to once before bedtime.

Wean only when there are NO extra stresses in her life, e.g., illness, schedule changes, returning to work, travels, etc...

The daytime BF sessions are the easiest to go away. The baby is so busy in the daytime that most likely she might not notice that she is not nursing at lunch or in the afternoon.

I started giving DD whole cow's milk at 11 months. The pediatricians recommend starting at 12 months, to avoid dairy allergy. If you can start with a few sips here and there, making sure that there is no reaction such as rash, diarrhea, then you can proceed to larger volumes.

Elizabeth is right about the dairy products-- it can be cheese grated on top of her regular foods. DD loves to eat pasta with grated parmesan on top as finger food.

1st time mom to Maya the Mighty b. 3/2003

[AngelaS]

I found the best way to wean my oldest (who nursed until 19 months) was to change her routine. Three days of changing her routine and we were done. :D

So, when I was ready to give up nursing after her morning nap, when I got her up, instead of instantly going to the couch to nurse her, I took her shoes to her room when I got her up. I changed her, put on her shoes and announced we were going outside to play. On the way I grabbed a sippy cup and she drank some of it a few minutes later in the swing. The next day, we went for a walk and the final day I think we hopped in the car to go do an errand. Each time I took a sippy cup of milk with us for her to drink while we were doing something else.

She never noticed or even asked to nurse when we went out on our other adventures. I found this technique to be VERY painless for both of us and I used it by dropping one feeding at a time a few weeks apart.

Hope that helps! :D