How to wean?

[duckduckgoose]

I still feed 14 mo DS first thing in the morning and before bed. I really want to wean when we get back from our trip to Fiji in 6 weeks. I'm so over BFing.

How do I do it? He's very attached to both feeds. I'm guessing that dropping the morning feed means getting up out of bed and getting breaky ready pronto -at 6am. Not looking forward to that bit!

We tried changing the bedtime routine so boob isn't the last thing we do but he was just falling asleep in the lounge room on the breast. So now we are back to feeding to sleep before bed (although not working tonight but that's irrelevant).

Any advice welcome :). Thanks.

[cindye]

Changing the routine has been how I've weaned two babies now. So dinner, boob, bath and bed. And in the morning breakfast first- DH and I took turns to get up early.
I chose one feed to drop first and would skip it a couple of times the first week, then every second day the next week and then only do it twice the final week, so it would take me a few weeks to drop a feed. I did it slowly so it wasn't too sudden for bub and so my boobs had time to adjust, since I'm prone to engorgement. Then I'd drop the final feed over the next few weeks the same way.
With DD1, I thought we were done and she had a final feed a fortnight later when she was really upset one day- don't know how much milk she got...

[duckduckgoose]

Thanks cindye. How did your babies cope? Were they upset at being weaned? DS is such a booby fiend...

[mrsd]

Perhaps try having your DH feed / offer him a bottle before bed and settle him. Does he self settle during the day?

I found that I just started giving G a bottle instead of BF before bed and though she was a bit difficult the first couple of nights or so until she settled, once she dropped off it was all fine. And I agree with brekky instead of the morning feed.

[Misschief]

Perhaps replace the breast with a bottle of body temp milk? (Just heat it up on low in the microwave foe 15 seconds).
DS was forced to wean at 14 months after he got very sick and couldn't breathe and suckle at the same time. He just couldn't settle at night until I offered him a bottle of lukewarm (body temp) milk. That did the trick.

[cindye]

Thanks cindye. How did your babies cope? Were they upset at being weaned? DS is such a booby fiend...

I weaned DD1 at 14 months (well 14.5 if you count her last little one) and DD2 at 16.5 months. They were both fine.
DD2 was such a bad eater that I was worried about weaning her- at 12 months she was just 8kgs and pretty much lived on booby juice. Once I had completely weaned her she put on a kilo in a month. Her best weight gain since she was born!
With both my girls I was pregnant when I weaned and had truly had enough of feeding. Neither of them seemed fazed by me cutting back the feeds at all and neither of them tried to feed when I didn't offer. Because they have both had issues with dairy I didn't replace the boob with other milk either.
DS is 4 months old now and I don't know how long I'll feed him. I think probably 18 months is my limit. By then I will have been pregnant and/or breastfeeding for 5yrs and 9 months.

[Kooglekat]

Subscribing :)

I'm wondering the same thing as my DS is a real boob addict as well. I am happy enough doing two feeds a day for a bit longer but still no AF at 15 mths, so am thinking I may have to cut back further if we want to TTC.

Will he take milk from your DH? My DS will accept soy milk in his straw cup from DH, but becomes enraged if I try to give him milk that way :rolleyes: DH has holidays soon so we may use that time to drop the morning feed and I'll just feed before bed. If he has 2 weeks of morning milk in a cup with Daddy then hopefully he will be used to it and will take it from me.

Maybe your hubby can offer milk with you out of the room for his morning feed for a few weeks? Or even alternate mornings to start with?

[duckduckgoose]

Thanks everyone. I'm feeling more confident about how to do this. I think I'll tell DH he has to get up early for 2 whole weeks (I will enjoy the sleep-in!). If DH gives him milk in a cup I'm sure he will be ok.

Then for the night feed I think I'll do what cindye suggests and move boob before bath.

Thanks for the advice everyone :)