Weaning from Breastmilk (In a Bottle) to Whole Milk

i started putting 1/2 milk and 1/2 breast milk in her bottles. And after a few weeks, just milk. If they are getting their nutrition through foods, they dont need a ton of milk bottles anymore.
As far as drying up...it was fast for me. and i actually used the cliche'd "bag-o-peas"! Lots of cool compresses.
Good luck.

for me to stop, I just stopped one pumping at a time. If I was pumping 4 times a day, I went to 3 for the next couple of days until I felt no discomfort. Then down to two, etc... I really didn't experience any pain or discomfort doing it this way, maybe I was lucky. It is just like quiting anything, you wean.
Ditto on added the milk slowly mixed with the breast milk. When you get to using straight milk, don't give him nearly as much, it will come right back up! My son had no problem taking milk in the bottle like that, but once he moved to sippy cup, he hasn't had it since, he hates it! So I just make sure he gets calcium in foods and buy calcium fortified apple juice. Good luck!

Just a word of advice on the pain and drying up... COLD CABBAGE LEAVES. The most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard until I tried it out of desperation with my first child. The pain was gone in minutes, and my milk dried up completely within 2 days. When I weaned baby #2, I ran straight to the grocery store and bought 2 heads of cabbage. Just break off LARGE pieces of cabbage (you'd be surprised what it takes to cover a mama breast!), rinse it, break up any tough edges with your fingers (leave it as one big piece though), and stuff it in your bra! You will feel instant relief and feel like a new woman in minutes. Remove them after about 10-15 minutes (warming cabbage is not my favorite smell), and repeat as necessary. The BEST advice I was ever given, and a true "old wives tale" that actually WORKS.

increase the time between pumping which will alert your breasts that there is less demand. have you already dropped your night pumpings/nursings? i mixed the pumped milk with whole milk for about a week and a half. e.g. for an 8 oz bottle, 7oz breastmilk, 1 oz whole milk for a day, then 6 oz breastmilk, 2 oz whole, etc. you can guage how fast you can change the ratio based on how your baby drinks it. mine was so agreeable, it only took a few days, but some take longer.

Hi T., you can start mixing some of the breast milk in with some of the whole milk, just until his system adjusts. Shouldn't take more than a day or so. And, if you want to think about doing that, you could just start putting his milk in a sippy cup. No more bottles. 1-15 months of age is the best time to get off the bottle. You'd be surprised how quickly he adapts to a sippy cup.
If you're looking to wean as well, and you don't mind taking an over-the-counter medication, antihistamine will dry up your milk very quickly. You'll still have some discomfort, but if you nurse just once or twice a day, that will relieve some of the discomfort. What goes into the breast milk, if anything, won't hurt your son. I've done this same procedure 6 times with all 6 of my children. By 15-18 months we were ready to wean. In went the whole milk in the sippy cup, I took the antihistamine, and I had little discomfort for only 2-3 days. Happy baby, happy mommy.
Hope that helps,
C. M

T., how wonderful that you have nursed your son for almost a year! Believe it or not, you already started the weaning process when your son started solids. Weaning is always best accomplished gradually. I would offer a sippy cup or cup with a strong, plastic tumbler straw (yes kids this age can learn to use a straw, but it can't be the thin type). You could mix breastmilk and whole milk or whole milk and yo baby to help him adjust to the taste. Gradually remove one feeding every 3 to 7 days--and replace it with the sippy cup/straw option. You will probably work down to one a.m. and one p.m. feed. Believe it or not, most babies lose the p.m. feed before they lose the a.m. You can even feed every other morning or every two mornings before you quit completely. For tons of good info about weaning, please go to www.kellymom.com, and put weaning in the search bar on the bottom left.

D. A., RN,Ph.D.,IBCLC
ADVANCED LACTATION CARE INC.

I didn't read thru all the responses, so forgive me if I repeat someone else...Cabbage leaves work well for engorgment & drying up milk supply. Get a head of cabbage, put it in the fridge... you'll put a leaf in your bra (wrapped around your breast).. since you're trying to dry up your milk you could keep replacing the leaves and wear them most of the day. If it's just to relieve discomfort, usually you'll only need a cabbage leaf on for an hour or so (about 1 nap time)

I let my son take the lead on weaning. I was pumping 3x a day and decreased that by 1 session every 1-2 weeks and really had no pain, I think pain can be avoided by reducing your pumping sessions over time. As far as nursing, I didn't see any reason to completely stop it when he turned a year. I let him nurse when he wanted and he just eventually stopped on his own after a couple of months - I didn't have to distract him or anything like that. Letting him take the lead made the process easier on both of us. And just my 2 cents, don't be in a huge rush to cut out the nursing. Once you're done, you can never go back to this time. I miss it so much, my son is now 18 months old and it is hard to get him to stop for 5 minutes to snuggle with me!

Good morning T.,

Congratulations on breastfeeding first of all. I don't really think we understand how important that fator is.

As for milk, that is really a bad 4 letter word!! Please think about what product you will use. Regular milk is not good for anyone, so if you choose to use milk, please buy organic. It has no pesticides or other awful things that could hurt his belly. They also have a lot of organi baby food too that are full of nutrients etc. Just don't warm anything up in the microwave!!

Good luck and I am sure you are doing great. They do tend to show us what love is all about don't they!

L. Hein
Author
THE BOOK "I'm Doing The Best I Can!" (They won't always be cute and adorable)

Hi,

This is what worked for me....I dropped one feeding each week. Try the easier ones first. At nap time I would have a sippy cup available but I didn't push it since I didn't want to replace nursing with something else. For the most part this process was pretty smooth, but I was always ready to distract if needed...bike ride, park, walk, car ride, play dates. Keeping him busy really helped. Once I had dropped all but the morning feeding, I then dropped my pumping (I was only doing once a day, if you're doing it more than once a day drop one per week). Pour whatever pumped milk you have into the bottle and fill the rest w/ soy or cow milk. My Ped. suggested switching to a sippy cup and dropping the bottle once my son turned 1. I haven't accomplished this yet, but I have been reducing his bottle by 1/2 ounce per day, once you get to 3 ounces start replacing milk with water, 1/2 ounce at a time until it is all water.

My only strong advice is to start this when you can really commit. I've had friends see saw back and forth i.e. "they really wanted to nurse todday so I gave in". That makes it so much harder for you, baby and your milk supply. The other thing is don't add bottles to replace nursing, you'll just have to break those soon too.

As for pain, I haven't had any at all. Since this process has taken a month, my body has had time to adjust and it has been pretty easy. Right now I'm still nursing in the morning, I have a sippy cup full of soy milk in clear view for him. Since my supply is so low each morning my son is reducing the time nursing by a minute or so. I think he may just loose interst on his own. GOOD LUCK!

ok My daughter weaned herself but my son is still having trouble letting go and he is 18 months. He drinks whole milk from a cup during the day. I do remember with my dau You remove a feeding a week. and it will be easy to dry up. If you go cold turkey you are looking at painful breast and clogged milk ducts. I started with only nursing in the morning and night. and not pump or have her nurse during the day then take out day and lastly night feedings. It is a process because one day he will be fine then the next he might scream for the breast. Start now and he will be off by his birthday...Hopefully :)

I did not pump often. I was still actually nursing at about 11 months I took away 1 feeding a week. I took away the morning nursing the first week, the one right before nap time and right before bed time were the last to go. I did not experience any pain at all. I experienced a lot of leaking, especially the first day or two that I took away a time slot.

We slowly stopped too. Both of my boys finished nursing at 9mo. We started just nursing first thing in the morning and the last before going to bed, and all the other feedings were formula. Then we stopped the morning one and left the night feeding just for a while. Then at one year we did the birthday celebration and both boys got a variety of new sippy cups. We made a big deal about big boy milk and even did " Cheers" with the new cups. We just switched everything out. They never asked for their bottles again.
As for the breast tenderness, it is OK if you go wean slowly. I never leaked or had any pain.
Good luck