I'm asking for some advice from all you moms out there. My daughter is almost a year old and is already currently drinking some whole milk and eating table foods like a champ. I am still nursing but would really, really, really like to quit pumping at work. I'm starting to feel like it's more of a burden than a necessity. But I don't think my daughter is ready to give up the bottle altogether yet.
How do you know if a child is ready to wean? She's never really been the type to "ask" to nurse. But, then, maybe she does and I just don't know it. If I sit down with her to nurse, it's not like she refuses to sit still.
So, do I just start sending only whole milk in the bottles for the daytime? I don't mind still nursing when I'm with her - mornings, evenings and on the weekends.
Anyway, that's my question.
3 comments:
I would go ahead and put cow's milk in one, then two of her bottles. That way you can start to reduce your milk supply so as to only have what she needs at home. That will be a good way to slowly reduce the supply so that hopefully you won't be leaking at work. After you've got her totally on cow's milk at school you can begin offering her cow's milk in her sippy cup at home and see how that goes.
I have nothing helpful but, man. That Nonni? Is a smarty. Is there a big birthday party planned?
I'd say you could break her from the nursing the same way I was broken from my blanket. My dad pretended to burn it on my 5th birthday. Pretending to burn a boob may prove more difficult. :o)
Here's what my friend who exclusively pumped from 4 months on because her daughter refused the breast after that. And she pumped all the way up to 1 year, God bless her.
She kept sending pumped milk to daycare, because she didn't want to switch to cow's milk just yet, but started stretching the times between her pumping sessions, especially at work. She'd pump once before leaving for work, then gradually increase the time between from 3 to 4 hours, until she was only pumping at lunch, then again when she got home. Dropping the lunch-time one then was no big deal because she wasn't making much anyway. Of course, it was hard the first few days, but it will always be that way, regardless of which feeding you drop. Anyway, it worked for her. It wouldn't affect Ainsley, because she'd still be getting the same amount at daycare. Then, you can just gradually send milk instead of BM.
And, FWIW, that's what I did when dropping a nursing feeding for Drew. Just stretched the time out between them, offering something else like juice or a snack to tide him over. And it worked like a champ.
GL, hope that works!
Post a Comment