[Tats]

Hi

My son is coming up to a year and I'm wondering whether anybody knows of any good weaning techniques as I'd like to stop at 1 year. I have one problem: my son sleeps on the breast, to be more precise he is unable to fall asleep without the breast! I've dropped one feed already. It was very easy since it was an afternoon feed not associated with sleep. All my other feeds are connected with putting him down to sleep for a nap at 11 am and at night at 7 pm. Moreover, my son wakes up to feed at night 2-3 times. If it's a good day it could be just one.

I'd love to hear from women who have been in similar situation. I have tried today to replace the morning feed with formula, but there were lots of tears and he was pushing the cup away.

I read various research and some say that it could be psychologically damaging for a child to force taking the breast away. I am at a loss because I cannot face breastfeeding until he is grown up and eventually drops off himself. He doesn't seem to have any intention of doing it.

Oh, yes, one other detail my son eats solids very well, but doesn't drink very much water or juices.

Please help!

[joannek]

although everyone said they should drink from a cup from 1. i personally think that the bottle somehow gives them comfort. i think if you were to let him drink from something other than the breast, u should introduce it with bm in it instead of formula. bm taste WAY BETTER than formula & he's been drinking it for a year so you won't be able to fool him.

my baby is 14 1/2 mths. i'm still nursing her when she asks for it. what i did was i started introducing the bottle w/ bm (i use wide neck dr brown). then at 11 mths i started giving her 1/3 formula 2/3 bm, & gradually adding more formula. & it worked (i give her hipp organic which taste better than other brandds of formula & it actualy taste a little like bm. but my girl only likes milk in her bottle, she takes any other kind of liquid in a cup.

i think a bottle could be easier to introduce if he is particular about the sucking need. however, i do agree that it's probably not a good idea to force taking the breast away (that's why i planned to wean at 1 yr, but still nursing her now).

btw, for your ref, i started replacing 1)the midnight feed w/ formula/bm at 11 mths. 2)nap feed w/ formula at 12 mths. 3)bedtime feed w/ 4oz formula then breast for however long she wanted @ 13mth. 4)now i'm just down to the morning feed, which i give her 3oz in the bttle, rest on breast if she wants. one very important thing is she had never taken the bottle from me until the past month. dad or nanny have always been the ones to feed her the bttle. & i had to hide. if she saw me, she would scream & push away the bottle & cry for me.

i hoped these info help & good luck.

[LLL_Sarah]

I recommend looking at the book, The Nursing Mother’s Guide to Weaning, by Kathleen Huggins and Linda Ziedrich. This book discusses reasons for weaning as well as reasons to delay weaning; offers practical and helpful advice that respects the needs and feelings of both mother and child. Each chapter is dedicated to babies of different ages. This is helpful as techniques which work for young babies don’t really work with older babies.

LLL in Hong Kong has this book for sale and also available to members in the library. If you are interested in this book please contact either:
Sarah – 2548-7636 in Mid-levels or
Maggie – 2817-7475 in Happy Valley
Or LLLHK@hotmail.com

Best wishes,
SARAH

[Tats]

Thanks guys for your replies!