Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Harder for the WEANor or the WEANee?

(men, you may want to skip this post!)
So it seems I have become one of those people I used to scoff at. The mom who would gladly breastfeed her walking, talking in complete sentences child. I love breastfeeding so much. However, I am not sure that Tristan feels the same way. Ever since he started pulling up and standing, he does that also when he eats. Yea. You get the picture. His morning feeds are great and his evenings are still pretty good, but those daytime feeds are getting interesting the more mobile he becomes. I am not sure if he is going to wean himself by distraction or not. I sort of want him to because I think I have breastfeeding weirdo potential.
My question for all of you who have been the weanors of older babies is what do you do instead of breastmilk? Tristan eats 3 pretty large meals a day with snacks so I am not as worried about filling him up. However, I know they need milk until they are a year. I know it will be a little challenging because my nugget hates bottles and sippy cups. He drinks through a straw. I just want to know who did what and how you did it. Did you go to whole milk? Formula? Frozen breastmilk? Do share!!!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nic....
I supplemented with formula with both of my girls. Didn't touch whole milk until they turned one. Just be forewarned that once you start supplementing, you'll notice a decrease in your milk supply. I was a morning/evening nurser and then eventually weaned the girls when my mild supply became almost non-existent. I made it unti 11.5 months with Landrie (she weaned from me) and 10 months with Emerie (ran out of milk). My goal was a year....guess I came pretty close, huh?
Angela

Nicki W. said...

angela,
close enough!10 months is a long time. i just have this feeling he is going to wean himself, but i could be wrong. i looooove the morning and night nurse, it is going to be hard for me to let go of. thanks for your advice! i figure i will use up my frozen milk and try formula. tricky part is getting him to drink it! hmmmmm....

Melissa said...

I nursed Carson until he was 14 months. However, around this time, he began spreading out his nursing times, which was fine with me because my goal had been to wean around a year, but to take it slowly so that it wasn't painful for either of us. Around 10 months or so, which was when he started becoming a bit distracted and nursing less, I started offering whole milk or water in a cup with his meals. It was more of a practice thing so that drinking from cups wasn't a totally new thing after we had weaned, but it worked for us, and he got calories he needed from the milk. Having said that, if you have milk allergy in your family, I would stay away from milk until Tristan is a year... Hope that helps some. :)

lauren said...

At about 10 1/2 months, James started doing the same thing. I started feeding him formula for the middle two feeds. That lasted a day or 2, and then did formula for the last 3 feeds. I was so sad to give up the morning feed, which was my favorite, and held on to that one for about a week. He wasn't much of a bottle drinker either, but after about that first day of refusing the bottle, he got hungry enough and switched over beautifully. I got over being sad pretty fast, because I could tell it was time for him. At 1 year, I started whole milk and was so happy, because formula is SO expensive!

Adrielle said...

Nicki,
I totally know what you mean about loving nursing!! I did, too, and nursed past a year. Skyler took a bottle very well, so I was blessed in that way. You might try different kinds of sippy cups. Nuby has sippies with softer, more pliable tops. They don't always stay leak-proof, but they worked well to transition Sky from a bottle to sippies. I think finding his favorite method of drinking milk is essential, though. Whatever cup works will be fine--the goal is getting milk in him. Skyler would NOT take whole milk or any other regular milk for that matter. I supplemented with formula and then amped it up after I weaned her simply because that's all she would drink. If your little guy was pretty hefty, I wouldn't suggest this just because of the extra calories, but he seems very "fit." Sky's always been small, so extra calories were good for her. Try milk: whole first, then 2% if he won't take that. If milk isn't his favorite, he can get calcium other ways after a year old--yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cheese, etc. Eventually she grew out of the milk hatred and drinks it fine now. Good luck!!

Nicki W. said...

wow! ya'll are awesome with quick responses! i am going to see what he does the next week or so and if he is more and more distracted, i think i will try to give him breastmilk and formula is his straw sippy cup. it should be interesting! i am sure i will be posting another "help" post when the time comes!

Carrie said...

I'm a fried of Lindsay and saw your blog. I have three kids and they have all been different. I nursed my first for 13 months and had to make her stop. My son was so hard to nurse around 10 months. I did formula for two months and then moved to whole milk. There is more than one right way to do things!!!

S, J, B, & S said...

Nicki! So great that you posted this ... I am going through the same thing with Blake. He is just SO distracted during the day, yet he doesn't like a bottle all that much either. And I am so not ready to give up breastfeeding yet. I am going to be one of those moms whose child runs up to her to nurse. :O No, my goal is 1 year (3.5 months to go!) and then we'll switch to cow's milk. I just don't want to give him formula for some reason. I'm going to call the pedi tomorrow and see what he says. One way I get more milk in him is the dream feed before I go to bed ... since he's asleep, he eats a ton!! :) And I get the added bonus of rocking my sweet sleeping baby. I just hope he is getting enough during the day. Let me know what you decide to do! These boys have minds of their own!

Christian Family said...

YEAH...another breastfeeding mommy! I breastfed Bailey until he was about 14 1/2 months...with more tears from me than him!
I am not going to give any advice on what to give your little guy(we have major food allergies...and are still "dairy free" even now), but more encouragement and praise!
You are doing great...you will wean when you are both ready...sooner or later!

mommymimi said...

nic... i breast fed betsy grace for 14 months. i LOVED IT!!! definitely much harder for me to wean than her. at that point she was so distracted i was almost begging her to nurse. at 11 months she was only nursing at morning and night because she was eating real food during the day. nesmith also said i could introduce whole milk at 9 months (i know most pedi's say not before 1 year) but i did give her whole milk at lunch. then eventually she transitioned to only whole milk. i never did formula because i didn't think she would take it since she never like it before. she was never a bottle baby either. we did the nuby sippy cups and the ones with the straw. i don't think she took a bottle after about 9 months. it was only breast or sippy cup. you are doing super!!! you have breast fed for so long! lucky tristan to be still getting all your immunities! i hope all this helps... there's some really great advice on here! love ya! m