Breastfeeding weaning

[roxannacar]

My daughter is 10 months and going to start nursery in 3 weeks time. Hence we are trying to wean off breastfeeding at least the day feeds. She eats well but is very attached to bf mainly as a comfort measure, and help her sleep. She will sometimes tAke s bottle or dummy but it's hit and miss. Any advice or experiences on how you did this to make the experience as least painful for her.

[KirstyJaneMartin]

Hi, I have literally just gone through this with my 9.5 month old. I'm not going to lie I also found it tough, painful and sometimes heart wrenching but if you want to get your bf baby on a bottle you have to be consistent. I found replacing one feed at a time worked well and we started with the first feed of the day as she had just gone 12 hours through the night without anything, so made her more willing to take the bottle. When that's going well, replace the next feed and so on. She now just has a bedtime feed from me and I think that's more for me than for her. Stick with it and you will get there. Good luck.

[roxannacar in reply to KirstyJaneMartin]

Thanks for you advice... Fingers crossed but I know it's not going to be a pleasant few days/ weeks. Stubborn baby like her grandmas 😜

[EmmaM1]

I weaned my twin babies off the breast over a number of months. I used MAM bottles and Aptamil powder (not the ready made stuff). At first, they hated the bottle, but then, after time, actually came to prefer it as they got milk more quickly and didn't have to wait for my let down. The early morning feed was the last one I dropped as, like you, I used to feed them to help them get back to sleep for a while early morning. However, once they started taking more bottle feeds, they slept better anyway so now, when they wake up, I just leave them in their cot for a while and let them chit chat or doze back off until we're ready to get up at 7am. They are nearly a year now and, whilst it was tough at the time, I can't believe how I breast fed them both for so long..... They are at nursery now and thriving