After breastfeeding for a full year, weaning can seem like quite a daunting and overwhelming task. Not only does it take work on mom and dad's part, but it also depends on how baby takes it as well! I wanted to share my experience with weaning, because until Heidi WAS totally weaned I had no idea how it was going to go!
Around 6 months, Heidi started showing interest in what Ryan and I were eating. After getting approval from our doctor, we started letting her taste things off of our plates. (We were not making anything separate for her at that point.) Following her 9 month doctor appointment, we started mashing up bananas, steaming sweet potatoes and making other mushy things for her. By the time Heidi was 10 months old, we were giving her 3 “meals” per day, although at that point I was not concerned with quantities or calories or any of that stuff, we were just letting her try things. (Maybe a few bites of mashed up liquified banana with breakfast, or some mushed up squash [which she hated] at dinner, etc.) Plus at that time she was still nursing 4 times per day as well! Around 11 months, the “meals” turned into more of actual meals and less like just snacks. (So maybe, some very small steamed chunks of sweet potato with some cheerios and cut up mandarin orange slices, for example.)
About this same time (11 months), I started the process of cutting out nursing sessions. Initially, I tried to cut the afternoon feeding out first, however that made for a VERY difficult evening/dinner time. By the time Ryan got home from work she was a mess. It was rough! So after just a few days of that, I decided to cut the lunch time feeding instead. It was much easier to cut this feeding because it was replaced with a "meal". (So I was still nursing in the morning before breakfast, once in the late afternoon and then night time right before bed, but hadn’t introduced cow’s milk yet.) After a few days (or maybe a week or two?) of that schedule, I started replacing those 3 remaining nursing sessions with bottles.
At first, Heidi refused to drink cow’s milk (especially cold), so I started off by giving her a bottle that was 75% breastmilk and 25% whole milk, warmed. (We did 6-8oz, 3 times per day as recommended by our pedi... one right when she woke up before breakfast, one right after lunch before nap and the last one after bath time right before bed.) Over the course of just a few days, I gradually mixed in less and less breast milk and also warmed it less and less. After less than a week she went from drinking mostly breastmilk (warm) to drinking 100% cold cow’s milk! Since we had only half-way transitioned to a sippy cup at that point, I just stuck with the bottle since that’s what we were familiar with and I was already overwhelmed with so many changes. (I was not concerned at that point with eliminating the bottle because I wanted her to chug 8 oz. of milk at one time - something that doesn't seem to happen with a sippy cup or straw.) We were using sippy cups for water during meals by that point though.
During the week or two where I started replacing nursing sessions with the bottle… I don’t think I went into it with a specific schedule or plan. I just would nurse every now and then or if I woke up feeling especially engorged or something like that. By the time we were about a week out from her first birthday, my boobs had adjusted to nursing once every couple of days. I nursed her for the last time on the morning of her birthday! That was my finish line. Once I crossed that, I had to hand express while I was in the shower…maybe twice?...because I was starting to get a little uncomfortable. I had considered buying some raw cabbage leaves which are supposed to really help decrease your supply (you just put the cold leaves in your bra!) however, hand expressing seemed to do the trick. (It was a different kind of “engorged” feeling really… it was more like smaller hard painful spots rather than that feeling where your whole entire boob feels like it’s just about to explode! I think just that short amount of time was enough for my boobs to get the idea of what was going on.) I also regularly applied peppermint oil (diluted with almond oil) to help with stopping milk production.
So for us, weaning was a process that started very slowly around 6-9 months, and then between 11-12 months it all happened very quickly (and easily)! Since then, we have learned so much more about what works for us, what Heidi likes and how much she eats. She LOVES fruit but for a while we struggled with getting her to show interest in vegetables. Our pedi recommended veggie noodles - pasta that has 1 full serving of veggies in every serving! Heidi LOVES those and they have definitely a go-to for us for the last 4 months. We also tried Puffs for a while until Heidi had mastered picking stuff up and had gotten used to having food in her mouth (they disintegrate really fast so choking isn’t too much of an issue). However, puffs are expensive and are basically just air (you literally have to eat like, 65 puffs to get 25 calories!) So, we switched over to cheerios pretty quickly – way cheaper for WAY more and actually add SOME sustenance to her tummy! She loves those things. Our other focus was not to place TOO much emphasis on Heidi eating and not to stress out about it. Some days she eats a ton...and some days she doesn't eat that much. That's okay. Just like you and me, some days she is hungrier than other days. One day she LOVES something, the next day she hates it. So we have tried not to freak out over the small stuff. All has worked out just as it should. Hope this has been helpful to anyone confused/stressed/overwhelmed with the weaning process!!
At first, Heidi refused to drink cow’s milk (especially cold), so I started off by giving her a bottle that was 75% breastmilk and 25% whole milk, warmed. (We did 6-8oz, 3 times per day as recommended by our pedi... one right when she woke up before breakfast, one right after lunch before nap and the last one after bath time right before bed.) Over the course of just a few days, I gradually mixed in less and less breast milk and also warmed it less and less. After less than a week she went from drinking mostly breastmilk (warm) to drinking 100% cold cow’s milk! Since we had only half-way transitioned to a sippy cup at that point, I just stuck with the bottle since that’s what we were familiar with and I was already overwhelmed with so many changes. (I was not concerned at that point with eliminating the bottle because I wanted her to chug 8 oz. of milk at one time - something that doesn't seem to happen with a sippy cup or straw.) We were using sippy cups for water during meals by that point though.
During the week or two where I started replacing nursing sessions with the bottle… I don’t think I went into it with a specific schedule or plan. I just would nurse every now and then or if I woke up feeling especially engorged or something like that. By the time we were about a week out from her first birthday, my boobs had adjusted to nursing once every couple of days. I nursed her for the last time on the morning of her birthday! That was my finish line. Once I crossed that, I had to hand express while I was in the shower…maybe twice?...because I was starting to get a little uncomfortable. I had considered buying some raw cabbage leaves which are supposed to really help decrease your supply (you just put the cold leaves in your bra!) however, hand expressing seemed to do the trick. (It was a different kind of “engorged” feeling really… it was more like smaller hard painful spots rather than that feeling where your whole entire boob feels like it’s just about to explode! I think just that short amount of time was enough for my boobs to get the idea of what was going on.) I also regularly applied peppermint oil (diluted with almond oil) to help with stopping milk production.
So for us, weaning was a process that started very slowly around 6-9 months, and then between 11-12 months it all happened very quickly (and easily)! Since then, we have learned so much more about what works for us, what Heidi likes and how much she eats. She LOVES fruit but for a while we struggled with getting her to show interest in vegetables. Our pedi recommended veggie noodles - pasta that has 1 full serving of veggies in every serving! Heidi LOVES those and they have definitely a go-to for us for the last 4 months. We also tried Puffs for a while until Heidi had mastered picking stuff up and had gotten used to having food in her mouth (they disintegrate really fast so choking isn’t too much of an issue). However, puffs are expensive and are basically just air (you literally have to eat like, 65 puffs to get 25 calories!) So, we switched over to cheerios pretty quickly – way cheaper for WAY more and actually add SOME sustenance to her tummy! She loves those things. Our other focus was not to place TOO much emphasis on Heidi eating and not to stress out about it. Some days she eats a ton...and some days she doesn't eat that much. That's okay. Just like you and me, some days she is hungrier than other days. One day she LOVES something, the next day she hates it. So we have tried not to freak out over the small stuff. All has worked out just as it should. Hope this has been helpful to anyone confused/stressed/overwhelmed with the weaning process!!
