self-weaning?

[lolacachia]

At his age, if he is eating food well, don't stress ounces and intake anymore. Give him water to drink and milk at meals and then let him take the lead on nursing. He's probably super efficient and at this age he will know when he's done.

My son is 18 months and has been doing am, before and after nap and before bed since around 12 months old. We had many issues during our first year and so I was very obsessed with his intake and length of sessions and my IBCLC finally basically smacked me and told me to just let it all go. She is sort of a hippie in that she takes the stance that as long as kids get a balanced diet they don't even truly need cows milk (our ped said the same thing as well). So she says just nurse and go with it!

[lolacachia]

Oh and don't be depressed!! I highly doubt she is weaning, this sounds right on track for age. You are entering the best part of the nursing relationship, the part where you can just relax and enjoy and not worry anymore.

[jnow]

This happened with us. I stopped pumping and sending bottles. We just nursed morning, evening and weekends. As lolacachia said, if she is eating well I wouldn't worry about it. It is emotional though, so it is ok to feel your feels.

My DD doesn't drink cows milk at all and weaned at 18 months. Pedi is ok with it since she has dairy other ways.

[tawneekevinson]

The moment we decrease the feeding/pumping, we decrease our supply. This happened to me, when MJ was 8 months old. I was thinking that since she already is exposed to solid food, I was on the process of weaning. But, I continued to express my milk and even increase the frequency. I was able to regain the confidence since my supply increased again.

[valie]

I don't think she is necessarily weaning. At 14mos, when she takes WCM, my advice is to ditch the pump during the work day. And breathe.

[lolacachia]

Nov 11, 2016 11:56:31 GMT -5 lolacachia said:

At his age, if he is eating food well, don't stress ounces and intake anymore. Give him water to drink and milk at meals and then let him take the lead on nursing. He's probably super efficient and at this age he will know when he's done.

My son is 18 months and has been doing am, before and after nap and before bed since around 12 months old. We had many issues during our first year and so I was very obsessed with his intake and length of sessions and my IBCLC finally basically smacked me and told me to just let it all go. She is sort of a hippie in that she takes the stance that as long as kids get a balanced diet they don't even truly need cows milk (our ped said the same thing as well). So she says just nurse and go with it!

Quoting myself to apologize!! I just realized I was using masculine pronouns Bc I was thinking about my son when I wrote this. I do know you have a DD lol

[valie]

Nov 11, 2016 13:15:46 GMT -5 @loonylove said:

I stopped sending expressed milk with both around 11 mo. Neither would take it anymore (well, DD never did...so much wasted milk).

Keep nursing at home and ditch the pump. At 21 mo, DD was down to naps and nighttime (and boo boos or when sick).

I doubt she's weaning completely, just maybe weaning from the bottle.

So... DD might not end up drinking the roughly 200oz of milk I've stashed for when she starts daycare. Eff.

[Deleted]

DD self weaned at 15 months. She started nursing less, which led to my pumps producing less each time. I pumped whatever I could get and cut the rest with WCM. I *TRIED* not to stress like crazy to increase my supply & just let it happen. When she decided she was done nursing, I stopped pumping. I personally felt better with it being her decision that she was done. She was a great eater so I wasn't worried about her losing much in the way of nutrients, and we just continued with WCM.

I did have a bit of a freezer stash, so I used the rest of it, cutting it with WCM and lessened the amount of BM over time until my stash was gone and she was 100% on WCM. After, she got 3 cups of milk a day (roughly 6-8 oz ea). Once she was about 18-20 months I dropped it down to 2 full 8oz cups, one with breakfast and one with dinner, watered down apple juice with lunch and water throughout the day.

[seamonster]

Ditch the pump and nurse at home. Let her have wcm at daycare.

She may start dropping some feeds at home and keep others. DS has only been nursing at bedtime and home naps for about the last 6 months. He dropped the others on his own.

[emmyg65]

I stopped pumping at 1 year and my supply started to drop. He started fighting nursing around 16 months and self-weaned. I wanted to make it to 2, but I also think nursing should continue as long as it's working for mother and baby. It wasn't working for him anymore. And tbh, I'm really glad he weaned himself. It was so peaceful! I have a few friends approaching 2 years with little milk monsters and no idea how they're going to wean.

[melody330]

Ditch the pump and NOD at home. When she is at DC give her water and milk to drink, especially if she's eating solids well!

I stopped pumping at 12 months with DS1. He drank WCM and water at DC, and I nursed on demand at home. He didn't wean until he was 25 months and I forced the issue. I would have went longer but I was pregnant and had some serious aversions.

After 1 year it's so much less stress! You just have to let go of the pump and trust she will nurse when she needs to.