I really have made it to my goal of bf at six months. I want to start weaning but I am having some anxiety. Is it the right thing? Is he ready? He has really been interested in solids but has no teeth yet. He is also becoming more distracted and keeping him focused is sometimes a challenge. It doesn't really appear I have a good reason to stop. I guess I am just asking if any one else is on the fence. I plan on discussing at his 6 month appointment with his peditrician.
From the sounds of it you are planning on replacing with solids? Baby will still need formula until a year. So if BF is going fine, why would you want to start paying for formula or washing bottles? That's my reason to keep going.
I should have been clear not replacing with solids. We plan on switching to formula. He takes one bottle a day of formula since I dont pump enough. I just know he is more interested in other things so less interested in the breast if that makes sense. The difficult part will be bedtime since he mostly nurses to sleep. Some nights if he is restless I have had to bottle feed a little just to gain focus. Thanks for all your input. I didnt want to post on the bf because some people have strong opinions. I looked for a link on weaning and they are all at a year or later.
My EPing journey is certainly coming to an end and I'm cutting down to two pumps as of today. After a few days I'll drop to one, then zero. LO has been getting formula to make up the difference and she's been fine.
Remember that regardless of how many solids you are feeding, the amount they get via bottle/nursing shouldn't be changing until a year (unless I'm mistaken). So if you're weaning from BF, you'd be replacing nursing sessions with formula.
LO will be fine no matter what you do. You shouldn't feel guilty in any way. It's a personal decision and won't have detrimental effects on your baby if you decide to wean from nursing.
Thank you for this. I have read the main benefits are up to 6 months. I love the bonding but working, pumping, nursing to sleep has been so consuming. Like you said a personal choice but a hard one. I hate quitting anything. Hopefully the pediatrician can help in my decision. Again I appreciate all your opinions.
Post by erien22846 on Jun 14, 2015 13:03:20 GMT -5
Definitely a personal decision. 6 months was my goal with DS and when we reached it, I couldn't quit. However, by 7 months I was over it and started weaning. If it's going alright for you, I'd wait until it feels more natural. Things weren't quite as natural with DD and I felt a little forced to quit. However, two weeks out, I'm okay with it now.
Working and bf is really really hard. If I didn't work I don't think there would be much question whether we would bf for a year. However, I spend about 7.5 hours per week pumping and my output is decreasing. Right now I have plenty of freezer stash to supplement and I am trying a few things to boost supply. I decided to give pumping at work one more month and then I will reevaluate.
If you are working you could start with weaning from pumping and using formula during the day while nursing at night. Some are able to keep that up for a while before fully weaning.
Post by ThePregosaurus on Jun 14, 2015 15:36:42 GMT -5
I've been gradually losing my supply since going back to work so I think it's just naturally coming to an end. It's not worth the stress anymore to try and do 500 diff things to increase my supply. He likes formula and prefers the bottle so he won't notice. I do feel a little guilty about it though. I also feel like I'm holding on bc once I stop it means no more new baby nursing snuggles.... He's growing up! ;(
This was my FFFC. Our goal was 6 months as well. Now that we've reached that and LO is more social, I have thought about weaning. Some days I'm all for it and others (like today) I love nursing. I'm going to give it another month.
This is pretty much where I am at with it. I may slowly wean, meaning just reducing a session every couple weeks. I appreciate all the shared experiences and advice from everyone.
It's such a tormenting decision. I set a goal of a year and there are days it seems doable and then days I can hardly stand it (mainly pumping - especially since I travel several times a month). This is one thing no one prepared me for. So much guilt no matter what you do it seems! Hope you come to a peaceful solution that is smooth!
Post by pdxlaurens on Jun 14, 2015 20:35:37 GMT -5
I had a low supply and was exclusively pumping and did a gradual decease/switch to formula around 5 months. Part of me mourned the loss of being able to provide for my baby but it was time and a month out I feel really good about the decision. If breastfeeding had been easy I might have gone longer but it came down to making sure both our needs were being met. As my baby got more active and social being stuck to the pump was super stressful. Hope the decision is easy for you when it's time!
I'm just past six months. When LOs reflux got really bad she refused to nurse, she briefly refused bottles but we have got her eating about a full day's worth of pumped milk from bottles and she will only nurse MOTN or waking from nap. My milk supply is high but I'm on a 10 food diet because she seems to have a ton of allergies and I'm exhausted from having a special limited diet, pumping, and dealing with a refluxy LO. Getting 2 hours a day back seems awesome...on the other hand, I'll miss MOTN nursing to sleep and I still am holding out a tiny flicker of hope we could go back to BF.
For my sanity, we started her on a few oz of hypoallergenic formula this AM and if she takes well to it, I think we will wean to formula over the next couple months...mostly because I have crazy oversupply and I'm pretty sure I can't do it faster than that w/o asking for mastitis.
I'm not planning to wean since BFing is going really well for us and if I can make it through June/July (which is our busiest time at work) then I can make it to a year or whenever she decides to wean. IMO, once you hit 5-6 months, BFing becomes so enjoyable. Plus in just a couple of months, I'll probably be able to cut out a session. I don't like to pump, but I do love nursing when I'm with DD and I don't have to worry about making sure I have enough formula, etc. And its free However, those are my reasons to keep going. What works for me doesn't work for everyone, so you just have to do what makes the most sense for you and your baby. LO will be just fine either way!
I do want to say that it doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can just nurse 1-2x a day because your body will likely adjust.
I can only give my experience. Breastfeeding didn't work for us, so I EP'd until about 4 months. I only ever got enough for half, so he's had some formula since before we left the hospital. I weaned at 4 months and with such a low supply, it only took about a week. I struggled with guilt over LO not getting any BM, but seriously - that guilt was NOT worth it! He is fine! And the real kicker is that I am a better mother because I am a) not so stressed about the pump and b) I'm not away from my desk 90+ minutes a day, so I'm a better employee, which also allows me to be less stressed at home. I applaud women who can keep it up longer, but I just couldn't, and switching to all formula is what was right for my family. We've had to do bottles from the beginning and yes, they're annoying. And formula is expensive - no way around it. But for us it was the lesser of two evils, if you will. And nothing is forever.
I think that Miss Killjoy knocked it out of the park with her answer.
At the end of the day, no one else is living your life, working your job, milking your boobs (lol) or mothering your baby. You are. So you are best qualified to make decisions concerning those things! And its okay to feel a little guilt that things didn't work out the way you hoped, but then you move on. Your baby got 6 months of your BM, which is really great!
Mom guilt is the worst, but no one is as hard on us as we are.
I have expressed here and on other boards that I've been feeling guilty at the thought of pumping less/formula feeding more as well. As Miss Killjoy said there's a lot of messaging out there about "breast is best" and while I think that messaging is REALLY important due to the big push for formula that many in my mom's generation experienced, and the lack of breastfeeding support they had compared to the support we receive now, it is really unfortunate that it also can cause a lot of anxiety and guilt for moms who can't breastfeed. Or don't want to. Or are struggling with it for many reasons. Breastfeeding with the right support AND a body that's physically able to do it can be easy, have lots of health benefits, and promote a wonderfully close/intimate relationship with your LO, not to mention that it's free. But it does come with some sacrifices of time and energy on mom's part, and that's not easy or doable for everyone.
It's a very personal decision to breastfeed or formula feed, or a combo of the two. I personally supplemented with formula from the time LO was around a month old, because I struggled a lot with breastfeeding initially (we used a shield for around 1.5-2 months) and LO had gross green poops for the first 2-3 weeks after birth and wasn't gaining the way she should have been. We figured it all out eventually, and have successfully continued breastfeeding until now, but giving LO formula was very reassuring to me when she wasn't gaining enough and I am super grateful that it's there. That being said, it was a personal goal for myself to breastfeed/pump milk for her through at least 6 months because of the health benefits and the closeness we have in our nursing relationship I've reached my goal now, and even though there are still some health benefits (for LO and for me) breastfeeding through to a year, I have been thinking about weaning from the pump at work and just giving formula during the day because of how all-consuming it can be- both with the time spent pumping, cleaning bottles/parts, and the amount of time I've spent trying to maintain/boost my supply so she has enough milk for daycare.
Whatever you choose, please know that you're not alone in your struggle- as you can see many of us are wrestling with what's best for ourselves and our LOs! If that means partially or completely formula feeding, then you do what's best for you. I know it's so much easier to say all this than to actually do it though, as I'm still working my own anxiety and guilt at the idea of formula feeding more and just the unknown of what will happen with my supply if I don't pump during the day, since I'd still like to nurse at night.
Yes I agree with this. I am so happy for you all to be so supportive even if you have differing views. It is crazy how it has almost become addictive/needed some what hence the guilt/anxiety of quitting (weaning). I can say I am proud of how far I have come even through all the nay sayers. I have never judged those who never tried or could not do it for what ever reason. We are feeding baby and that is all that matters.
My LO is also distracted and pops on and off constantly which is so annoying. I try to go to a quiet dark place but that does not always work. You need to do what is right for you. Baby won't mind either way as long as you feed him! I also may be mistaken but if you want to keep just the nighttime feed your body may still produce milk just as that time if you keep it going. I'm not positive though. You can also keep the same nighttime routine and just give him the bottle instead of breast and he may not mind. With my first I stopped BF at 6 months due to a medical issue with me. And I stopped abruptly because I was sick and in the hospital and he never showed any problems with losing the breast. And the weird thing is, he was always healthier then my daughter who got 11 months of breastmilk. 6 months is awesome so congrats on meeting your goal! If you want to wean I would drop one feeding a day for a few days. Then two. Then three and so on. Ice packs can help ease discomfort. Good luck
So it has been about 6 weeks since I started weaning. It took me 4 weeks to go down to one night time feeding. I am feeding less and less at night. Right now I give a bottle at 8 then just nurse to sleep. Some nights he barely nurses some nights it is more. I am trying to figure when to stop the last session but it will be soon. It is mainly comfort now.
All is going well, so no plans to wean for a long time. I'm hoping she'll make it to 24 months, but would be fine going to 3. I combo feed 60-70/30-40 - BM/formula (that we affectionately call "ula.") I've been combo feeding since day ten due to low supply at first. I take Domperidone, but I can't make 28 oz from that side alone (one-sided nurser), so I make up the difference with formula.
I did the same with my second son, but started combo feeding at 5.5 months after I quit pumping. Works great for us. I pumped before and dealt with many struggles. The decision to combo feed was an easy and necessary one.
I posted a while back about involuntarily weaning from BF and, amazingly enough, just as we had LO fully on Alimentum and me weaning from pump down to 12oz production a day, LO has decided she wants no bottle from me under any circumstances and is happily nursing. No idea if she can get enough milk this way...for the previous 5 days I was pumping 7-9oz total on L boob and 1-3 on right. I always had more than I was outputting in pump but I wasn't getting engorged or clogged. I'm terrified that once my supply goes back up LO will go back to hating my boobs and then I'll have to wean via pump all over again!
2jelplus1 I was thinking about you guys the other day and wondering how the transition to FF was going. Sounds like LO wasn't interested in that plan!
Are you still having to follow the super restricted diet while she is BF?
We made it all the way to FF for about 48 hours and evidently that's when Elle started deciding she might be interested in boobs after all! I was down to pumping about 12oz a day so I've been panicking about how I will get enough food in her (and still offering her formula at regular intervals, I think I've poured 50oz of Alimentum down the drain in the last two days :/) but today I'm just enjoying the miracle of getting to nurse my baby happily for the first time since she was 2mo old. Just now she nursed 6m right, took a few oz of formula (for the first time in a more than day from me) then nursed 5m left and I put her to sleep on right boob. Righty was only pumping 2-3oz a day total by last weekend so it needs all the stimulation it can get!
I'd recently introduced another 4 or 5 foods in my diet while she was 90% formula a few weeks ago and I'm leaving them in for now but otherwise yeah, I don't eat a lot of stuff. If this nursing thing lasts beyond the weekend I think we will try to get her allergy tested so we can find some safe proteins for me to eat!
2jelplus1 Maybe LO was just going through a bad phase. Fx that you don't have any more issues.Are you planning to make it to 1 year?
I'm taking it one day at a time for now. I think I'll nurse her as long as she'll let me if I can get more foods in my diet, but I still think it'll be a miracle if she keeps wanting to nurse when I'm at full supply.
2jelplus1 Maybe LO was just going through a bad phase. Fx that you don't have any more issues.Are you planning to make it to 1 year?
I'm taking it one day at a time for now. I think I'll nurse her as long as she'll let me if I can get more foods in my diet, but I still think it'll be a miracle if she keeps wanting to nurse when I'm at full supply.
Good luck. At least you made it this far. Many people would have given up so props to you.
I'm taking it one day at a time for now. I think I'll nurse her as long as she'll let me if I can get more foods in my diet, but I still think it'll be a miracle if she keeps wanting to nurse when I'm at full supply.
Good luck. At least you made it this far. Many people would have given up so props to you.
Thanks! In fairness, I did try to give up, I just have a strong willed baby.
Then Comes Family, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising
program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.