If you breastfed, how did you decide when to wean?

[Anonymous]

DS is almost one year and breastfeeding is going great. I would be happy to continue breastfeeding him for awhile longer, but I am so sick of pumping and worrying about breastmilk supply and whether he'll have enough for daycare, etc. I'm thinking that at one year, he can start drinking cow's milk during the day and I can just continue to nurse him at night and in the mornings for awhile. Does this sound like a good plan? I realize that my supply will drop if I'm not pumping or nursing during the day.

Also, I had pretty bad post-partum anxiety and I'm currently on Zoloft and have been feeling great for many months. But, I've heard that some women have difficulty emotionally when they stop breastfeeding because of all the hormonal changes. I seem to be extremely sensitive to hormonal changes, so I'm worried about stopping breastfeeding for that reason as well.

Any insight/advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a great plan to me. With #1 I weaned to milk at a year (as in getting her to take it if I wasn't around - which actually took a month or so - not weaning completely), and then we continued on nursing at some level (initially 4-5x/day when together, 2-3x/day when I worked) until eventually fully weaning at 26 months. At that point I was pregnant again and it had gotten uncomfortable enough that I encouraged the weaning, and the lack of milk due to the pregnancy made her more willing to give it up.

It worked great for us, and I'm now 7 months in with #2 and plan to follow a similar pattern: EBF to a year, and then relieve myself from duty as THE primary nutrition source, but keep breastfeeding as long as it is working for both of us.

[Anonymous]

At a year old, let him drink cow's milk during the day. He doesn't need to exclusively BF for health reasons anymore. As for your question, I BF'd until nineteen months. My daughter started drinking cow's milk at one and we nursed in the mornings and evenings. No pumping at work. It went fine. At nineteen months I was away for a couple of days and when I got back she had lost interest. It was a natural break and I followed her lead.

[Anonymous]

I nursed DS1 until 13.5 months. I stopped pumping almost cold turkey at 12 months. I weaned because I wanted to try for 2nd kid and I am not super fertile so didn't want to TTC while nursing. Weaning was horendous for me emotionally - I felt super weapy for a few weeks - I was shocked because I'd never heard about mood issues and weaning despite reading a few Dr. Sears books - maybe I missed that part! My husband was no support at all. DS2 and DS3 are twins - I stopped pumping around 13 or 14 months (more gradually than DS1). I nursed at night and morning (and before nap on weekends) until 18 months. I felt horribly torn about weaning but just couldn't deal with the idea of nursing two two year olds. So I started offering them a choice a sippy cup of milk or my breast. They both self weaned when given this choice - I think my production was low by that point and the cup was more efficient.

[Anonymous]

Weaning was WAY easier than I expected. In the 11th month, I pumped less frequently and DS drank a mix of fresh breast milk and frozen breast milk while at day care. At 12 mos, I stopped pumping altogether. It took about a week of mixing breast milk with cow's milk until he was on 100% cow's milk. I continued to nurse in the AM and and PM. Around 13.5 months, he was routinely waking up at 4am hungry. I was concerned that maybe he wasn't getting enough milk at his PM nurse, so I tried giving him a bottle of cow's milk before bed. The first night, he drank the bottle and then nursed. The second night, he refused to be breastfed and only wanted the bottle. Within a few days, he refused the AM nurse. So, much to my surprise, he completely self weaned. To be honest, I wasn't quite ready to wean, but in hindsight, I'm thankful we were able to nurse for as long as we did and that the weaning process was drama-free. I didn't have any emotional swings, but I hear it can be common. I also didn't experience any painful engorgement with weaning. GL!

[Anonymous]

I stopped a couple weeks after my son's first birthday. But I had started cutting out pumping/nursing sessions about 6 weeks before that and using up the end of my freezer stash. And he seemed ready to stop once he started drinking cow's milk, so that made it easier.

I did have some hormonal shifts as I weaned, but doing it over a 6-8 week period helped.

Your plan sounds good. Wishing you an easy transition!

[Anonymous]

That sounds like a good plan. For what it is worth, I weaned my son at age 16m, and was on Lexapro, and didn't have any hormonal/emotional issues. Hope the same holds true for you.

[Anonymous]

After a year, you should be able to gradually stop pumping without hurting your supply. I dropped one pumping session at a time over a period of several weeks. According to Pat Shelley, once the baby is over a year old you'll have enough milk even if you just nurse a couple times a day.

DS is now 18 months and nurses in the morning and once overnight. On weekends he nurses as much as he wants--maybe about 4x a day (and only at home).

I was SO HAPPY when I finally stopped pumping after a year! It really made life so much easier and I finally had time to do stuff like go to the gym again. Congratulations for making it this far!

[Anonymous]

10:24 again -- I forgot to add that nursing gets a lot easier after a year, at least it did for me. Much easier for *me* to control when, where, and how long he'll nurse, since it's not his main food source anymore. For me it was pumping that was the PITA and after I stopped that, I didn't feel any need to wean anytime soon since it was so easy to fit his limited BFing into my life at that point.

[Anonymous]

Was such a relief to stop pumping during my workday at around 12 months. At that time, he got cows milk during the day and 2 nursing sessions - one at bedtime and one first thing in the morning. It was more for comfort and love at that point than a major part of the caloric intake.

I got pregnant again and I think my supply must have dropped off and/or the milk may have changed in taste.

I wanted a break in nursing between kids, so sort of encouraged my little guy to drop the morning feeding. It was easy. A while later he seemed more interested in playing and interacting with people than nursing in the evenings, so we let that one go too. Totally weaned at around 18 months.

I'm happy about the way it worked out, but have to say that I was a bit weepy about the change while it was happening.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the responses! Now I'm getting really excited to stop pumping in a couple weeks. I'll continue nursing as long as it's still working for us (well, within reason) because I'm not at all ready to give that up. But, I just can't wait to give up the pump!

[Anonymous]

No advice because I'm pretty much in the same shoes. We've been on vacation for a week and nursing exclusively (no pumping) has been BLISSFUL. I was planning on cutting back from 4x/day pumping to 2x once I start working again, but it is very tempting to just pitch the pump entirely... Definitely not feeling ready to wean, though.

[Anonymous]

Yes, give up the pump! Hooray! I breastfed til 12 months and then introduced (cow) milk at that point. I slowly weaned over the next couple of months, giving up the morning-waking feed and good-night feed last (can't remember the order anymore!) My second child is almost 12 months and I'm ready to do it again the same way. It went extremely smoothly the first time, so knock on wood. But yeah, after a year, it's a lot easier to just do what works for you and your child and not worry about supply and nutrition and so on. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I can't remember when it was, but at some point when my DD was into solid foods much more regularly I stopped pumping and switched to only morning and nighttime feedings. Then only nighttime feedings. And then at 16 or 18 months, my DH got "weirded out" about breastfeeding such an "old" child who could by then utter some basic sentences, that to satisfy him I just stopped. At that point I didn't care one way or the other very much so I didn't object (though I told him I thought his rationale was oldfashioned and silly -- heh).

The slow-down approach meant that I didn't hurt one bit and I didn't have to pump just to release pressure.

[Anonymous]

I weaned at 9.5 months because I couldn't kick thrush and it was killing me.

I was ready though, I might have liked to have made it closer to a year but I was psyched I made it that long.