Switching from nursing to milk at one year...how do we do it?!

[Anonymous]

Hi all, I've been lucky enough to be home since my baby was born almost a year ago and have nursed him throughout. I did some pumping early on, but gave it up when it became clear I was going to be around and didn't really need to rely on bottles. Now I'm going back to work and my son is going to start daycare. I need to cut out the daytime nursing and transition him to milk. How do I do this? He won't take a bottle and thinks the sippy cup is a fun toy. Also, do I need to start pumping so I can mix breastmilk with cow milk? We haven't had our 12 month ped appt--imagine we'll get info there, but in the meantime, if anyone has any tips to share, I'd be grateful. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Here's what we did:

I breastfed exclusively and I'd pump once in a while so my son only had a bottle to keep him practiced at it (maybe once every few weeks). Before we started him on whole milk, we'd put a little water in the sippy cup for him to try during the day right before a feeding. That way he could try practicing the cup a little.

When we were ready to transition, I substituted an easy unimportant feeding in the middle of the day with a sippy cup of whole organic milk (we never used a bottle for this). We had my husband do that feeding. We started on a weekend so my husband could help me (I'd hide in the bedroom!).

Once my son had that feeding exchanged for a few days, we substituted another feeding. Within a couple of weeks, we were down to only the last evening nursing. It was good too because it was it helped my body transition without any pain. And we could watch my son for any allergies.

To take my son off the last nursing, my husband helped with that too.

It actually went very smoothly for us. He went straight to sippy cups.

[Anonymous]

We had been gving our dd sippy cups of water for a few months before she turned 1. She was used to drinking water in them, so about a week before her birthday we just filled it with a little whole milk and she gulped it down and asked wanted more. We watched for allergies and then gave her a full cup and never looked back.

While doing we slowly dropped a bf session one at a time and within a few weeks we were completely transitioned.

I would suggest giving your ds a sippy cup more often at meal times so he gets practice with it.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Neither of my children would drink milk from a cup until I was completely finished nursing them. They ate yogurt and cheese instead, and the pediatrician didn't worry about it at all.

[miriamcmilli]

I know this sounds HORRIBLE but one day I just put some whole milk in a sippy cup and was like, "HERE!"...and luckily for me (and I do not recommend this at all!) she did fine.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks so much for these tips. Didn't even think about the fact that he might refuse milk til we stop nursing. My hope is that he'll continue to nurse in the morning and evening and drink milk during the day. Maybe this won't work? We'll see. In the meantime, I gave him a real cup tonight, put his hands around it, and...he sipped from it all by himself! Amazing what they can do if you just let them try!

[Anonymous]

I'm also a SAHM who nursed both kids for a year. I started weaning them on their first birthday and took about a month, gradually eliminating nursing sessions beginning with the least important. It did take a bit of time for them to chug the milk from a cup so I made sure they had plenty of cheese and yogurt, as PP mentioned.

Cow's milk isn't as sweet as breast milk so while I was weaning DS and he was still nursing in the AM and PM he wouldn't drink much whole milk from a cup, but he did like diluted juice which I gave him from time to time for constipation. This sounds gross but someone recommended I put half juice and half milk in the cup the first few times and then gradually decrease the juice until it was just milk... and it worked like a charm.

With DD I introduced the sippy cup to her with a splash of juice, which inspired her to get the hang of using it.
She also wanted to be just like her big bro, who drank from a cup. She is now drinking milk very well, and her intake definitely increased as I decreased nursing. In the meantime I made sure she ate had yogurt and cheese.

Good luck!!