On Weaning
As C approaches her 12-month birthday (OMG... really?!?!) it's time to think about beginning the process of weaning her from breastfeeding. I could start introducing her to cow's milk at any time... I began introducing both older sisters to small doses around the age of 11 months.
Just to give you some history here...
N turned one the summer of M's and my 5th anniversary. He had a surprise trip planned, and although we were only going to be gone three days, I didn't want to spend those days pumping every few hours. So I began the process of weaning N when she was nearly 11 months old-- the first week I eliminated her before-bed breast milk feeding, substituting formula, and I did that every day for a week to give us time to adjust to the change. Then the next week I eliminated the mid-afternoon feeding, and so on. I gradually started mixing cow's milk with the formula as we approached the 1-year mark. So, although I weaned N mostly for the sake of my own convenience, she never seemed to mind the formula switch and wasn't really emotionally attached to nursing, so the transition was completely smooth for everybody.
(Side note... most experts do not recommend weaning a child for the sole reason that you want to go away on vacation sans baby. However, I did it with both my older girls and they didn't appear to suffer any emotional trauma. I think it can work if baby is at the right age for weaning anyway, and you begin the process with enough lead time, and you do things gradually.)
I weaned L even earlier. We had already introduced her to formula at around 7 months of age. She was just. so. hungry. all of the time, and we found that giving her a large bottle of formula before bed (rather than the tiny amount of breast milk I had left after she cleaned me out all day long) helped her sleep through the night. She was such an active baby, and once she started crawling at about 8 months, I had trouble getting her to settle down and nurse for more than two or three minutes at a time. Plus there was a lot of pulling, stretching, and biting (ouch) that went on. As she approached 10 months of age we were both feeling pretty done. Sometimes she would even push me away when I would try to nurse. L was an early solids-starter and was much more interested in table food and drinking from a cup at that age, anyway. Plus there was another trip away that M and I had planned around that time. So I weaned in the same way that I weaned N... and by 10.5 months she was completely off breast milk. L drank the most formula of any of our babies, but it worked okay for us at the time.
{Incidentally, I did some quick math the other day, and here's some fun trivia for you breastfeeding mothers. If you purchase formula at the regular price, it costs roughly $13-$16 for a 12-ounce can. Yeah... I know... highway robbery. There are ways to get it slightly cheaper, like buying in bulk, but the cost difference is pretty minimal I think. So, if your baby consumes 16-18 fluid ounces a day (which is a conservative estimate... C still consumes about 16 ounces a day at 11 months, and she used to drink a lot more than that) you would be spending roughly $3.50 to $4.00 per day on formula. That's $108.50 per month and a whopping $1302 to feed your baby for the first year... and again, these are conservative estimates, folks. By breastfeeding three babies I have saved our family at least $4000. By publishing this statistic, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back or belittle anyone who is unable to breastfeed. I was just so shocked by that number that I felt compelled to share it.}
Anyway, back to the question of weaning C.
As you can see, both bigger sisters were weaned by the time they were C's age.
However...
I don't have any plans to go anywhere without my children in the near future. It's winter, the season of staying home and hunkering down, as opposed to the summers of my other babies' first birthdays, the season of traveling and vacationing and teacher time off.
C is a pretty peaceful nurser. Perhaps I've just mastered the art of nursing my baby away from distractions, but she is still pretty good at focusing to nurse. She knows the routine of nursing at bed- and nap-times pretty well... as soon as we enter the bedroom around those times she starts smacking her lips in anticipation and/or burrowing her head towards my chest. (Not that she is overly attached to nursing to sleep... Daddy puts her to bed twice a week while I'm away teaching with a bottle, and sometimes without, and she does just fine.)
C has also been the slowest of my girls to start solids, and probably the most finicky. I know that she's getting plenty of good nutrition from the breast milk, and I hate to deprive her of that. In the past three weeks or so, however, she has gone from having very little interest in table food (eating almost exclusively pureed baby foods and a cracker here and there) to sitting with us for all meals and having at least a little bit of whatever we're eating. She's only nursing three times a day, sometimes four. I'm happy to patiently let her lead the way and show us when she's ready to eat more grown-up food.
Mostly, things have just been so busy lately that I haven't been able to initiate any kind of change in our normal routine. I keep meaning to buy some whole {cow's} milk so I can give C a little taste, and every time we go to the grocery store I keep forgetting.
And of course... she's my baby. Perhaps I've grown up a little myself, and I'm not as anxious to be free of the "burden" of nursing. Perhaps I'm not sure if I'll ever be nursing another baby, and I want to savor those snuggly times. Perhaps I just want C to stay small a bit longer.
Yeah. I think that's mostly it.
Can you blame me?
Just to give you some history here...
N turned one the summer of M's and my 5th anniversary. He had a surprise trip planned, and although we were only going to be gone three days, I didn't want to spend those days pumping every few hours. So I began the process of weaning N when she was nearly 11 months old-- the first week I eliminated her before-bed breast milk feeding, substituting formula, and I did that every day for a week to give us time to adjust to the change. Then the next week I eliminated the mid-afternoon feeding, and so on. I gradually started mixing cow's milk with the formula as we approached the 1-year mark. So, although I weaned N mostly for the sake of my own convenience, she never seemed to mind the formula switch and wasn't really emotionally attached to nursing, so the transition was completely smooth for everybody.
 |
| N around the time that I weaned her... about 11 months old. Awwwwwww!!! |
I weaned L even earlier. We had already introduced her to formula at around 7 months of age. She was just. so. hungry. all of the time, and we found that giving her a large bottle of formula before bed (rather than the tiny amount of breast milk I had left after she cleaned me out all day long) helped her sleep through the night. She was such an active baby, and once she started crawling at about 8 months, I had trouble getting her to settle down and nurse for more than two or three minutes at a time. Plus there was a lot of pulling, stretching, and biting (ouch) that went on. As she approached 10 months of age we were both feeling pretty done. Sometimes she would even push me away when I would try to nurse. L was an early solids-starter and was much more interested in table food and drinking from a cup at that age, anyway. Plus there was another trip away that M and I had planned around that time. So I weaned in the same way that I weaned N... and by 10.5 months she was completely off breast milk. L drank the most formula of any of our babies, but it worked okay for us at the time.
 |
| L around the time I weaned her, roughly 11 months old. What a beauty! :) |
Anyway, back to the question of weaning C.
As you can see, both bigger sisters were weaned by the time they were C's age.
However...
I don't have any plans to go anywhere without my children in the near future. It's winter, the season of staying home and hunkering down, as opposed to the summers of my other babies' first birthdays, the season of traveling and vacationing and teacher time off.
C is a pretty peaceful nurser. Perhaps I've just mastered the art of nursing my baby away from distractions, but she is still pretty good at focusing to nurse. She knows the routine of nursing at bed- and nap-times pretty well... as soon as we enter the bedroom around those times she starts smacking her lips in anticipation and/or burrowing her head towards my chest. (Not that she is overly attached to nursing to sleep... Daddy puts her to bed twice a week while I'm away teaching with a bottle, and sometimes without, and she does just fine.)
C has also been the slowest of my girls to start solids, and probably the most finicky. I know that she's getting plenty of good nutrition from the breast milk, and I hate to deprive her of that. In the past three weeks or so, however, she has gone from having very little interest in table food (eating almost exclusively pureed baby foods and a cracker here and there) to sitting with us for all meals and having at least a little bit of whatever we're eating. She's only nursing three times a day, sometimes four. I'm happy to patiently let her lead the way and show us when she's ready to eat more grown-up food.
Mostly, things have just been so busy lately that I haven't been able to initiate any kind of change in our normal routine. I keep meaning to buy some whole {cow's} milk so I can give C a little taste, and every time we go to the grocery store I keep forgetting.
And of course... she's my baby. Perhaps I've grown up a little myself, and I'm not as anxious to be free of the "burden" of nursing. Perhaps I'm not sure if I'll ever be nursing another baby, and I want to savor those snuggly times. Perhaps I just want C to stay small a bit longer.
Yeah. I think that's mostly it.
Can you blame me?
Couldn't agree with you more on this subject. As a mother of 4 breastfed children it is very easy to relate to your story. Keep it up as long as you can! You will not regret it. Mom B.
ReplyDelete