pumping breast milk: worked for a few days until the 'well' went dry, after which point I stopped pumping then got Mastitis again, because it's a supply and demand system, blah, blah blah.
formula: it smells like vomit and I don't blame her for being insulted by it. Only worked for a few times.
getting friendly with the bottle: I have given her diluted juice in the bottle so she thinks it's awesome. That so far has been my only saving grace. She'll do juice, but once I put anything white in the bottle, she can't be fooled. Once I even tried covering the whole sippy cup with a blanket so she didn't know what was inside. Worked for a milisecond until she spit all over me. Muchas gracias girl.
a bit of cow's milk: we are like 2 weeks shy of her 1 year b-day so I decided to jump the gun on the milk from the ol' black and white. 1st time she loved it but woke up in the middle of the night from a tummy ache that we assumed was from the milk. Ooops!! That was 2 weeks ago.
So discouraged from it all I went back to nursing, dang it!! I don't mind it terribly, I just want to move in the direction of weaning.
My latest idea is working about 75% of the time, which is better than nothing. You are all going to think I'm crazy but the girl snuck a few sips of her brother's chocolate milk and LOVED it. So I'm thinking ok, yeah, that's milk, let's do this. So I let her have a little more.
Anyway, I remember my friend giving her daughter a drop of molasses in her milk to make her think it was chocolate milk. Much healthier option than a Yohoo! So today is day 2 of my daughter thinking that she is having chocolate milk. Is that bad? Wait, if it is, please don't tell me, because it's my only ray of hope right now.
Yes, I know one of my options is to keep nursing, but that's not my first choice.
So please tell me that there is some secret that will help my Lu become a weaned one. And help me become a weaner.
Sorry, I know pictures make the post interesting but your welcome for not including any with this particular post.
8 comments:
Braedy went over a year without a bottle. We weaned both boys directly to sippy cups, and made sure to find a cup with a "soft" spout for the first several months. They leak more, but feel better to their mouths than harder ones. Both kids went to cow's milk, but Braedy switched nearly immediately to vanilla soy milk.
I'd also try having Jason or even Andrew give the cup to her rather than you. Make it seem like a big thing that only kids get to do.
I'd also suggest not doing the molasses thing much longer because she'll get used to it, and I'm not sure how you'd then wean her off of that! :) She'll drink if she's thirsty enough, right? :) And, I left the big weaning times (right at bedtime and right after waking up) as my last two feedings to go, but both times, someone else offered Braedy a cup and I wasn't around and then the next day, he wanted nothing to do with me. Good luck. How's that for some completely solicited advice...I hope something works for you.
Elise would not take plain milk in any form. I put just a teensy bit of strawberry nesquick powder in her milk (like 1/4 of a teaspoon to an entire bottle). Then we had to call if juice. If I said the word milk, for whatever reason that smart girl refused it. I think mother milk is a little sweeter than cow milk. Eventually she got used to cow milk and we could stop putting the nesquick in it. But, it did wean her of nursing! Good luck!
I gave my kids goats milk exclusively (at home anyways) until just recently. I've heard others say it has a sweeter taste than regular milk and it is full of fat!
Maybe you could try the cows milk again. It could have just been a coincidence that her tummy hurt. Jordyn was a little under a year but we tried about 10 bottles and different nipples and warmed the milk. You could also try to vanilla rice dream milk I know that works with my friend.
My 3rd would not take milk right away. The dr. told me it is better to sweetin it with Choc or strawberry flavor than have them not drink milk at all. Each time, I would put less syrup in it, until she would take it plain. It only took a couple of weeks. And I don't blame her about the formula, it does stink like vomit!!!
SO GLAD YOU POSTED THIS... I was actually putting the same post together in my brain for my blog. I might still... the more ideas the better right? I tried the cow's milk thing, and she thinks it nasty and spits it out. So, I have to ask myself... why did it work with Ash? Because I (and you too) added an ounce of cow's milk to a full bottle of breast milk at a time. So we can either pump again and put it into sippy cups instead of bottles, or add chocolate milk to sweetin it up. That's what I've concluded. What do you think? OR we can just go cold turkey.
With Claire I had it in my mind to wean at 1 year and so it was "Happy Birthday" and no more...except once or twice to let off the pressure of an engorged breast, but not enough to increase supply. She was so easy, so it didn't make it hard on me.
Jane seemed to love nursing more and I started attending La Leche League meetings...which I LOVED! I was going to wean her at a year also, but then realized, why does it have to be a year? Why is that the magical number? So I let her keep nursing, but it only took a few months and she was done at 15 months.
Hank was 18 months, Kate was 2 years and you can see the pattern. It had gotten longer with each child. I think I've realized there is no such thing as independence with five children in my home....and to tell you the truth, I'm sad that one day this phase of my life will be over. I will never have the chance to nurse my babies again. It's now or never. It's so good and healthy for them, I don't have to worry about food allergies, I know they are getting protein and all that other good stuff from mama's milk and it's so calming...for both of us.
Walter is just now starting to eat more solids so I can leave him for more than 3 hours if I need to...but he sure does love his mama and is with me almost everywhere I go. It's going to be sad when they are all grown up!
One thing that worked well when I was weaning Claire was nursing her just as often, but shortening the actual nursing session by a few minutes. I would feed her solids so she wasn't so hungry. Bananas, soft peaches, avocados and cheerios are some great baby please-ers. As the days went by, I shortened each feeding even more. Before long, she was only nursing a few minutes and it wasn't such a shock when we weaned....plus it helped with the supply and demand.
As for me, I'll be nursing for as long as Sir Walter wants to...it will be a sad day. :) Good luck!
Sorry for the novel...is it obvious that I have a passion for breastfeeding and attachment parenting?
Oh, one more tip...you did ask for advice...right? Have you tried giving her liquid in a regular cup instead of a bottle? Maybe she'd like the sippies from Tupperware or one without a lid even. :)
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