Anyone who weaned from Bfing at 12months?

I am just getting ready to wean my twins and have a few questions for anyone that has weaned at around 12months. I bf still 4times/day, but did decrease that to 3x/day about a week ago (but then the kids got sick so I went back to 4x/day until they get over their cold), anyways when I decreased to 3x/day, instead of bfing I gave them a sippy cup (the one with a straw) with milk in it, they barely touched it. They do know how to use it as they sometimes drink water out of a sippy cup, and they like milk because they will drink it from my cup when I am drinking milk. So, for that few days that I cut out a feeding, they just didn't really drink from their first bf at 7am until their next one at like 230pm! So, now I am scared that they aren't drinking enough!!?? I am considering using bottles for a few months now, just to make sure they get enough fluids...

any suggestions? do i just wait it out and eventually they will get thirsty enough that they will use the sippy cups more, or should I just move to bottles (which I know they will take) but will probably be harder to wean from down the road....

 

I would start offering sippies with milk consistenly, maybe three times a day with all meals. The more exposure they have to them the better they will get at it. I think if you want to keep 2 bottles a day (morning and night) for a month or two until they get the hang of the sippy then that would be fine too. They will get it, i promise

 

Only one of mine nursed long enough to wean straight to sippies at 12 mos. The others weaned to bottles first. With her, we were also doing four nursings a day, one at each meal and bedtime. I started by giving her a sippy at lunch instead (I hid the boppy and never sat down in "that" chair until the next feeding time). Then a week later I gave her a sippy at lunch and dinner so she only nursed at breakfast and bedtime for another week. The third week I gave her a sippy at breakfast too then the next week she got one at bedtime. That was it. She didn't drink more than a few drops from any of the cups until after we dropped the bedtime nursing session!!! I tried to feed her alot of fruit, soup, popsicles (even though it was late Nov!), etc for extra fluids. As soon as she realized it was the cup or nothing, she started downing her milk and it was no big deal. hth

 

Chocolate milk!

 

QUOTE(Don2worrybhappy @ Jan 16 2009, 08:21 AM) [snapback]1149483[/snapback]
Chocolate milk!


That is what one of my girls pedi said when I was worried about Sydney not drinking enough. Another thing is to give them the yogurt smoothies.

I remember when I weaned my girls, I replaced the nursing sessions with a sippy cup of milk. Either they drank it or they didn't.

 

QUOTE(excitedk @ Jan 16 2009, 04:20 AM) [snapback]1149335[/snapback]
I would start offering sippies with milk consistenly, maybe three times a day with all meals. The more exposure they have to them the better they will get at it. I think if you want to keep 2 bottles a day (morning and night) for a month or two until they get the hang of the sippy then that would be fine too. They will get it, i promise


THis is my same suggestion. More exposure and also drop another BFing so they will crave the fluids more. There is a transition time that they will drink a little less between Breast and cup and bottle and cup. I would strongly suggest do not switch to bottles. They should be on cups at 1 year not bottles so don't start them now.

Cindy

 

I just weaned at 1 week before 12 months. I removed one breastfeeding session/day/week, til I was down to 0. Each time I replaced it with a bottle. My girls are not good at drinking out of a sippy cup at all though. I tried just replacing with a sippy, but I had very moody cranky girls til I gave them a bottle. I just talked to my ped today, and she said to make sure and offer the sippy cup with every meal, and multiple times a day, they will start to get the hang of it, but in the mean time, if you use bottles til about 15 months, that is fine.

 

Even though it's a pain and even wastes some milk, I agree that it's all about more exposure. It took my girls *weeks* of having a sippy at every meal before they did any real drinking from it. I also have some little performers, so clapping and positive reinforcement when they even picked it up or had it near their mouths went a long way.

I was worried for awhile too that my girls weren't getting enough fluids, but my ped pointed out that by that point they shouldn't be drinking tons of milk anyway and that calories should come more from solids.

Good luck! Weaning is bittersweet, but the freedom afterwards is fantastic.