One for the mothers (and well educated others) of the board:
My now 11 1/2 month old baby self-weaned last month, and won’t go back on the boob (she either screams hysterically at the sight of them, or points and laughs, depending on her mood).
I’ve been expressing milk for her ever since, first with a manual pump, then with a Medela Swing. The first day I got 15oz in one go, but less than a month later, I’m struggling to get 3oz from both breasts in a session, despite taking Fenugreek and Milk Thistle.
I pump three times a day, morning, after lunch and evening, and have had to give her the occasional bottle of formula as supply is not keeping up with demand
I think you’re probably done with giving your child breast milk. If she’s weaned, your supply is gradually going to dry up. It’s time to switch her to regular milk.
If you want one-on-one help, contact your local branch of La Leche League. They will guide you.
In general though, it’s really hard to maintain a breast milk supply using a breast pump. They just don’t do the job if the baby isn’t nursing at all. If you want to keep up your supply by pumping you will at the very least need a more serious pump than the Swing; probably one you rent from the hospital. The Swing is very underpowered.
IMO, your baby is telling you she’s done. It’s a natural progression.
If you insist on pumping and giving her breast milk, you might try raspberry leaf tea. Some of my friends had luck with it when they were breastfeeding.
I agree with everyone else - Junior self weaned at about 9.5 months (like you, screaming and yelling at the sight of boobs).
I tried pumping for a couple of weeks and then decided screw it. I’ve done my best. I switched him to formula until age 1 and now he drinks homo milk.
It’s great if your child will nurse longer - there are loads of benefits to be had - but torturing yourself trying to pump for a baby who’s not into it is a losing proposition. You’ll just wind up with sore boobs and a crabby, hungry baby. Seriously - formula isn’t poison - your munchkin will still do quite well if you switch now, and gradually introduce milk in a few weeks.
Cows milk can be the main drink from 12 months.
Your kid has decided that 6 weeks earlier was the way to go- I think you might want to follow her lead on this one.
Your kid and your body are both ready to stop nursing- sad as that may be.
Consider formula or standard cows milk (2 weeks early won’t hurt and will be easier and cheaper).
Pump if you wish, but your kid is going to need about 20oz daily, and chances are that nothing you do will be able to get your supply to that level.
I say this as someone who breastfed until the kid was 16months. I eventually stopped when irishbaby was at the point of being able to undo my clothing for herself and I got fed up. I just wore turtle necks for a couple of days until she got the message, and that was weaning done- but by that point she was nursing for comfort and drinking cows milk as her main drink.
Fenugreek capsules are also supposed to increase your supply. You can get them at most supplement stores.
That said, I agree with the crowd. Sounds like your daughter is sending you a message. I’d call your pediatrician to get ok’d for whole milk, then introduce that.
I nursed my daughter for 14 months until I had to have surgery, which worked out well for us (or as well as it could’ve), since she’d nurse for maybe 20 seconds, then bite me. The transition wasn’t easy because she nursed primarily for comfort, but it was time. I also had production issues, but was pregnant without realizing it. Anyway, sometimes your body’s just done.
>>Basically, if she’s getting formula, she is not going to have the motivation to suckle, which is what is required to produce.
>>There is nothing wrong with weaning at 11 months if you are not prepared to give up the formula or if she just doesn’t want to nurse.*
>>My recommendations to increase your supply are, lots of fatty, healthy foods (avocado, peanut butter, almonds, walnuts, fish) and tons and tons of water. But without stimulating the nipple it’s not going to do that much.
>>11.5 months is, barring other health issues, old enough for solids. Breastfed babies should wean from the breast to solids, not to formula, when they are near one year. She is well old enough for pureed avocado on toast, mashed mango, etc.
Regardless of your decision, I would recommend removing the formula anyway and as others have said, put her on a sippy with water and solids. She just doesn’t need formula if she’s getting a bottle or two of breastmilk per day. If she doesn’t want the solids she’ll have to nurse at the breast. There is a reason WIC stops breastmilk supplemental nutrition and formula at age one and goes to whole milk and whole foods for the baby…
I also agree that you want to contact a lactation consultant or LLL for production advice.
Good luck. You’ve done a GREAT job no matter how you look at it. HTH
*A lot of people insist this never happens in “traditional societies” but this is bullshit. I know plenty of children in Asia who weaned between 9 - 12 months, even village babies of nomadic people. Do not feel guilty or “unnatural” as some boob nazis would like everyone to feel. Weaning before a year can and does happen in all parts of the world.
Moon Unit did something similar at just over a year old, a result (we think) of a sore throat. I wanted to continue nursing her for a while (Dweezil was partly breastfed until age 2), but she was having none of it. Brat. :p.
I did pump a little, but at that point I was tired of that - she was a preemie and didn’t learn to feed at the breast until she was a month old, so my milk supply was established and built up entirely by machine. And I lugged that damn thing to work for months when she was an infant, I think I quit when she was 9 months or so old because she wasn’t taking in as much, and I got enough in the evenings to provide a small stash.
If you do want to try to produce milk, I agree you need a rental-grade pump. I had a Medela Lactina which lived in a case the size of a fishing tackle-box. Anything more portable than that might not be up to the task.
Reasons to continue having the milk available: It still provides helpful antibodies and nutrients. Dweezil had a stomach bug when he was about 14 months old, and literally the only thing he could keep down for several days was breastmilk. Anything else, including water, was promptly returned with interest, poor kid. So I was grateful to have that supply still going.
Reasons not to bother: She’s gotten a lot of good stuff from breastmilk in the past 11ish months; while it’s still beneficial, it’s of far less impact than it would have been if she’d refused it at, say, 2 months old. She’s presumably getting adequate nutrition from other sources, and you are probably plenty busy taking care of her and the rest of your life, that time spent pumping might not be worth it.
ProbablyProcrastinating- one assumes that the OP’s child is already taking solid food, and has been for some time, but has been nursing to drink.
Current advice is to introduce solids somewhere around 5 or 6 months of age, not to give cow’s milk before 12 months, and that water should not be the main drink until the age of 2.
This means that those who do not breast feed until 12 months MUST use either formula OR start cows milk earlier than recommended (after checking with a paediatrician).
Soy and nut milks are absolute no-nos for infants, so if you aren’t happy with cows milk your option really is formula (either standard or low-allergy) until 1 year.
Water is not an appropriate substitute for breastmilk.
Soy is a no-no for infants? If you mean the highly sweetened flavored soy-milks, then I agree. But Celtling preferred the powdered soy formula to soy milks until about age 3.5, and I loved the extra nutritional base so encouraged it. If you get the Target brand soy formula, it’s actually cheaper than soy milk, but not cheaper than cow’s milk.
Yeah - I was urged to give Dweezil soy formula when at 6 days he hadn’t regained his birth weight (which was really erroneous advice, but whatever…). I think I gave him two bottles of the stuff, after which I realized this was bullshit and just made a point of nursing him any time he made a peep. He gained 8 ounces in 3 days.
At age 11.5 months, I wouldn’t worry too much about jumping the gun on cow’s milk or any other “not until 12 months” food.
The current advice is that the phyto-oestrogens (plant hormones) in Soy are probably not ideal for kids, and because we don’t know what is a safe level for kids, it’s probably best to avoid regular consumption. As you also note, Soy drinks tend to be sweetened as well.
While soy formulas were the default for lactose and cow’s milk protein allergy back in the day, the newer extensively hydrolysed milk based formulas are hypo-allergenic and don’t have the phyto-oestrogens or the added sugar.
Again- this is just what the advice is at the moment- YMMV and your own doctor may advise differently, and of course your own beliefs about dairy etc may necessitate a non-dairy drink.
Mine did it at six months. Just decided she was DONE spending hours every day looking at my chest. My milk was gone in less than a week, even though I pumped, took fenugeek, etc.
Some people do manage to produce via pump only - that wasn’t me.
Isn’t milk thistle actually for liver issues? When I needed to increase my supply, I drank Mother’s Milk Tea 2-3 times per day. It wasn’t cheap, but it certainly worked for me.
Do the stomach enzymes know when it’s the baby’s birthday? They get a bit of cake and they’re like, “Okay, we’ll deal with solids now.”
I’m basically assuming here that children mature at different rates. The 12 month recommendation is based on a late average so that the vast majority of children will be ready. Some kids are ready before then. This is a child that’s been breastfed up to now and is voluntarily moving off the breast. What I’m saying is, substituting formula is (a) not necessary given how close the child is to 1 and (b) counterproductive if you want to encourage the child to continue nursing. If it were me, I’d cut the bottle, milk in a sippy. If baby can’t do milk, offer more boob. The child will not starve itself.
Water is not a substitute for breastmilk, but it’s an ideal drink for a weaned baby as an accompaniment to solid foods.
If this were a 6 or even 8 month old it would be different, but this child is weeks away from a year.
Seriously. All that smacking and murmuring is enough to drive a mommy mad. Slurp, slurp, slurp. And so embarrassing when you’re just trying to be discreet in the corner chair!
Thanks all - I’ll be adding raspberry leaf tea to my shopping list, and will check out the various varieties that Mama Tea do here in the UK (I don’t think we get Mother’s Milk Tea here thanks Avarie537!)
And yeah, oops, I’ve been bad at skipping breakfast, which probably doesn’t help, so I’ll step up the suggested fatty foods, keep drinking litres of water, and guzzling Fenugreek & Milk Thistle.
Ah, that’s interesting. I’ll step up the Swing to its full suction then, to see if that helps. I’ve not had it on full strength as my poor boobs are starting to look a bit like they’re covered in lovebites thanks to the pumping!
I’ve thought about hiring a hospital grade one, but as various people have pointed out, she can go onto cows milk in two weeks time, so I just need to struggle through till then. And yes, it is a struggle - I pumped for an hour this morning, got 4oz for her lunchtime bottle, but during that hour she ran riot round the living room, trailed a leaking pooey nappy across the rug, found the remote controls for everything, then plaintively tugged at my skirt for me to come and play with her
And yes, she’s been on solids since 6 months, but she’s not hugely fond of plain water or fruit juice, so I’ve been worried about dehydration.
