However, Naomi is about to turn one, once she does I plan on reducing her booby-milk feeds by replacing the two day time ones we still have with cow's milk from her sippy cup. We'll still be keeping the morning and night ones for a good bit longer, unless she decides she doesn't want them any more.
Following some advice from a friend I plan on doing this by offering her some cow's milk, once she is done/throws it on the floor she can have some booby-milk and in time I hope that she will drink more from the cup and less from my boobs! She gets more and more distracted during booby feeds and so I am hoping she will enjoy the cup as it will allow her to look around, though I'm planning on still having her on my knee for settling down and cuddles, to keep those snuggles we currently have.
One issue that I am having is that I don't know how much milk she should be offered, I've never had to measure it coming out of my boobs ;-) but the main issue that I am having is I don't know where to go for support.
Health professionals don't know what to do with me because I have been breastfeeding exclusively (as opposed to giving formula) for a year, they stopped knowing what to do with me when I kept breastfeeding beyond about 6 weeks! I also find though, that breastfeeding advocates don't know what to do with me because *I* want to choose (some of) the rate at which Naomi stops breastfeeding. It doesn't make sense to me that I would let Naomi be completely in charge of this, I don't let her be in charge of other stuff (like how much she sleeps or whether she is allowed to eat (as she often does) rocks, so I am not sure why she should be allowed to be completely in charge of this. I do want her to have a say, but I don't want her say to be the whole story.
I often find I am a bit scared of people who are very pro breastfeeding (despite being very pro breastfeeding myself) because I fear that if I tell them I want to give my child cow's milk at one, or that I might try and steer her away from booby feeds that they might tell me I am a terrible mother or barbaric in some way. The thing is though, that I think these people, I sometimes call them the breastfeeding mafia, would think they are being supportive, encouraging me to breastfeed for as long as possible. Unfortunately, though, it can come across as condemning rather than supporting.
This, then, leaves me in my dilemma, where can I go for support as a longer than the first few weeks but not as long as self weaning? Do you want to own up to being like me and join me for being a support network for each other?
I am in the same boat as you, I am still breastfeeding my 15 month old in the morning and at bedtime but the rest of the time she drinks water or cows milk. She dropped her daytime milk feeds at around 10 months but has only just taken to drinking cows milk. To cut down on the daytime feeds I did 'don't offer don't refuse' which worked well for us. I plan on stopping completely sometime before she's 2, but I haven't decided exactly when. I don't think I could wait for her to self wean, I want my body back! It is hard to know where to go for advice if you are in our situation, most mums seem to bottle feed by 6 months if not sooner or wait until their baby self weans, there aren't many in between era like us!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! As is often the way, the response from twitter and this would suggest that I am not so alone after all, once again parents are just not talking to one another!
DeleteI like your don't offer, don't refuse idea, my wee girl doesn't ask for milk that much so it may be the way forward to us!
Come Monday I will be buying a big carton of full fat milk and away we go!