My youngest daughter turned 1 year old almost 3 months ago. Up until that point she had been breastfeeding and eating soft foods. Unlike her older sister, she was not discriminatory about what foods she would and would not eat. Like, at all. Because of this, I did not expect to have any trouble when I decided to wean her from breastmilk on to cow’s milk at 12 months. Boy did she have a surprise for me!
The child who loves food will try anything, no matter what, had one sip of cow’s milk and said, “No Ma’am!”. At this point, I was in panic mode. I ended up continuing to breastfeed for another week or while I hoarded information on how to slowly and considerately wean my daughter. Her pediatrician was barely any help, she referred me to La Leche League, but in her defense, it is a great site. I tried a lot of things and today, I am happy to say she is drinking the cow’s milk, we haven’t breastfed in almost 2 months!
Here is the rundown of what we tried and what ultimately worked for us.
1. Finding the right cup for your little one
Because I worked from home with my daughter, I found it much easier to breastfeed than to pump. Frankly, during that first year, there wasn’t much of a reason for me to pump after my supply waned. The small supply of milk I did have pretty much went to waste, as she refused to drink anything that didn’t come from the tap. Because of this, when it came time to wean, I had to figure out what type of cup she would take. Because of this, I ended up buying 2-3 different types and then ultimately 3 more of the kind she actually liked. Because she wouldn’t drink the milk at all, I figured out which sippy cup she preferred by filling them with watered-down apple juice. Some of them she refused every time, others she loved. For my daughter, the straw ups and cups with the hard spout were the best.
2. Ask for help during feeding time
When you breastfeed, most of the time feedings are exclusive to you and your baby. As I mentioned before, I very rarely pumped my daughter associated me with feeding very strongly. One of the suggestions we tried from the La Leche League was to have a family member offer her the milk while I was not around. I guess this made her feel like there was no better option around, so the cow’s milk was all she had left. Trying this was a success in combination with a few other things. In the beginning, my husband was always able to get her to drink more than me.
3. Change up old routines
My husband came in heavy with this tip as well. The main routine we had an issue with breaking was bedtime. For the first 12 months of her life, I would either nurse her to sleep or right before she fell asleep, so of course bedtime = milk time. To break this habit, my husband took over the bedtime task. He would offer her the cow’s milk in her favorite sippy cup, in the other room. I would stay out of sight until she was asleep. We did this for about a month. Currently, she doesn’t need any milk at all to fall asleep.
4. Try whole milk yogurt
I discovered this by doing desperate late-night googles when my child was still refusing to drink more than 4oz of milk in a day. I started by giving her a serving of plain yogurt, mixed with applesauce and baby cereal on a plate with breakfast or lunch. This evolved to making my DIY yogurt pouches with whole milk yogurt. My daughter loves them, they are easy to make and they did a great job of giving her the whole milk fat and nutrition she needed without her having to drink it. Check out my blog to see how I did it.
5. Try chocolate whole milk
This solution is what yielded us the greatest results. To not load her up with sugar, and to control the amount of chocolate in her milk, we purchased the Nestle powder chocolate mix. This is all-natural and contains no sugar. The instructions say to add two tablespoons per 8 oz of water. We add much less. If we pour her 8 oz of milk we typically add 1-2 teaspoons. This is just enough to turn the milk a light shade of brown. It gives her enough of the chocolate taste to disguise the milk so she’ll drink as much as we give her. Eventually, we will need to wean her from this too but for now, it works!
Hopefully, this list will help you! I know that I became frustrated many times during this process. I doubted my decision to wean even though in my heart and soul I was done with bf! But if I made it, so can you!
Want to Share or Save for later? Save these to your Pinterest!
