Thursday, May 13, 2010

Uncharted Territory

Alright friends...need some advice and what to do since we've never been here before. I am slowly starting to wean Evan and he is doing great with a sippy cup and formula. I'm not sure how often or how much to give him. Right now he's getting about 8 oz. twice a day, along with our regular nursing and baby food/finger foods 3x a day. Any advice you have on weaning (for him and me) would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

3 comments:

heather said...

Don't remember specifics, as it's been three and a half years (yikes!) since we had one making the no bottle transition... but I'm pretty sure my kids, while they had bottles and getting close to a year, had 4-6 oz or so before naps and before bed, so three times a day... plus some in a cup with meals.
When we dropped bottles (right at 12 months), I just encouraged that they were drinking most all of their cups, carrying them over into a little snuggle time before naps if they didn't finish them off at lunch/snacks. We still had a sippy full of milk during our snuggle time before bed, like a substitute bottle... sometimes they drank it all (again, 4-6 oz) sometimes they didn't. I want to say the ideal is 16oz a day at this age? You just want to be careful to not give them so much milk that they're not eating good meals... at a year old their main source of nutrition should be their meals; after that point milk is just for calcium and keeping hydrated!

LeeAnn | {froggyleggs} said...

We are right behind you. :) If I remember right with Lukas, I nursed him for 12 months. And then was giving him Horizon's Organic Whole Milk in a bottle for a few weeks, just to ease the adjustment of the milk first. Then switched to a full time sippy cup for his milk at about 13-14 months old. I think he would give him about 4 ounces mid-morning before his morning nap, 4 ounces mid-afternoon after his afternoon nap, and 4 ounces right before bed. Somewhere around 18 - 22 months old, I think we cut out the before bedtime milk, and started having his milk with meals. Water or juice in between meals. At 18 months old we also switched him to regular store brand Vit D Whole milk. I plan to do about the same with Brady. I considered nursing longer, since they do now recommend 2 years for nursing, but I honestly can't see myself nursing over 12 months. Sure I have the supply, but the demand on my body is enough to want to be done even now! lol. But im gonna push these next 3 months out and make it to the 1 year mark for this boy too. :)
Great job on breastfeeding for the first year too Kasey!

Anonymous said...

Haven't done it yet but kellymom.com has always been so helpful when it comes to breastfeeding stuff. Here is the link for the weaning section: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/index.html

Hope it helps! Good luck!!