what does weaning look like??

[elf]

I pictured myself BF my baby for as long as she wanted...years. Now that she is 7 months, has teeth and is biting instead of sucking....she isn't interested in bf anymore.

what does weaning look like?

today she refused to nurse and finally because it had been forever since she had liquids and had a dry diaper all day...i gave her a bottle (of formula b/c my supply has always been so low i don't have a stash) and she chugged the whole thing.

I am sad.

Is she possibly weaning herself already?

[Ruthla]

No, at 7 months this is a nursing strike, not child-led weaning. Remember it's called CHILD led weaning, not BABY led weaning, because babies don't self-wean.

Weaning happens with older kids who are eating a variety of table foods and drinking water and/or other liquids from cups. Nursing slowly becomes less about nutrition and more about comfort, then the need for nursing comfort is outgrown. DS was down to 2-3 nursings a day, then 1 a day, then every other day, before he weaned completely. He was 4 years old at the time.

[eirual]

Can I assume you've attempted to adress low supply issues already? It sounds like it's more low supply than weaning and if you haven't yet there are many things you can try before assuming it's over.

[SereneBabe]

Just want to chime in that adding anything other than breast milk this early can upset the balance of mama's milk and baby needs. Your baby is *fine,* I am sure. But, like the other poster said, maybe you need to address what you describe as "low supply" issues?

The short answer? Your baby is *not* weaning. She can't "self-wean" this early.

[milkybean]

My son had a nursing strike...he wasn't eating anything else, and yet he did it. Silly boy. I didn't give him anything...not water, not formula, not food...just waited it out. He got back to it.

This nursing strike, which is totally normal and natural, could be turned into weaning if you take the need to nurse out of the equation, so be very careful with the formula...

[3pink1blue]

my daughter was 3 when she weaned, so it was obviously different. She just started dropping nursings, starting at maybe 2 1/2, and at the end we were going three or four or more days between nursings. I don't remember the last one, and it was no big deal when she weaned. She didn't say "We're Done!" or anything, she just stopped.

my nephew self weaned at 9 months. I think it was due to having a cleft lip, and the surgery and everything surrounding it - nursing was painful after the surgery (at 5 months) so he used a cup. My SIL continued to pump and give him breastmilk in a cup when he stopped nursing. He never took a bottle or paci after that either. I was proud of my SIL because she was just 16 when my nephew was born, and she ended up giving him breastmilk till he was 2.

[HappyHelpmate]

I agree with pp's- this is not self-weaning. Baby is not old enough to get all of his/her nutrition from table food yet. Have you started solids yet? What other sources of food does she have besides BF? She doesn't really NEED anything besides your milk at this point.

You need to address your low milk supply and not supplement with formula, which will contribute to lessening your milk even more. The more you nurse, the more milk you'll have. Also, make sure YOU're getting plenty of fluids, because this can drastically affect your supply. There are also some great teas out there that have seemed to help when I've felt my supply was low- I've found some in the organic foods section of my local grocery store, just called "Mother's Milk Tea."

Also, did you know there are strategies to work on the biting issue? I can't think of them off hand, but I'm sure other ladies on here have suggestions that work and you can also look up a lot of info on the La Leche League Website.