Question for moms who only bottle feed breastmilk and weaning

[Mama25]

Wasn't sure where to post this so feel free to move the right area Due to my cancer dx when my baby was 8mths old I had to stop nursing. He has since then gotten only donated breastmilk which I am so happy about and couldn't even imagine I would have been able to give him breastmilk for so long. He is now 19mths old! He of course eats solids and will drink water out of a sippy cup. But I still give him 4-6 bottles of breastmilk a day. Since it was so horrible that I had to wean when I got dx I vowed to make bottlefeeding as much like breastfeeding as possible. I only give him the bottles when I am with him holding him, he still sleeps with me, I don't let him walk and carry around the bottle , I always want the bottle connected to me since if he was nursing he couldn't just take my boob and walk of, I still use a number 1 newborn nipple and always warm up the milk. Now as he is getting older and the donated breastmilk will be running out in about 3 mths I am trying to prepare and grasp how this will end since I am bottlefeeding him. I have only nursed/weaned my other 5 children and weaning was never a set thing or something I even thought about it just happened naturally with child led weaning. So now I am paniced. I don't want to cause him more stress, it was so HORRIBLE on HIM when I stopped breastfeeding him and I just dread that happening when the milk runs out. What have you all done or what will you do? I know sucking is important to toddlers and I feel like I just want him to have the bottle for as long as he wants it just like I would with nursing. Thanks for listening. Hearing from other moms who are also giving bottles of breastmilk and not able to nurse will help me not feel so alone.

[foreverinbluejeans]

My 6 week postpartum pap smear came back positive for cervical cancer. I was lucky that I only had to have surgery and there was no problem with breastfeeding.

It sounds like you have tried so hard with your toddler, maybe too hard. Sometimes when we have health problems and other children to care for things can't be perfect for our toddlers, that's life. At his age few toddlers in the US are still breastfed and most of them only breastfeed a couple of times a day. There are few of us that breastfeed a toddler many times a day.

There are several things you could do. You could stretch out your donated milk by using it only a couple of times and wean more slowly. You could try relactating. Mothers nurse adopted babies, you never know your could still make milk. If you are done with chemo then you should be able to breastfeed. You could try to get more donated milk.

[crunchy_mommy]

Your post made me tear up, I can't imagine being in your position but I can feel the emotion in your words. HUGE HUGS!!

Could you continue bottle-nursing but transition to some other milk (cow/goat/almond/soy/hemp/rice/whatever)?

I really have no experience with this but I just wanted to send some support your way.

[ShwarmaQueen]

I'm so sorry to hear about the cancer. :(

Well, both mine have weaned from breastfeeding to bottles. DD took cows milk in a bottle until she was near 2 years old (like you, being held by me or DH) and now DS is taking cowsmilk from a bottle. With DD, we gradually cut down the number of bottles per day, then went to every other day, and then one day stopped. It wasn't a big deal to her. We will probably do the same with DS when the time comes, though I'll say that it might be later than 2 for him because he doesn't eat very well most times and I feel like the 16-24 ounces of milk he's getting per day are getting him through. (I realize that bottles past 1 have a stigma in the US but we do what's best for our own, right?)