EPing and advice to wean off pumping

[BarefootRedHook]

Hi wise women,

Does anyone have any advice how they've weened a EP'ed baby to regular milk? My LO is 10.5 months now and am looking to devise a plan to "hang up the horns." I am committed to pumping until 1 year of age, but am curious, does something magically change that enables them to drink regular milk at that age? Which milk, cow or goat? How many ounces to feed? Should I mix breastmilk with other milk for a while?

Just some background info, I've been EPing for over 10 months, never supplementing once, just me and my girls pumping away committed to giving my baby the best nutrition. Recently, I've been having challenges, my supply has dropped off drastically while attending births as a doula. I am quickly going through my freezer stash as a result. If I wasn't having supply issues, I would continue to pump a full day's supply for longer than a year. I've done an amazing job giving her all that I can but I think it's time to devise a plan to ween. Unless she magically learns to latch, she can have the boobs as long as she wants :)

Thank you for any advice!

[foreverinbluejeans]

After 12 months a child does not need to drink any milk. Cow's milk is for baby cows and goat's milk is for baby goats. If you do decide you want to feed your child milk only toddler servings are recommended and many toddlers get that from foods that they eat that have milk in them like cheese.

Babies need about 32 ounces of human milk or formula from 6 - 12 months for brain growth. You could quit cold turkey or wean gradually after 12 months.

Sometimes older babies can learn how to latch. Some moms that get adopted babies when they are older or moms in situations like yours have had babies that learn to nurse. You might keep trying. Who knows you might keep nursing a year or even longer.

[Mattee Petersen]

I had also considered weaning straight to cows milk when DS1 was about the same age (I got pg & my OB wouldn't let me nurse anymore)... So I asked our good friend who is a ped if that was ok. He said that there is nutrition in BM & formula that cow's mlk can't deliver & they need the DHA & ARA from either one of those sources for brain development. Also, the casein in cow's milk can be extremely hard for humans to digest & even some aduts have a hard time tolerating it. It broke my heart, but I started him on toddler formula at 10 months. (If that happened now, I would just keep nursing...) I would try to teach her to latch. Maybe you could try using a nipple shield since it's more similar to a bottle nipple?

[jruck]

If you do decide to change over to formula or cow's milk, a friend of mine told me she made the change in ratios in her pumped bottles. The first time she put 1/2 an ounce of cows milk into four ounces of BM and slowly switched it from there. DS is about the same age and I'm considering the same choices now. I switched from BM to juice with one of his solid meals this week. I'm having a supply issue or I'd keep pumping as well. I'm thinking I'll go organic toddler formula over cow's milk if it gets to that. 

[~Adorkable~]

and just a vote for teacheing your lo to nurse, mine picked it up for real at 6.5 months, so older babies can learn. good luck with sorting it out and a huge hand to you for pumping for so long, i know how hard that is

[savithny]

Originally Posted by foreverinbluejeans 

After 12 months a child does not need to drink any milk. Cow's milk is for baby cows and goat's milk is for baby goats. If you do decide you want to feed your child milk only toddler servings are recommended and many toddlers get that from foods that they eat that have milk in them like cheese.

Babies need about 32 ounces of human milk or formula from 6 - 12 months for brain growth. You could quit cold turkey or wean gradually after 12 months.

Sometimes older babies can learn how to latch. Some moms that get adopted babies when they are older or moms in situations like yours have had babies that learn to nurse. You might keep trying. Who knows you might keep nursing a year or even longer.

The bolded is simply not true.   At 12 months a baby still needs milk, and if its not human milk or formula it probably needs to be animal milk.   They really need it for at least 2 years, if not 3.  (and actually, genetically-determined lactose intolerance generally doesn't set in until closer to 5 in cultures that do not drink animal milk).

Stopping all milk at 12 months is a really bad plan.