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Partial weaning, is it possible?

720 views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  PixieAlly 
#1 ·
I am not sure if this belongs here or in the other breastfeeding forum as my daughter is 9 months so I don't know if that's considered "beyond infancy" or not
Anyway, I had wanted to breastfeed until she self weaned but I'm finding it difficult to keep up with the pumping I need to do. She goes to daycare only 2 days a week but my supply has dropped so much I can not keep up with the amount of milk she drinks on daycare days. When I'm home with her she gets plenty as I feed her on demand (which seems to be about every 2-3 hours for the most part) and she also get two meals a day and some snacks. The meals are about 5-6 oz of veggies and grain or fruit and grain and usually some protein in at least one meal as well. I've tried taking some herbal supplements to increase supply but it's still not enough. When I'm working I'm only pumping out 5-6 ounces a day (two pumpings, so that's only a little over 1 ounce per breast per pumping) and she drinks 12oz when she's at daycare.

What I'm wondering is if it would be possible to get her to eat more food and less milk at daycare and on my days off I could still continue to breastfeed her on demand. Or what that screw things up and should I just get her to drink less all the time? Any tips that don't include me pumping more
?

Ally
 
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#2 ·
I have been considering this same question, because my 9 month old will NOT take a bottle, and never would. We just started daycare 3 weeks ago, and I've started him on half days, since I don't want him to go too long without nursing, for fear he'll get cranky.
Data I've collected:
- a friend with a 10 month old said that he only nurses before bed, upon waking up, and once at night. He's just too busy during the day to be interested in nursing anymore. She still pumps during the day at work to keep her supply up.
- I read online that once babies become mobile they are less interested in day-time nursing because they don't want to stop and be still for that long.
- my little one actually seems completely fine without nursing or a bottle if I'm not around. Maybe he just doesn't think about it because I'm not there. The longest he's gone is 5 hours, and when I get him home from daycare he's definitely ready to nurse, but while he's at daycare he just drinks water from a sippy cup and eats some veggies and rice. When I'm home with him he seems to nurse as usual.
- There are some babies who won't take a bottle and "reverse-cycle" instead. That is, they don't eat during the day at daycare and cluster feed during the evenings and nights to make up for what they missed. I believe this applies more to younger babies, though, who don't really eat solids yet.

Anyway, I hope this helps.
 
#3 ·
try the stickies up top for increasing supply. at 9 mo, we were starting to cut to 2 bottles/day plus nursing at pick-up (that really helps to nurse at DC). However my boy nursed a few times during the night to make up for it. I believe you have to look at the whole picture and before 12 mo, the majority of nutrition should still be BM, and I do not recommend no BM at DC before then - my DC is required to offer milk/FM/BM until 12 mo as well.

for the pp that has trouble with bottles - have you tried a sippy?
 
#4 ·
Pixie- I had another thought . When you pump, are you doing double-sided pumping? When I pumped (before I gave up on the LO taking a bottle) I found I got about twice as much if I did both sides at once as opposed to one side at a time.

Carita- although I say he "won't take a bottle," I think a more accurate description would be he won't take BM or formula from ANY type of container. He actually does a cup and sippy cup quite well, but he will pretty much only drink water. He doesn't even like juice! It appears he just has the very strong opinion that his "milk" should come from a certain place, and that place is me . . .
 
#5 ·
Yes, I pump from both sides at once. I just can't do any more pumping then I already do. I think I am going to try and see what happens when we replace her afternoon bottle at daycare for a sippy cup of water. She usually drinks that bottle only an hour or two before I pick her up anyway so she wouldn't have to wait long to get some milk from me.
 
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