When I think of the work "weaning," I automatically think of puppies. It just doesn't sound right to use for humans... but whatever.
I started this blog to document George's transition from breast milk to real food... and also so that I have a quick-reference to recipes that he liked. I recently talked to a friend who asked me how I started to wean George. She has a little girl who just turned 1 and is trying to cut out her mid-day feedings. She also has a 3 year old, but she said that she can't remember quite how she weaned him. So, I figured that it would be useful to my future self if I record that here. (You're welcome, future self.)
At 12 months, I offered George whole milk for the first time. I was hoping that he would love it right away and weaning would be quick and simple. Well, that didn't happen. In fact, when I started giving him real food and milk, his feeding schedule got crazy! He was eating every hour! (He nursed in between every meal.) I quickly realized that the only time he ever had a meal schedule was in the hospital. Since we brought him home, he enjoyed "on demand" feeding. I stay home with him, so this was never a problem and it worked quite nicely for us for the first year. Food was always available when he needed it... and he never had to wait for it to be prepared or heat up. All we needed was a private place... and sometimes not even that. So that lead to...
Step 1: Develop a nursing schedule.
It was at 12 months that I finally stopped nursing him in the middle of the night (often many times in the middle of the night). I set his schedule to 4 feedings a day: early morning, mid-morning, mid-afternoon, night.
Step 2: Increase his "real food" meals. (Next time, set a real meal schedule at this point!)
This was difficult and I had to find things that he would actually eat. I also had to make sure to keep offering him whole milk. I certainly didn't want a dehydrated little boy!
Step 3: Gradually take away breast feedings.
I dropped the mid-morning first because he seemed to be content without it. I waited about 2 weeks after that before dropping his mid-afternoon feeding because by the mid-afternoon, he's tired and crazy and I gave in when he wanted to nurse (for my own sanity). Eventually, I replaced his mid-afternoon feeding with a snack. He really likes yogurt as a mid-afternoon snack.
Soon, I will probably drop his before-bed feeding because I feel like he's not that interested in it anymore. Sometimes he eats a lot, but that's rare. I just know that the nights that he hasn't nursed before bed, he wakes up at 3 and will not go back to sleep without nursing. I think next week I will drop that feeding.
Who knows when I will drop the early morning feeding. He goes right back to sleep after this feeding, so I kind of like it because it buys me an extra hour (sometimes two) of sleep! Selfish?
Step 4: Hope to lose weight, but expect to gain it.
That's right... I gained weight in the first month that I cut out daytime feedings. I hoped so badly that when I stopped nursing, my appetite would go back to normal and I would lose the last of the baby weight. Nope. This didn't happen. My appetite is slowly returning to normal, but now I have 5 extra lbs to lose! I've really tried to watch what I've eaten over the past 2 weeks, but nothing changed. Not one pound. So then I was discouraged and thought, "If I'm going to weigh the same no matter what, I might as well eat cookies!" That's not a good philosophy either. So, if you know the secret to losing weight... please let me know.
