Weaning 11 Month Old from Breastfeeding

I'm thinking stick to the straw cup. My daughter also let milk out when she drank from a straw cup at first, but got better over time. Good luck!

I always suggest the Gerber Nuk. It provides some of the suckling like a bottle, so it is an easier transition, even if you have to hold it for a bit, but it does have some easy handles. Whatever you try, try it yourself first. Many of the cups require the child to bite down to get anything out of it.

I'd suggest going straight to a straw cup. Drinking from a straw is a skill she can use for the rest of her life, and if you introduce a bottle now, you'll just need to wean her from it in another few months. It takes some practice to learn to drink from any kind of a new cup, so be patient as she learns this new skill. Successfully drinking from an open cup and a straw cup (not a bottle or spout-type sippy) have lots of benefits for later speech development. You may need to experiment with several brands of straw cups. My daughter hated straw cups with valves because she had to suck so hard to get anything out, and I think the designs of straws that need to be bitten in order to open the valve are ridiculous (try drinking from them yourself---nearly impossible!). Playtex makes one where you can cut off the valve part (but those cups sometimes leak). We like the Take-N-Toss straw cups. Combi also makes a fantastic straw cup that is very expensive. Straws that are rigid (can not be bitten flat) are best for oral-motor development. It's never too early to try to introduce an open cup. Start with just an ounce or two of water so it isn't too messy if it is spilled. Good luck.

My youngest daughter and I started weaning when she was about 10mos. It was suggested by her dr to go right to the cup (no lid or anything). I thought that was too much for her at such a young age. I replaced a bottle instead for every replaced session for the first week, then replaced another session the next week, and so on until we were completely day-weaned (at about 10-11 months) After she was ok with being day weaned and comfortable being on the bottle all day long (no crying or clinging), we started a sippy cup with the soft spout - again replacing one feeding at a time. All went really well.

We still nursed at night until she was a year old. And here I made a huge mistake. We used the bottle at night... because we (meaning I) was too lazy to sit her up and help her take a cup at night. It was a struggle getting her back to bed after she was sat up in the middle of the night and I couldn't do it after a a week with no sleep - working a new job. So I filled up the bottle with whole milk (what she was drinking as a replacement to breastmilk) and; she went soundly back to bed.

Now at 20 months, she drinks from a cup with no lid, but still REQUIRES a "bubba" at night. She will scream all night long without it. So, I guess, going back, I would have continued the sippy cut during her night time feedings, despite how difficult it was. Because she is now too old for the bottle and it will soon start to cause dental issues, I am sure.

Good luck with this. While it is an emotional time - weaning, it can also lead to a sense of freedom only mothers know! ;)

Personally, I do not understand why anyone would wean to cow's milk. I believe that children should be breastfed until they can consume an entire diet of solid calories. Cow's milk is formulated for baby cows, human milk is for humans. Just because a baby "can" start drinking cows milk around 11-12mo, does not mean that it's optimal or biologically normal. My suggestion is to keep nursing until at least 18-24mo when your baby is a little bit older, able to eat more food and use a cup easily.

Congrats on nursing this long.

Your baby need to be fed,
try giving her cereal as the one meal with milk, this will keep her full until the next feeding and as for bottles all the old timers fed their kids milk in bottles I do not see any of us not wean from the bottle.. She will eventually wean her self off the bottle with you guidance leading her to the Big girl cup.

I did the same thing you did, however at 11mos I mixed half breastmilk w/ half whole milk in a sippy cup. It took him a bit to get used to it, but eventually no matter what brand you use, she will get the hang of it. They learn faster than you can imagine! Good job for keeping it up this long, and there is nothing wrong w/ using whole milk at this age; of course "human" milk is ideal, but at least you didn't use formula!!!

Personally I'd be giving it to her in a bottle. I am guessing she is your first. :) The reason I say that is because you are giving so much weight to what your friends have said. ;) My closest friends are like me. They say when people would ask them if their child was sleeping through the night, they'd just nod and say SURE!! because they didn't want to hear how they are "supposed" to be doing X, Y or Z. Every baby is different. If your baby is better with a bottle, give the girl a bottle! She won't be using one forever. All three of my boys so far used bottles until they were 18 months old or so. They are healthy, happy boys. Do what YOU feel is best for your child...not what other people tell you is "best" or "the norm". Trust me, my oldest is 9 1/2 and we are expecting our 4th. With EACH child, the "norm" had changed and one thing we were supposed to do with one baby, we weren't supposed to do with another. Trust YOURSELF. You know her better than anyone. :)

Take care!

If you are starting on whole milk, I would not confuse the issue by putting it in a bottle. I would definately go for the straw/sippy cup route.

I nursed my little girl until she was about 15 or 16 months. We started drinking whole milk at about 12 months too. We used spill-proof sippy cups from playtex. They have a unuversal valve that can be used in any of their cups. We continued to nurse on demand but it thinned out naturally to about 3 times a day - AM, a random one in the middle and a PM right before bed. This was easy for me to maintain and I was able to stop pumping at work too. She took milk from a cup at each meal. We did not introduce juices (which we still dilute a minimum of 50-50 juice to water even though she is now 3 YO) until I stopped nursing. Juice never, ever went in a bottle and is used for lunch or snack time. She still gets milk 2 times per day (at a minimum).

Once we stopped nursing, the bottles were gone also. It was a nice transition.

Good luck.
~C.

Use a sippie cup that has a soft spout - you may have to try different ones to find one that she likes. There are ones with handles, larger ones, smaller ones, etc. I suggest one that is just the nipple (not one with a plug that prevents the liquid from coming out because this requires a stronger suction).

She should be fine using just the sippie cup (or just use one that has a straw). I second the thought that you should not use a bottle. It's okay to wean her from the boob and bottle at the same time.

Since you dropped one nursing, you can drop the other two each week. So this week, nurse 2x. Next week drop another feeding and nurse only 1x for a week. Then the third week you can drop the last one!

I agree with lactation consultant and with friends. When I weaned my 12 month old son (also breast-fed exclusively, the occasional bottle with breastmilk), he replaced a feeding with a sippy cup of milk. He wasn't a pro at the sippy cup at first, but got it down rather quickly. So your daughter will get it. Perhaps try a different sippy cup if she has trouble with the one she's using. I have heard negative things about the ones with valves. I use(d) the Take N Toss brand. If dropped, they can bust open. But that's only happened once or twice. They only drip a little if they get turned on their side. Try cups with and then without handles. My son at 11 months wanted handles. Now he doesnt. And when I filled the cups half-way he did better holding it himself because the cup wasn't so heavy.

Good luck!