best way to wean?

Question

My daughter is ten months old 😔 but I am so ready to start ending our breastfeeding journey. I want to continue to give her BM until she's a year but after that I would like to stop. Glow recently posted an article saying the best way to switch is to do it cold turkey at a year. And I don't feel like that's best.. Is it?
  
When I asked someone else about weaning I got shamed for wanting to stop. (Because if I made it this far I should keep going). breastfeeding wasn't this magical thing for me. Personally I hate it. I sucked it up for a year but now I'm ready. 
  
I have over 500oz saved and was wondering if I should start to put a little milk in bottles mixed with BM to get her tummy used to it or is that a no no? She's a comfort nurser when she's super sleepy and I'd also like to slowly try to eliminate that. This is my first baby and nobody else in my family has breastfed. I'm so lost and overhwhelned on how to start this process. 
   
I should also add that I'm a huge oversupplier. I've tried block feeding and its helped a bit but that's another thing I'm worried about for weaning. My stash is from when I worked and that was all extra I pumped during the day. I don't pump outside of work.

Answer

I would start out with eliminating the night nursing since she is just doing it for comfort. Have a bottle/ cup on hand with expressed milk in it in case she is really hungry though. As far as weaning goes, I kind of just started replacing nursing sessions with bottles and then when my son was around 11 1/2 months I started to introduce cow's milk with breast milk and eventually by the time he was one we were completely on the cows milk. While I was doing this, I was decreasing the amount of times I pumped for him which slowly decreased my supply until it was completely gone.

Please don't let anyone shame you for wanting to start weaning. You did an amazing thing by making it this far with breastfeeding! It is definitely hard work. And it makes sense to start weaning now because it can take your baby a while to make the transition. Good luck!

Answer

First off hugs to you mama, Not very many mothers can work and give their baby nothing but breastmilk so forget what people have to say!!  🤗 that is amazing to see. Second I would start by dropping the night feeding (very hard I know, my daughter is almost 11 months and I'm having a really hard time ) then I would replace her nursing sessions with whole milk. Good luck!

Answer

I think what's best with weaning is how you and your dd decide.
Weaning at a year is kind of a hard time to do it. Because of all of the mental developments that happen a lot go back to nursing like a newborn. It's how they can get a little peace from their mind screaming 'start walking'! Lasted about 3/4 months for me.

Start with cutting out the least important feed. Distract lo. Once lo had adjusted to that cut the next and so on. 
The last to go are usually nap and bed time. Be prepared for it to take awhile for each feed.

Answer

Cold turkey sounds a bit mean. 
I worked at a daycare and a lot of the moms started mixing breast milk or formula with Vitamin D milk at about 9-10 months to start the transition. 
They did it gradually. 3 parts BM to 1 part milk then 1/2 and 1/2 , 1/4 to 3/4 and eventually all Whole milk. 
Good luck.

Answer

I would. As long as you have the breastmilk saved, start transitioning, or start transitioning when you have less oz left. With my first, we transitioned at a year and it took a couple of days to go full cows milk.  Who cares what people say.

best way to wean?

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