How to wean 1 year old

[minkie]

I BF my 4 year old until she turned three when I fell pregnant, just at night before bed and it was easy to just tell her that it hurt mommy now and that was kinda of that. Now with my soon to be 1 year old I am ready to wean her early, for one because I'm pregnant again, and for two, it really isn't enjoyable for me anymore as she constantly pinches, scratches, scrapes slaps etc while she is nursing and I'm just over it specially now with the pregnancy and her being able to drink cows milk. SOOO....how did you moms do it with a baby that is around a year old? Do I start trying to give her milk in a bottle? The problem I'm really just concerned about is nap times and bed time as I rock and nurse her and then put her in her crib, so not sure how to replace that? Any advice would be great thanks!

 

[cutie4evr01]

I'd skip the bottle and give her milk in a cup since she's already 1. It will probably be easier on her (and less engorgement for you) if you replace one feed at a time. I'd recommend dropping any feeds not associated with sleep first, and then start replacing the feed before nap with a cup of milk, and finally the feed before bed with a cup of milk. I weaned my daughter when she was 1 this way and she took to it fairly easily. Then a few weeks later we started bringing her bedtime milk earlier and earlier until she was just having milk with her dinner and that was it for the night.

Has she already had some cow's milk? If not, and you find she doesn't like it, you could try mixing it with EBM at first until she gets used to it. Luckily my daughter took to it right away - she loves her milk!

 

[minkie]

Thanks! Yah she hasn't really taken to the cows milk, I tried sitting with her with a cup of it at naptime and she threw it against the wall....