I am still breastfeeding and my son is 13 months. He wont take a bottle, and he doesnt eat enough solid food.?

Question

He only wants to breastfeed when it is nap time. So what can I do to ween him?

I am trying to wean him but he is very reluctant to the idea. I feed him solids but after 5 minutes he starts so spit it out! Also when he wants to eat and we are out in public he trys to pull my shirt down. It is embarrassing how can i get him to stop!

Answer 1

Start him on a sippy cup filled with warm breastmilk. If he's really hungry, he'll take it. Hold him in your arms and rock him while he's drinking. Stroke his head and just comfort him all around. After about a week, fill it with warm cow's milk. Then gradually lessen the temperature so you can fill it from the fridge.

Breastfeeding is also a way to comfort your son. Try rocking with him 20 minutes before naptime. Read him stories, sing to him, etc. Make some quiet time for you and him. It seems that he uses the experience as a way to wind down before a nap.


----Try to get someone else, like dad, to put him down for a nap. He won't expect milk from dad or anyone other than you, and after a while, he'll forget about it. If dad's not available (cause it's midday) maybe your mom or a friend could help. He also needs to accept comfort from someone besides you, so *dad* can be of even more help. You could even try to give him a snack immediately before naptime and see if it fills him up.

When he pulls on your shirt, just tell him no and then distract him with a toy (if he's not actually hungry). If that doesn't work, he may want attention. He'll catch on soon.

Answer 2

Try to implement a new naptime routine that you follow each day. Start with nursing him (rather than nursing him to sleep), then read a book, sing songs or rock in the rocking chair. That will help you break the association of nursing with sleep (without making him cry). You could also try driving him around in the car if that generally helps him fall asleep.

Later when he can fall asleep without nursing you can drop that last nursing. You can also offer a sippy cup with whole milk or water.

There's no reason to wean at 13 months unless that's what you want. There are lots of health benefits to continuing to nurse through age 2, particularly if your son is not getting enough solids. If it's working for you, then continue. If it's not, then work on gentle ways to wean. Here are some ideas for weaning a one-year-old:

http://www.breastfeeding123.com/weaning-a-one-year-old-mom-to-mom-6/

Congrats on 13 months of breastfeeding!

Answer 3

Ack it's not easy even when they self wean. All I can suggest is that you don't make it a battle ground but a rite of passage. I gave up breastfeeding my first when she was 15 months.

The reason he isn't eating enough is because your supplying the alternative. If it's always on tap and comforting what's in it for him to change?

I wouldn't worry about the bottle, mine never took to the bottle at all. Offer a sippy cup and comment on what a big boy he is. Don't talk about breastfeeding and if he goes in for help-me-self trick laugh, pick him up swing him and say "where's my big boy. Do you want a drink in your big boy cup?". It might be thirst or it might just be comfort seeking.

Encourage him to eat solid food by getting him involved with the eating process (ie, you both have a spoon at feed time or you offer him a taste of your food as well as his own). If he makes a fuss, smile and say something like "that's okay you don't have to if you don't want to" and ask him if he's full. If he eats initially, keep his portion small exclaim how great he is with each mouthfull, lots of cheering and fun. Offer seconds and say how proud you are he's building up his muscles and getting strong. Kids love that sort of thing and my little girl used to do a muscle pose to show me how strong she was getting.

Never get angry, beg or cajole. If your worried about his dairy intake then offer cheese, yoguart with sprinkles on top (tell him its superhero food), frothy milkshakes etc. He needs a combination of 400mls dairy each day as well as a balanced diet.

His stomach is roughly the size of his closed fist so the portions don't need to be big just frequent. If you offer food before you usually feed and have an distracting task to follow the breastfeeding will soon lose its pull.

Decide which feed your going to cut first. They recommend you leave the first and last feeds till last to drop. Drop one feed per week to let your breasts cope with the change. You have to be strong and offer alternatives. Be it a cuddle for comfort and a song or a snack/drink in his big boy cup. At nap time you need to change the routine from breastfeeding to cuddling and storytelling. It's the comfort that makes him sleepy. Warm milk in a sippy cup with a cuddle will have the same effect. It does take patience though. Take it slow but once you've dropped the feed be strong and don't go back.

You might feel silly for offering up so much praise or cuddles but I can tell you from experience kids love it. It's the greatest kiddy motivator ever.

Answer 4

Because you have waited til this point , it is most likely going top be hard to wean. I have a 10 month old and have just weaned her off the breast. When she was 4 months old , I started to pump milk and introduce formula. I give you a great deal of credit for nursing this long, good for you! Just try to give less breast bit by bit everyday, and keep on trying to get him to take a bottle. Hopefully he will be hungry enough to try the bottle. There are many bottles out there that are shaped like breast to help with the transition, look into those, good luck!

Answer 5

My youngest never took a bottle and she hated spillproof sippy cups. So, I "doctored" some formula with a few teaspoons of rice cereal in to a cup with an easy sip lid and she loved it! She had it at nap and bed time and eventually she switched to just plain milk. In order to wean, you have slowly decrease nursing and limit it to only one time a day. Honestly, he may not be ready!

Answer 6

Get him to eat more solids & introduce him to a sippy cup & continue to breast feed him at nap time.

Answer 7

He will cry but it is time to end the breast feeding. Give him a sippy cup and tell him that he is a big boy. Reward him for using it with a new toy.

Answer 8

give him whole milk in a cup hes too big for a bottle