Breastfeeding questions?

Question

For women who have already breastfed...
am breastfeeding my new baby (also my first baby). What age do you think the baby should be weaned off the nipple and onto a sippy cup? Is six to nine months too soon?
(The sippy cup will have breastmilk in it.)
ALSO - when a baby begins teething, will she bite at my nipples? I'm worried she might hurt me.

Answer 1

If you want to wean (as in stopping breast feeding) start the cup as early as you want. Six months is fine. But you will probably need a bottle to supply formula.
If you just mean teaching the cup and breastfeeding at the same time (which I think you mean because you said the cup has breast milk in it), six months is fine too. Do what works best for you and for the baby. We gave my daughter a cup around 6 months and let her have little amounts of water. She learned the cup just fine and nursed 19 1/2 months with no problems.

Teething- This worked for me. At the first nip- whether or not the baby has teeth, remove him/her and say NO. Or OUCH! If the baby has teeth, you'll probably say OUCH anyway. My daughter started crying because she hurt me. She didn't bite again.

The only exception to this is when you are nursing them to sleep. I think someone else explained that when they are latched properly they can't bite, so I won't get into that. But when they fall asleep, if you don't notice it in time, the nipple moves toward the front of the mouth and you could get accidentally nipped. The cure for this is to pay attention to when the sucking slows, and carefully break the latch with your finger. That will prevent the bite. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me. I've been there, and I remember it was nice to have someone to talk to that had been there too.

Good luck. Congrats on the baby!

Answer 2

lol. . .I may be the worst person to answer this question for you. Listen you may have every intention of stopping breast feeding at 6-9 months. . . however your baby may have other plans. I swore I wouldn't breast feed past 9 months and then a year past. When you stop breast feeding your baby will scream and cry and will sware that she/he will not go to sleep without it - and then you'll give in just to get some sleep. Then a year will pass and you're still breast feeding. Then you will get brave and make him/her go cold turkey. Then my son got sick - really sick. . . and to just comfort him I would let him breast feed because it would calm him and when they are sick - the best thing for them to do is nurse. . . so why not right?! Well finally when he was 18 months I took him off of it cold turkey. Finally!

There will be some nibbling of the nipples. Sorry - there will be. When she's 6-9 months you can start teaching her "no" and pull the breast from his/her mouth -soon they'll stop.

Sippy cups are great. The soft nipple sippy cups are great- your baby will tell you when she/he is ready. Try it and see. If they get irritated with it - then they are not ready or you can try another kind. If they take to it - wonderful. Putting some apple juice/water or the gerber juice in it first may turn them on to it (7-9 months).

Good luck - email me if you have any other questions.

Answer 3

There is no right answer for this one. Everyone has different views or circumstances that would make them wean at different times. You might find that when you start to wean the baby, she won't want to nurse anymore, so you have to be ready for that part of it. Some women have a hard time letting go of that special part of breastfeeding. As for the teething, yes, she probably will start to bite your nipples. That in itself might be enough to make you want to wean her to something else...a bottle or sippy cup. But some women nurse until well after their babies get teeth, so it can be done. Good luck!

Answer 4

Hi

Im a mother of a 2 1/2 year old son and I breastfed him till he was 9 months. I had to stop because of some health issues with my son. He refused to eat any solid food at all and because of that he ended up being very anemic. I had no choice but to put him on Pediasure milk which is a meal replacement. As far as a sippy cup goes...the earlier the better. They now have sippy cups for newborns. The longer you waite, the harder time you'll have to weane him off. As long as your sippy cup is age apropriate and your baby is not choking while drinking, there are no ages for a cup. Not only is it more freedom for yourself but its better for the baby to get used to different textures which will help with eating different textured food. Alot of my friends and family have breasfed and it seems like thoes who breasfed till after 6 months without introducing a cup have had problems with food and textures. For the teething :( ....It will happen that you will get bitten. For myself, the first time my son bit me, I said ouch and removed him from my breast for about 5 min. The next day he decided to try again and he was removed from the breast for 15 min. He never did try again....Make sure you say ouch loud enough and remove him right away. Definately do not make a joke out of it or laugh, this will agravate the situation. Hope this helps and congratulations on breastfeeding, you made a very good choice for your baby and keep up the good work.

Answer 5

Babies can be started on sippy cups at 5 months,and I recommend giving your infant a bottle once a day or so, enough for them to know what it is,otherwise it will be harder to wean them later. But for their emotional comfort its best Not to wean babies off bottles completely until they are 10 mos. at the earliest. The standard is 1-2 years though. Going from exclusive breastfeeding to sippy cups would be too stressful for a baby.Start slow, keep non milk fluids for sippys and bottles for milk, then ease her into milk sippys. The bedtime bottle should be the last to go.(and she may need a bedtime feeding well into her first year)Yes, she will bite, and it hurts but by that time it won´t seem as scary as it may now. It´s true if she bites too much she may be improperly latched, or need something to chew on.Mine did it when she was finished or wasn´t hungry.When she does just gently stick your pinkie in her mouth and say"no", until she learns breast manners. try not to yelp or she will be scared.It worked for me! My daughter knew what "No" meant by 7 months.
good luck,congratulations!

Answer 6

FABULOUS! Its so good to hear that you are breastfeeding. Certainly six months is a good time to start introducing a cup. Your baby probably won't get the hang of drinking from it till about 9 or 10 months. I have had four kids and have breastfed all of them for up to a year. my youngest is 11 months and still breastfed, he has a beaker of juice everyday now but he still likes little drinks from me too. Some would say to avoid juice of course it's down to personal choice. My only reservation would be that if you introduce breastmilk in a beaker she might get a bit lazy on the breast. As for will you get bitten by your baby, well I'm sorry to say yes you probably will at some point. My first baby didn't get her first tooth untill she was 12 months so I wasn't feeding her by then but all of my other three did bite me a few times, mainly when they had some pain in the area. one thing I have learnt is not to make too big a deal of it because my youngest especially thinks its a game, but when I don't react he gives up doing it. Its not nice but your nipples get tougher over time. persevere if you can though cause it only lasts a little while. on the other hand I know some mums whose babies never bit them at all so you never know you might be alright. good luck.

Answer 7

If a baby is latched on correctly (your nipple far back into her mouth) it will be almost impossible for her to bite you. That doesn't mean she still can't, but it makes it harder.

As for weaning her, if you want to do it, it's up to you. All babies are different and take to bottles and cups and different times. My first baby refused a bottle at all because she was breatfed for the first 6 months. Eventually, she took to it, but it took patience and a lot of crying. However, she took to a sippy cup right away (at 13 months)

As for my twins, they were never breastfed, but my son took the cup as soon as we offered it to him. His twin sister put up a fight until 18 months.

So, just experiment with it. Introduce the cup several times. Don't be suprised if she wants to use it as a toy or toss it on the floor. She'll get the hang of it eventually.

My peditrician gave me the tip of using a diluted mixture of 1/2 apple juice and 1/2 water to get them interested. Then replacing it later with the milk. That worked wonders.

Good luck.

Answer 8

Breastfeeding should continue for AT LEAST the entire first year of life.

You can introduce sippy cups of water or expressed breastmilk in order to help wash down solid foods around 6 months of age.

Your baby might try out her chompers on you. Simply say, "no biting" firmly and put baby down. After just a few times they'll figure out that if they bite, they don't get to finish nursing. Also, if you watch you can learn to avoid getting bitten by watching baby for cues. If baby is biting, she isn't actively nursing. When they are actually nursing, the tongue comes out and covers the gums.

Answer 9

I have a 10 month old who is not fully on a sippy cup. 6-9 months is great to introducte the sippy cup, but there is no reason for her to be fully on it until after a year. It is possible they will bite. My son hasn't yet (he doesn't have any teeth tho.) If she does bite, give her something else right away (like a chew toy) so she doesn't continue to bite you.

Check out http://www.kellymom.com for a lot of great breastfeeding information.

Answer 10

the recommended time to wean from the bottle or nipple to a sippy cup is 12 months.