When do you want your child to stop breastfeeding or taking the bottle?
How do you feel about weaning him?
Do you think he will be upset? Will you?
Weaning doesn’t have to be hard or painful.
In fact, you started weaning when you first gave solid foods. You will finish when your child stops taking the breast or bottle. When that happens is up to you and him.
Your child weans himself by gradually losing interest in the breast or bottle. You just have to let it happen.
When he eats family meals, he fills up on solid foods and milk from a cup. If you don’t offer a nipple-feeding at mealtime, he doesn’t miss it.
Here is how to wean, step by step:
- Have him join in with family meals by giving him soft and easy-to-eat family food. Give him formula or breastmilk in a cup.
- Don’t offer a breast- or formula-feeding before, after, or along with the meal. If you do, he won’t learn to eat family food.
- After your child is a year old and eating 2 or 3 ounces of table food at the meal, you may put pasteurized whole milk in the cup.
- Stop feeding on demand. Offer the breastfeeding or formula-feeding for snacks, at set times between meals.
- Change from nipple feeding to cup drinking at snack time when you are both ready.
- He may not drink much milk from the cup at first, but he will drink more when he gets better at it. Keep offering milk at meals, not anything else except water.
- When he is sick or upset, your child may want the breast or bottle again for a while. That’s fine. When he feels better, he will lose interest in nipple-feeding.
What kind of milk?
Whole milk is best for your child.
Skim milk, 2%, and 1% milk have less of the fat he needs for energy and brain growth. Keep in mind there is no rush about changing from formula or breastmilk to regular milk.
If your child was a preemie or had a slow start for any other reason, it’s best to keep him on breastmilk or formula for a while longer. Don’t feed unpasteurized milk of any type at any age.
