Weaning

[mayerling]

The title is self explanatory. How do I do it?

I was hoping to BF for 6 months and put up with mastitis, thrush, and vasospasms in an attempt to do it. Plus I love the fact that no matt how upset N might be, he always calms down on the boob.
Anyway, the problem is that I have advanced nail fungus which was left untreated because of my pregnancy and no longer responds to topical treatments, so I have to tak e oral medication which I cannot do while I BF. the fungus is pretty advanced to the point where the nail on my right thumb is almost separated from the nail bed so I don't think I can wait until my son is 6 months - he's 10 weeks now. I think i'll be lucky if I can get to 4 months.

 

[Demelza]

I don't have any advice for weaning a young baby, but did want to say that it's very possible you may be able to continue breastfeeding during your treatment. I know of at last one oral anti-fungal treatment, Diflucan (fluconazale), that is in fact compatible with breastfeeding, and it seems possible others are as well: http://www.nbci.ca/index.php?option...=18:fluconazole&catid=5:information&Itemid=17. I think doctors are sometimes too quick to recommend weaning before beginning oral treatment of any kind when in fact it's really not necessary. Here is a fabulous resource on the safety of medication during lactation. You can call the center and speak to them about your concerns directly: http://www.infantrisk.com/
Good luck -- I really hope you don't have to wean if you don't want to!!

ETA: My sympathies for all the fun stuff you've been dealing with (mastitis et al). I am currently breastfeeding my second child and have had nothing but problems. At 14 months, I'm currently dealing with painful milk blisters that result in equally painful plugged ducts. The things we put up with for our babies!!!

 

[Dreamer_D]

I weaned both my kids at 12 months. I just started letting other people feed them milk from cups or bottles and did not offer the breast. My husband took over comforting them at night until they got used to receiving comfort from me without the breast. It did not take long and because I stopped offering, they just stopped asking. Thought if Ryder sees my nippes he still tried to latch on! Its really funny and cute.

I hope you can continue nursing after your treatment I would be tempted to use bottles until my treatment was done, and pump and dump the milk, then get started again after. Or ditto Demelza about the motherrisk website, I have used them for my own reference and they are highly reputable.

 

[mayerling]

Thanks for the replies.

The medication I have to take is terbinafine which treats nail fungus specifically and is not compatible with BF; and I have to take it for at least 4 months and possibly more so I don't think pumping and dumping is an option.

I suppose my question is what the process is for weaning. Do you reduce the meals gradually? How do you deal with engorgement?

 

[Puppmom]

Mayerling, you would be surprised at how fast your supply diminishes. I think I would probably decrease the frequency, not the amount because then you have an angry baby that is still hungry but being taken off the boob! You will be engorged at first but your body will get the hint. You might want to drop a feed a day (if you have pumped milk that you can mix with formula for the dropped feed, that would be ideal). Then drop another, etc. If you want things to move a little more quickly, I would stop nursing altogether and have others feed N pumped milk mixed with formula but pump less often than you would nurse and gradually decrease the pumping sessions. I think you could be *done* in a couple of weeks.

Sorry you've had so many issues and I hope things look up soon!

FWIW, I don't necessarily think there's a right way - whatever works for you and N is what's right.

 

[Demelza]

I suppose it depends how quickly you need to wean. I would do it as gradually as I possibly could -- reducing one nursing session at a time every 4 days or so. Since it sounds like you might be prone to getting mastitis, you don't want to go too quickly. At 10 weeks, I would imagine your baby is nursing quite a lot, so it could take a while to fully wean, but that is really the best way to reduce engorgement. Placing a cold cabbage leaf on each breast is one way to deal with engorgement and supposedly cabbage helps to reduce milk supply (not sure if that's actually true -- I've read conflicting info about that). There's lots of info online -- Kellymom is a great resource: http://www.kellymom.com

 

[Skippy123]

cabbage leaves work; I would slowly pump and reduce a pump every few days. have you tried vinegar? I heard vinegar can work for fungus but it takes a long time and tea tree. [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/any-nail-techs-out-there-help-for-fungus.79816/#post-1237164#p1237164']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/any-nail-techs-out-there-help-for-fungus.79816/#post-1237164#p1237164[/URL]

 

[Dreamer_D]

I dropped one feed every few weeks, but my kids were older and only nursing about 4-5 times a day when they weaned.

 

[ray1214]

For the first little few weeks it was just about recovery. Get up in the morning, change her, give her a bottle, try to eat something, change her, let her sleep, change her, feed her, change her, let her sleep, eat something, change her, etc. She started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks,moncler down because she caught a cold. Before that, it was really more like sleep 3 hours, wake up for an hour, drink a bottle, hang out for an hour, http://www.e-monkureru.com/ go back to sleep for another couple hours. We watched a lot of Arrested Development. I don't remember any of it because I was on serious pain meds and sleep deprived, but I remember laughing a lot.

 

[mayerling]

Well, I've decided to start weaning in a couple of weeks when N is four months and hopefully that means that whole process will be completed by 5 months. What I'm concerned with is how to go about eliminating feedings. I assumed that I'd eliminate one feed - say the 9am one, wait a few days for engorgement to go away, and then eliminate the next feed - so the 12 o'clock one. However, I was just doing some research online and some websites suggest eliminating alternate feeds; so if I were to eliminate the 9am one, the next one to go should be the 3pm one. Does that make sense?

 

[mayerling]

Bump

 

[amc80]

However, I was just doing some research online and some websites suggest eliminating alternate feeds; so if I were to eliminate the 9am one, the next one to go should be the 3pm one. Does that make sense?

That's what would make sense to me. Either that, or just go an hour longer between feeds. So if you were doing 9am, 12pm, 3pm, etc., you'd do 9am, 1pm, 5pm, etc., then a few days (or week?) later stretch them out another hour. Not sure if this would work, but it is how I would attempt it.

 

[mayerling]

But I'm not trying to eliminate feeds per se; I'm trying to replace them with formula.

 

[amc80]

But I'm not trying to eliminate feeds per se; I'm trying to replace them with formula.

Ah, got it. I would space out the replaced feedings then, rather than replacing them sequentially.

 

[mayerling]

But I'm not trying to eliminate feeds per se; I'm trying to replace them with formula.

Ah, got it. I would space out the replaced feedings then, rather than replacing them sequentially.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean...

 

[amc80]

But I'm not trying to eliminate feeds per se; I'm trying to replace them with formula.

Ah, got it. I would space out the replaced feedings then, rather than replacing them sequentially.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean...

Just like you said in your post- rather than eliminating 9am, then the noon, then the 3pm, eliminate the 9am, then the 3pm, then the 6pm, etc.

 

[mayerling]

I see. What's the reasoning behind the alternate eliminations though?

 

[amc80]

I see. What's the reasoning behind the alternate eliminations though?

I would imagine it would be more comfortable for you that way. That is based on no professional knowledge, it's just how I would approach it. But I've just consulted Dr. Google, and it looks like you should drop the feeding that is the least important to your baby...that's what it said on several sites I looked at. Not sure how that's determined though!

 

[mayerling]

Yes, but the question is which one i should drop next given how the end goal is to drop them all within one month.

 

[stephbolt]

I see. What's the reasoning behind the alternate eliminations though?

I would imagine that would be the most comfortable to you as your supply regulates - if you eliminated 9, then noon, then 3, then 6, you'd be making a longer and longer stretch where you wouldn't be emptying your breasts at all. By jumping around you have shorter intervals between emptying them while still getting some of the engorgement feedback your body will need to cut back supply. Of course, this is just my logical view of it, and is not based in any actual research.

 

[amc80]

I see. What's the reasoning behind the alternate eliminations though?

I would imagine that would be the most comfortable to you as your supply regulates - if you eliminated 9, then noon, then 3, then 6, you'd be making a longer and longer stretch where you wouldn't be emptying your breasts at all. By jumping around you have shorter intervals between emptying them while still getting some of the engorgement feedback your body will need to cut back supply. Of course, this is just my logical view of it, and is not based in any actual research.

That was exactly what I was trying to say...but also based on no research

 

[mayerling]

Some more advice needed:

N feeds 7 times in a 24-hour period: 5 times in the day and two MOTN. At the moment, I've replaced the 12pm feed and yesterday I also replaced the 5:30pm feed. So I've got the 9am, 3pm, 7:30pm, and the two MOTN ones left. Which one do you think should go next?

Also, during the night when he's routine is so set, I think he'll probably have a hard time not being offered the boob. Should DH do the MOTN feeds until he accepts the new status quo?

Finally, our bedtime routine is pretty solid: bath, nurse, rock, sleep. I think he'll definitely have a hard time not being given the boob. I think DH will have to do the bedtime routine until Nicholas accepts the new status quo. However, should I start incorporating DH into the routine now so that things are less new when the time comes to replace the breast with the sippy? At the moment, DH is involved during the bath process but leaves when we start nursing. Should I have him do bath and rocking to sleep now, and then have him do the whole process until N is completely weaned?