Hi fellow moms, I have a 10 month old. He is nursing. I have never given him a bottle on a regular basis. He has taken one maybe 10 times in his whole life, with breast milk. I am home with him. I feel my milk supply is decreasing alittle. I am taking the herbs "more milk plus." and drinking "mothers milk tea." He does drink water from a sipply cup, but no more than 3 ounces per day. He is eating baby foods and a lot of finger foods. His weight is ok at 25%. I am concerned that he is not gettting enough flluids/calories from fluids. I do not plan to stop nursing, as I nursed my daughter for 21 months and all through my pregnancy up until my son was born. I will give him miilk at 11-12 months from a sippy cup, along with nurisng. We wakes up once to twice a night. I have not completely sleep trained him as I want to nurse him so he gets more nutrition. Also, when I nurse him to sleep at night, around 7 pm, my milk supply is the lowest, and increased significantly within 1-2 hours. I do not like to pump and it seems to throw me off with my milk supply. When I have a baby sitter, she has tried to give him a bottle of breast miilk and he will not take it, and will just be rocked to sleep. Therefore I do not want to be away for a long time as I am concerned about fluids for him. I would like to sleep train him and will need to be away all day in the future. What should I do???
I would pump and store milk to give him in a bottle and then just persevere with giving him a bottle for several feedings in a row until he masters it. It isn't so surprising that he doesn't like it as it is a good deal different from nursing.
You didn't mention what your drinking and eating. First I would recommend drinking as much water as you can starting as soon as you get up. Second make sure your getting to eat and snack.....keep it as nutrient rich food. Being a Mom of many I know forget to eat & drink due to busy serving the little ones. That does have an effect on the milk you produce. Hope this helps!
my son was nursed .. and took a bottle of pumped mlk for a while... then maybe at 5 or 6 months he decided taht milk came from momma.. and bottles were not for milk..
he would drink juice from a bottle.. so he had a bottle of juice if I was gone.. I wasnt gone that much and a bit of juice didnt hurt him
your baby will not dehydrate.. he is probably getting more milk than you think. it is hard to tell how much he gets.
why do you thik your milk supply is decreasing? it is normal at that time (closer to 1 year) that you stop feeling let down, no longer leak, and dont have that full or hard feeling! Those are VERY NORMAL! If you are concerned about fluids make sure baby gets to nurse as much as possible before you go out and give baby high fluid foods ( like fruits and veggies) for dinner and have sitter offer a sipy cup with water. Your baby is quickly going to be a tot! Dont worry you can go out without leaving a bottle! Keeep up the good work mama!!!!! ( o and by the way unless you regularly pump pumping is almost a learned art, and as baby gets older it is not easy to pump at all! I went OOT when my daughter was 15 months and I couldnt pump anything but af ew ounces)KEEP IT UP MAMA!!!!! :)
Both of my sons happened to choose 10 months to stop nursing. I was aiming for a year, but you can't force it just because you have a goal in mind. He may be ready for a little juice or you may need to try some formula or even milk (I know it's supposed to be one year, but he does have to drink something with calories, as you mentioned). It's probably a good idea to go with sippy cups, as you have with water, especially since he's not taking the bottle. There are so many cups now that 10 months isn't too young. Good luck.
Why do you think your supply is dwindling? I really highly doubt it is, after 10mos of nursing him. Just nurse him when he's asking for it, needs it, wakes, etc and he will be fine. at this point your body is so efficient, and he's so efficient at nursing, that your breasts will likely never feel full,but if he's satisfied, go with it.
Drinking Healthy Nursing Tea by secrets of tea helps to increase supply frequently...!!!.
my daughter is 10 months and i has had a bottle maybe 10 times to and she still refuses it but she will drink breastmilk from a sippy cup, i just had to go through a few of them till i found one she liked. while im at work she falls asleep sipping on it for naps so maybe try to find a sippy he really likes good luck!
I do think as other Moms have suggested that the experience changes as the child is eating solids and nursing less. You don't feel as "full" and don't get the sensation of let down so much. I agree just keep nursing and you can give him other fluids at other times of the day in a sippy cup. My son wouldn't take milk from a bottle EVER either. Also he may wean himself earlier that your daughter did once he is really running around....I had every intention of keeping breastfeeding and my son was done by 15 months. He just couldn't be bothered to stop playing for some milk.
I'm not sure why you think your supply is dwindling? Can you give us more info? How many times per day is he nursing? Does he seem to be nursing effectively when he nurses-latches on, stays on, you can hear him drinking? Does he seem satisfied once he's finished? If he's doing those things then he is probably getting what he needs. I found it was very important to stay confident in my ability to nurse my son (my first child). I also found that my supply did decrease slightly right around the time I was going to start my period so I planned ahead and had extra milk available for him. But I could tell the decrease by the fact that he got hungrier quicker than normal and it was consistent month to month. But my supply always went back to normal pretty quickly.
As far as sleep-my son was a great sleeper from 7 months on but my also EBF daughter was not a great sleeper until she was over a year old. All babies are different and they all respond to sleep training differently.
For the sippy cup, even though you don't care for pumping, try taking the spout out and adding a small amount of warm breastmilk. By taking the spout out, they get the idea of what the cup is all about and why you are giving it to them. I started giving my daughter the sippy like that around 6 months and it took a while for her to get it and yes, it makes a bit of a mess but it really helped her get it. Since your son is older than her he will probably pick up on it sooner.
