Baby almost 1 year and i did not expect to be nursing /pumping still but glad i was able to. i am mostly just pumping now as baby less interested in the boob and prefers bottles. Question is- If i decide to continue past age 1 at the time when regular milk is introduced, do you just do both and alternate or combine milk???
Just keep giving breastmilk! No need to introduce regular milk. God made breastmilk perfect! It changes as your baby grows so it contains everything your baby needs.
I breastfed our son to 18 months. He had only a few sips of regular milk out of my cup when he wanted before that time. I did NOT serve him regular milk, just breastmilk till we completely weaned.
Congrats on giving your baby breastmilk this long!
Eventually you will not produce enough. However, until that time breastmilk is fine. You may want to do a vitamin D supplement - check w/ Ped. Then to get baby to get used to milk, mix the two together to adjust to the different taste. Whatever works is great for you and the baby. No hard and fast rules here. Good for you for making it a year! Impressive.
I introduced cows milk at a year for drinking out of a cup at mealtimes, but still breastfed from the breast til 2 yrs. I kept breastfeeding at first because he wouldn't take the cows milk, it took a couple months before he would take it. Mine never really used bottles, so at a year I just started putting milk in his cup instead of water. He would refuse but I just kept offering til he took it. At that point I saw no reason to stop nursing the couple times a day that he still nursed. I'm not sure why experts would say not to do both, my doctor said both was fine. You will probably want to introduce the milk before you quit nursing in case it takes some time to make the transition. But I would start offering it in cups to make the bottle transition easier.
I did both. I know that the experts advise against it, but it was too easy to give up. Do what you feel comfortable doing. Do what works for you.
