Weaning Blues

The Little Monkey had been showing signs of weaning since she was about 8 months old but I chose to ignore them because I was expecting to keep her on breastmilk till she was one and even then I was hoping to maintain the morning and night feed for another year or so. Looks like she had other plans in mind! 8 months was a turning point for us because she used to go through days when she’d want to feed 4 times a day for about 10 minutes each, but then she’d have weeks when I was lucky to get 2 minutes at each feed. She was eating really well and we were getting more than 6 wet diapers so I assumed it was just a phase and we continued our routine for the next two months. She was sleeping from 7 p.m to 8 a.m and would not wake up for a feed (as long as she was sleeping  alone in her own room). I got a bit nervous and started giving her 5 oz of pumped breastmilk each night before bedtime because she was refusing to feed from me. Didn’t want her starving in the night! Towards the 9 month mark I noticed that my own supply was decreasing despite having continued pumping to maintain my supply. There were many times when she’d refuse milk from me but would drink from a bottle (oh hush all you ‘ I told you so’-ers! and ‘you shouldn’t give a bottle’ sayers!), so I would go pump and then give her the measly ounce I got mixed in with some of the frozen breastmilk supply I had accumulated. I know.. I was being mean and probably should have given her some formula but I wanted to hold on to the ideal scenario of being able to breastfeed till the very end. Couple days shy of her 11 month birthday she started to fight me at each feed and would crawl or start playing with my necklace instead of drinking the nectar from the source. One night she woke up and wanted a feed but in the dark room she was able to point at an empty bottle lying on her change pad in the middle of her cryingfest. That was my wake up call. I had to fix the issue.. she needed milk and I wasn’t able to pump the 20 odd ounces she wanted and needed each day. I was able to get through the last two months by using the frozen supply I had accumulated till the 6 month mark. Now I was dry. Cheese and yoghurt was amongst her list of favourite snacks so I figured dairy was not going  to be an issue. She had also snuck in a few gulps whenever she saw me drinking a glass of milk. I decided to wean her off and it happened much faster than the advised slow process.  I had received a small 6 pack of Baboo milk when we were visiting Montreal. Yes I brought it back with us! I started to wean her off by giving her one bottle of Baboo right before her 2nd nap (around 3-ish p.m) and one before her bedtime. She fed from me for the morning and evening feed (30 secs if I was lucky!). She seemed happier, gulped down the bottles enthusiastically and seemed content. We did this for three days (told you it was fast!) and I had no engorgement issues, because lets face it… she had started weaning me off months ago!! Smart girl. Come her 11 month birthday (and once I was through the free 6 pack) I decided to switch to organic 3.28% milk. She’ll be fine I said! Well what do you know.. I started to notice that she’d throw up once a day (she never did this before) and her poop was starting to get runny. Reminded me of those very early 10 days into being born diapers. Hmm.. I dismissed it as an ‘adjustment period’. She was fine. Come day 5 she clearly had diarrhea. They were out of control, watery and a crazy mustardy yellow. Time to get worried I reckon but her temperament was fab! She was happy as ever minus the diaper rash caused by the excessive poops. It was the milk. What else could it be? Back to Baboo I went. The crazy poops continued for another week but it was getting better. I went about worrying and doubting myself. Shouldn’t have weaned her off!! EEks. But I was starving her by denying her the bottle! Then we noticed that my friend’s baby (who was staying with us) was showing the same symptoms and she’s been on whole milk for months! Hmm.. okay must be some sort of virus. The doctor confirmed it but recommended that I switch back to breastfeeding as much as possible for the next three days. Okay back to being a personal cow. I still snuck in two bottles (5 oz each) of Baboo each day because I knew my supply was low. She only seemed to be interested in feeding from me for the very first morning feed, everything else was a struggle. I said to heck with it and went back to Baboo full time (except the morning feed) and we continued this for the next three weeks. This week, 10 days shy of her 1st birthday I switched her to whole milk and she’s just fine. It was all just a virus that had me and everyone else in our house in knots. This post was by no way sponsored by Baboo, I know there’s been a lot of controversy about the product recently but for me… I love it. It might be a marketing gimmick (and I’m a marketer!) but it works for me. I liked the fact that its fat content is closer to breastmilk than regular milk, I love the fact that I can buy the 1L pack for home consumption but that I can toss some of the smaller individual packs (with a straw!!) into the diaper bag or my purse for our outings. I  no longer need to worry about milk going bad because these individual packs don’t need to be refrigerated if they aren’t open. I love the fact that Baboo’s shelf life is only 3 months versus other tetra packs. I will admit that I wasn’t  thrilled at the tetra pack format when I first saw it… just a bad association with anything packaged versus fresh. But I got over it after some diligent research. It was fine and best of all.. it gave me peace of mind. As we prep for our Mexico travels (yes! 12th city to celebrate her 12th month of existence!) my suitcase will be filled with Baboo. I’m going to have to figure out the baggage weight allowance and all that but…. I need to make it happen! I don’t want to risk giving her bad milk which might have gone bad from sitting out in the sun for too long or improper storing! So that was my weaning experience… we now only breastfeed for the 1st morning feed and then on it’s 4 bottles of 5 oz. each during the day. Sometimes she’s hungrier (right now she’s refusing solids!) so she gets about 7 oz. here and there. Weaning was quick once we got to it but that’s only because I was ignoring the signs and her pleas because I wanted to hold on to the tradition and follow what modern research was asking from moms – to breastfeed till the 1 year mark (some even recommended 2 years!). This is what works for us and everyone is happier. I now can guilt free leave her for the entire day, as I did when I went to Buffalo for a football game I won from Samsung Canada! Or all the wine and beer events I’ve been covering lately. I got me my boobs back.  Do you have any weaning experiences you’d like to share? It might even be you weaning off from vodka. I’ll take any story I can get!

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  • cheryl
    April 13, 2014 at 9:57 am

    We are getting close to weaning from formula and I am so nervous! I have heard of Baboo in the past but didn’t really understand it. Now they say you can introduce milk after 9months old so I am going to maybe look into Baboo first before Homo milk.

  • kathy downey
    June 24, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    A journey of the weaning blues,kids are all so different thanks for sharing your story she is adorable and to see now she has grown into a beautiful young girl…..honestly they grow to fast !! Have a super weekend !

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