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Keleho 
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 Topic: When to move to cows milk
Posted: 17 March 2011 at 9:02pm |
DD has been breastfeed with no issues until about 10 months old when she randomly went on a nursing strike, completly refusing not only bfeeds, but any milk drink what-so-ever.
I persevered expressing and offering and shes now drinking EBM whenever offered, which is generally 3 times a day (still refuses straight off me though).
As I was hand expressing for about a week (before I got my medela swing pump  ), which made my milk supply drop quite a bit.
On top of that, I had all four of my wisdom teeth out last week and although I continued to express, I couldnt eat as much as I needed to, therefore my supply has dropped again.
Up until these two things I have had no issues with supply.
I am still expressing three times a day and get around 100ml in the morning, 50ml after lunch and 50ml at night and dont feel this is enough for her feeds all day. She does drink plenty of water and I include dairy foods with her meals (cheese, yoghurt etc).
I have two options in my mind:
Bake a batch of lactation cookies, get all the herbal supply boosting stuff, eat a load more, and generally do all the things to boost my supply.
or
Keep going as I am, give the 200ml I can express as her before bed drink and substiture the morning and lunch drinks with cows milk.
I would love to be able to express enough milk for my little girl if possible so perhaps I could just substitute in the meantime and then switch back when my supply is a bit more re-established, but Im not sure how difficult it is to boost my supply at this stage.
Thoughts?
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Kalimirella
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Location: Waipukurau
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Posted: 17 March 2011 at 9:31pm |
Hmmm, well we are having some troubles with Kiara too (same age lol) she has her morning feed fine. But any other feed of the day she latches on then a few seconds later pulls off while biting down. I've ended up just not giving it to her and substituting dairy products, lots of water and food during the day and a small (prolly less than 50mls) of blue top milk at night if she still isn't latching (and she still isn't).
But like you I am thinking of getting out my expresser and making more effort.
The thing you really might want to think about is, how long do you want to BF for? Its only another month till 12mths, so if you want to wean this would be the "easy" time for it, just slowly introducing more cows milk.
But if you want to keep BFing past a year, go with option b) lots of water and protein and expressing/feeding as much as you can, also try skin to skin cuddles just before(during if you can but they are sooo into things at that age) expressing.
Just my thoughts on it.
I gotta say I'm having a hard time deciding if I really do want to end up weaning her this early or not, BFing is lovely with the cuddles (in the morning) but the rest of the time its just hell and I'm thinking more and more about a bit of independence before my next lovely baby arrives :D
Sorry for rambling 
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Kiara is 3 and Teagan is 2, now we're expecting our long awaited 3rd! 
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JadeC
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Posted: 17 March 2011 at 10:10pm |
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You do have a 3rd option, you could top up with formula rather than cow's milk (this would be my preference personally, while trying to up supply as well).
One thing I found when expressing was to change the valves/membranes in my pump, I got a whole lot more after that!!
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Keleho
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Posted: 17 March 2011 at 10:15pm |
The thing with formula is it costs money. Cows milk we get for free, breastmilk I make for free (well, pretty much anyway) so since we are tight, Id prefer either of those options.
I know what you mean Kali, it would be an easy time to wean fully to cows milk but Im really hoping I can keep going with EBM, for budget and nutritional reasons (and so I can justify the pump I bought last month  )
The good news is I got 85ml tonight, which is the most in ages so perhaps things are on the way up again.
I would be happy to get to a point where I had enough for morning and night as she doesnt seem as interested in her lunch feed anyway (as nutritionally, I think she could get away without it)
Thanks for you reponses. I think ill just keep pushing on and perhaps make some yummo cookies tomorrow 
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Whateversville
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Posted: 17 March 2011 at 10:27pm |
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I had the 12mnth solids group with plunket yesterday and the PN said that at 12mnths, if they're eating well, there is no need to give formula/toddler milk over cows milk. Speshly coz she was a bf baby..
Good luck.
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High9
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Posted: 18 March 2011 at 9:49am |
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We're breastfeeding, 12 months is when you can introduce it but we've been told so long as we're breastfeeding we don't need to introduce it. I would first try upping my supply and if that fails (give it a couple of weeks) then look at other options. Good Luck! My supply dropped for the first time a couple of months ago - we both got sick but spent about 2 days feeding non stop and got it back.
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Emmi_
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Posted: 18 March 2011 at 11:34am |
You can go to your GP and get a script for Domperidone, it helps boost your supply and you can wean off it once your supply is sorted and settled again...
You could also try expressing a couple of extra times during the day, making your body think that your DD is wanting more milk and that will help boost your supply too GL!
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Kimnthekids
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Posted: 19 March 2011 at 7:23pm |
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Kerrylea: she's so close to the 12 months, that you could always offer her some and see what happens.
Ive seen children introduced from 10 months, with different results. (Again for similar reasons, refusal to BF, allergic to formula etc etc). One child was completely fine, and this slowly built to being his complete milk. One child's skin flared up, and so they stopped... and later introduced it no problems. One child (whether co-incidentally or not) started having a lot of ear infections and had behavioural changes.
I think if she eats well, then you dont have to worry as much about the 'nutrients' from formula as a substitute. If you said she ate terribly, hardly touched it, id be thinking formula would be handy as it'd help get some extras in (not mentioning BFing as you have said she is striking)
C (as you know is the same age, or close enough lol)
As she cant have dairy (or egg) she doesnt get the extra with her meals. She isnt having cheese, or yoghurt or anything... so i know i need to keep her intake up formula wise. But in saying that, over the last week she's been taking roughly 400-500mls in a day - and drinking lots of water.
But i agree with the others - about deciding what you want for the longer term - if you want to BF for the next 6months +, then id also look at boosting supply.. but if you're going to start slowly weaning.. well then maybe try the cows?
Man once again im rambling LOL, ill go now..
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Keleho
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Posted: 19 March 2011 at 8:36pm |
Thanks Kim, thats handy to know - id not really thought about possible reactions to the milk.
I would love to be able to bfeed (well, EBM) for another 6 months or so, but at the same time we are ttc again and since I havent had AF return, I may end up needing to wean in order to ovulate/conceive. Might give it a month or two and see what happens in that department...
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Emmi_
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Posted: 19 March 2011 at 8:43pm |
KL have you looked into Vitex to help AF return? I know a few of the old TTC girls used it while BFing and got UTD
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Keleho
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Posted: 19 March 2011 at 9:03pm |
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Where do you get that from Emmi?
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Emmi_
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Posted: 19 March 2011 at 9:07pm |
You can get it from health food shops, like health 2000 and stuff, you can get it in pills or tincture, the tincture works faster than the pills, but tastes foul! (but doable if you really want to!)
I wonder if I can find it online..
Here you go 
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Keleho
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Posted: 20 March 2011 at 9:34am |
Sweet, thanks Emmi
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Richie
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Posted: 21 March 2011 at 10:13pm |
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I got told the same as Pillow_Fight by plunket when I went to them when DD was about 8 months old and wasn't feeding much from me but was refusing a bottle. They told me that as long as babies have been BFed for 6 months, then water after that is fine as they are getting fed plenty of solids...... well I thought that sounded like utter crap so perservered and we continued BFing until 12 months, altho she wasn't having much but I figured it was better than nothing..... I spoke with my GP about weaning her and if it was OK to give her cows milk and mentioned what plunket had told me a few months ago. Well, she was not happy to say the least. Babies DO need milk, not just water as water offers no nutritional value really and she doesn't recommend going straight to cows milk either as like others have said, it can cause allergies among other things. She said that people move their babies onto cows milk far too early these days, just cause it's cheaper. DD is now nearly 13months old and on toddler formula, and I plan to keep her on it for a few more months at least.
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Keleho
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Posted: 23 March 2011 at 3:04pm |
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Just thought I would update:
Went to the health shop to get some Vitex, and the lady recommended NOT to use it as you shouldnt use it while pregnant, esp in early pregnancy.
She also said it could affect my milk supply, which since its already on the low side, Id like to avoid.
So I dont think Ill bother with taking them and hope that nature takes its course asap!
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When to move to cows milk
