Hellobee Boards

My understanding is that milk is still vital for their development, at least for the calcium. I could be wrong though. I think the total number of ounces that they need of milk after 1 year is less then while while they were formula or breast feeding.

my doctor said that as long as she has a fully balanced diet and getting all the necessary nutrients from her diet she doesn't necessarily need milk. when you think of it in the context that we are the only mammal to consume any milk after weaning if you think about it that way really we don't need milk either.

I remember a hellobee member who mentioned that she does not give her LO milk (@red ?) due to allergies. She eats very well and gets nutrition in other foods.

You mentioned you are ready for weaning and you don't have to wean. My son most definitely went through periods of wanting more and less milk from me. We didn't do cow's milk due to an allergy so it was all mommies milk. You could try just waiting it out and see if he wants again. My son is now 20 months old and still nursing.

Your breastmilk should have all of the fat that your baby needs (the whole milk requirement) and as others have said, you can get calcium in other ways.

@Mrs. Pen: Yes, sorry. Not ready to wean was what I meant. You don't need to wean. But they definitely go through ebbs and flows of wanting more milk and less at least that was my experience. Sometimes I would have to do like you and pump. But in my experience, he always came back to nursing and as I said we are still nursing at 20 months. So you don't need to wean.

Keep offering (that's what I meant by waiting it out) and I suspect he will come back.

I think it's just the most *convenient* source of calcium for most kids, from what I've heard. If they get it in other ways, no biggie.

LO started self-weaning around a year and we were done a couple months later. I had mixed feelings, too, but all in all I'm glad he led the process instead of me.