[susanrj]

Hi, my son is 13months old from the birth he is having dry skin problem. His diet and eating habits are really bad because of that I am having really a tuff time. He is still on breast feed and not ready to take formula. Other than semi solid food he takes 2tsp of cereal 3times in a day and rice with curd 1time at lunch. No fruits at al. Veggies some time mixed with rice but not ready to take with out salt so that is also not. The tuff time is for me in night when he gets up in every 30mins for feed and he sleeps with us on our bed. I tried all the possible ways to start formula milk as now breast milk is very less and I am having pain while feeding. Can some one please give me suggestion that I can stop breastfeeding and starts good food habits for him? Thanks to all

[DoulaLC]

You could try mixing a bit of formula into some expressed breastmilk in a sippy cup. Offer this, along with some finger foods or soft foods in place of one breastfeed for a few days. Then increase it to replacing two breastfeeds for a few days while increasing the amount of formula in the cup and decreasing the amount of breastmilk. Continue until you have changed over most of his feedings. Doing so gradually will help your body adjust to the change as well. If you want to continue some breastfeeding, which is certainly still beneficial for you both, keep it to just the evenings and perhaps first thing in the morning. Bedtime feeding tends to be the last one to give up as this often is the most relaxing for everyone.

He is old enough to understand that he will have to wait for a breastfeed until bedtime, for example. He may not like it, and will likely fuss for a bit, but he is old enough to understand what you are saying. Be prepared for him to balk at first with the change, but keep it gradual and matter of fact. You don't want meal times to be a battle of wills with a toddler.

Skip the adding salt to his foods, it only sets him up to have a taste for that and will make it more difficult for him to find foods he likes without it. You have all of the control over what he eats right now so you need to be sure he is getting healthy choices. This will hopefully help to set him up with good habits for later when he starts making choices for himself.

Again, take it slowly, stay consistent, offer small bites of a variety of foods, stick with formula in a sippy cup until he has a greater variety in his diet then transition to full milk, and try to keep mealtimes enjoyable as they should be.