weaning

[veganloraine]

my sweet baby boy is 21 months and i had planned to bf him until he was 2. being 21 months and in love with my boobies, i don't know how this is supposed to happen. i've heard some moms say their babies weaned themselves, however usually in these stories the child is but a few months old and i have some serious trouble buying that :rolleyes:

he primarily nurses at nap time, bed time and during the night. actually, to be honest i don't know how else i'd get him to fall asleep. maybe use a sippy cup with water??? i don't think he'd go for that, especially not from me. hmmm... maybe i could sneak away and dh could sippy cup nurse the baby and i could have a few days of non-interupted sleeping bliss...ahhhh...

wha? :o any advice would be appreciated!

[kjmckenzie]

LOL- let me know how that works for you! My ds is now 26 months and still quite in love with them...however, I find that as he becomes more active he nurses less and forgets.

At this point I don't think I could wean him all at once without traumatizing him-a good book is Mothering Your Nursing Toddler (LLL approved) and it does not advocate weaning by desertion. I am doing the don't offer, don't refuse, although sometimes I ask him to wait until we get home or something which he does. He nurses to sleep as well but is now going to sleep for his baby-sitter and my mom if I am not there. They read him stories until he falls asleep.

Two milestones that made me feel much better about the whole thing (I had planned to nurse until between 1 and 2, 2 at the most! LOL). He stayed overnight with my mom one night and that went ok and then last night for the first night ever he slept right through from 9:30 until 8:00 this morning! However, he did have a big day yesterday that tired him out and I had a drink drink last night which may have helped! But still, I feel so good today!

Also, I joined La Leche League recently and that really helps when I don't think I can go any further, it really energizes me and recharges my batteries and makes me remember why I am doing what I am doing and great to talk to other moms in the same circumstances. Worth checking out if you don't already go to meetings.

Anyway, good luck Lorraine because I know how tough it is!

[vegma]

I'm not sure if it will encourage you or discourage you to hear that my little guy weaned himself ........ at the age of 5! All children wean eventually. ;)

[celtic-womble]

My little guy has mostly weaned himself at the ripe old age of 19 months. A few weeks ago I realised that he wasn't really interested in his bedtime feed, just latching on but not really drinking, so we changed the bedtime routine so I'd just give him love then daddy would take him up and put him to bed. He didn't fuss at all that night or the next; he's had a little fussing a couple of nights since but just a minute or two and he sometimes did that even with milk. After a week of that I tried laying him down for his nap and I don't think he screamed anymore than he did when he got milk before nap :rolleyes: Now he's just getting his morning milk and I'm not sure what to do about that because he wakes up so thirsty and he's the first one up so it's not like I can be there with a sippy.

[5xblessed]

I was going to say the same. At some point they will wean, and always before high school graduation. Seriously, just let it happen if you're comfortable. At 2 1/2 or so my kids could get the concept of in a little bit or later and if I was feeling worn out I could say that. Most of my kids weaned sometime in the third year.

[kjmckenzie]

oops sorry, I meant Loraine :D !

[mamaoftofuboy]

My son is 2 and a half and just in the past few weeks have I noticed a change in our nursing relationship. Until a few weeks ago he nursed about 8-12 times a day (and nursed at bedtime but not during the night). Now he nurses at most 3-4 times in a 24 hour period. This change came mostly from me but I also think he was ready for a change because it wasn't a hard transition at all.

What I wanted to add though is that when he turned 2 I joined a bookclub and left him for the first time with my husband at bedtime. I came home to a sleeping toddler (that fell asleep on his own accord)! I was so shocked and happy that I have no problem leaving them alone while I do other things at night!

I knew that before 2 I wouldn't have been able to do that but 2 seemed to be the magic number for us! Good luck.

[veganloraine]

i love the idea of attending lll meetings. i think there may be a group in the next town over. i'll google them and find out! all the other moms at the school formula feed their babies (except, strangely, for the mom who bf and smokes at the same time) so i feel extra freakish.

i'm not going to stop offering baby's beloved boobies until he's ready to let them go, be it 2 or 5 :O :D

vegma, did you get much opposition to feeding your baby until the age of 5? i think my dh would protest. i think he's already pretty uncomfortable with an almost 2 year-old at the breast.

[vegma]

No opposition on the home front. :) Dh was very supportive. And nobody else knew about it unless we chose to share it with them. By the age of 5, ds was mostly nursing just at bedtime, then after that 5th birthday, he started going days, then weeks, between nursings until he finally didn't nurse anymore. I was fortunate to live in a city where there was pre-school LLL group which we attended a few times after outgrowing the toddler LLL group. ;)

[Astrophe]

We're on the long slow wean over here -- DD is 3 years and 3 mos.

Our journey has evolved into longer blocks of time between nursings.

When she was first born it was every hour on the hour. That became every 2 hours. Then every 3 hours. Then every 4 hours. Then every four hours in the day, and maybe an 8 hr block of sleep before a night nurse and back to sleep. Then it was every 6 hrs in the day, with the 8 hr block of sleep.

She's recently given up her afternoon nap, and takes a 12 hr block of sleep with no interruption for nursing.

We've gotten down to the morning waking up nursing and the going to bed nursing, but they've gotten shorter and shorter. Maybe 10 min? They used to be 30 min+.

She also doesn't mind waiting til we get home or having to go a long stretch without like if we're on a car trip. I like this gradual pace because I don't have to suffer engorgement or pain.

She doesn't ask for it when we're out and about any more so most people assume we've weaned.

She can fall asleep without nursing too. So I suspect this year may be it for us. I def. notice the tapering off.

A.