can night weaning lead to early total weaning?

[knucklehead]

I'm considering night weaning my 21 month old daughter (she wakes 2x a night to nurse) but worry that this may lead to lack of interest during the day. Is this possible? I don't care if she nurses more during the day I just don't want her to wean prematurely because of something I do.

[bobandjess99]

It just did for us. Ds is 21 motnhs, and we just spent the last 2-3 months weaning a little bit (down from 12+ times epr day to say maybe 5-6) and dring the course of it,nightweaning happened, and within about 2 weeks, he no longer wanted in it the day either. He has nursed only twice in teh last week at this point. i'm sad, but happy.

[NlGHTgirl]

I could say that we night weaned at 5 months or at 8 months... but then , there were the occaisonal rare teething nights. (lasts a week or two?)

We pretty much did night weaning at 12 months though!!! She's 28 mo old now. We still practice night weaning, and have milkies only two or three times per day (naptime and bedtim)... (we were trying to wean entirely?) but I've not lost my milk supply yet!!!!! Just a thought. clearly, the milk supply is less when nursing merely two times per day, but it is not 100% gone yet.

[Halfasianmomma]

Hi mama,
Just wanted to chime in that I'm currently on night 5 of Dr. Jay Gordon's nightweaning plan, and DD's daytime nursing isn't slowing down...it's revving up! She's only 15 months and a bit young to nightwean, but I'm in the process of separating and having a very difficult time emotionally, so I decided to give myself the gift of sleep. It's going very well; there have been very few tears (only on night 1), and I'Ve gone from getting several 1-2 hours snatches of sleep, to a nice solid 5-6 hours with a later 2 hour snatch tacked on. And as I said previously, DD is MORE interested in nursing daytime. She's in full-time daycare, so now we nurse twice in the morning before getting up, then she's HUNGRY so I give her cereal and fruit, then I nurse her again quickly before leaving the daycare. When I pick her up she nurses, and may nurse twice more before bedtime. Her solids intake has increased a bit, which is nice, and she's more interested in a variety of foods.

Just my 2 cents

[annettemarie]

I've nightweaned four kids, and they've all nursed at least until they were 3.

[Baby_Cakes]

We're in the midst of nightweaning and no changes otherwise during the day.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

We nightweaned about 3 mos ago. I am currently 6 1/2 mos pgs, and it was my main goal to nightwean before the baby came. DS is 33 mos. One night he suddenly started sleeping through the night and stopped night nursing. He would still come into our bed sometimes (got cold, bad dream) at the usual time, but I would tell him to close his eyes, we'll do it in a minute. Then he would fall back asleep.

He finally weaned completely about 1 1/2 weeks ago. I was sad (still am, spent a few good nights crying about it) but decided it was better in the long run. I'll have my breasts all to myself for the next 3 mos. He was down to once a day (bedtime) and only for a few minutes. His latch got progressively worse, and the milk got progressively less. I only had to tell him no twice (both at night when I would have told him no anyway).

Anywho, yours is younger, so it probably won't matter much to you. Good luck!

[4Marmalade]

I nightweaned my two older dc's when they were about 2 and they both continued to nurse during the day until they were closer to 3. We are currently encouraging our 16 month old twins to partially nightwean (basically want to get them from nursing all night long to 1-2 nursings each). We've only been at it a few nights but so far they seem even more interested in nursing during the day. I've also been offering more often so that I can provide that comfort during the daytime hours.

[kiwiva]

I nightweaned DD at 28 months. She just turned 3 and it still quite attached to nursing 8 months later.

[knucklehead]

Thanks for all the feedback ladies, I feel more confident about night weaning if i decide to make the leap.