How to prepare ds for weaning- what to I say to him?

[bright_eyes]

I am thinking about weaning my 3 year old. Or at the very least, I want to night wean him and set limits during the day. I just read a bunch of threads on weaning and a lot of people said that they talked a lot about weaning with their nurslings before they weaned. What kind of things did you say? How did you explain weaning to them?

[bdoody11]

My DD is 2 1/2 and I can tell you about my experience. When she was just shy of 2 I cut back her nursing during the day meaning only in the morning, naps, bedtime and overnight. I just couldn't give her full access all the time. Since she wasn't verbal I don't think we did much talking. I just made sure to never sit on the couch during the day and to distract, distract, distract. Just recently at 2 1/2 I nightweaned her. We talked about it during the day, saying that the nursies would be going to sleep at night and we would be able to cuddle. She always agreed and seemed positive. Well, at night it was a different story. The first night she cried for 45 minutes in my arms. I repeated "we can cuddle or you can have some water" over and over. Finally, she feel asleep. The next night she cried for 10 minutes and then she was done. We haven't had a problem since.

I guess my advice is to talk with him, but expect resistance when the time comes to implement. For me personally, I really needed to feel strongly about what I was doing. If I was feeling like I could go either way on weaning it wasn't going to happen. When I waited until I felt like it had to happen right now I was much more successful.

Good luck, Mama!

[Teenytoona]

Originally Posted by bright_eyes

I am thinking about weaning my 3 year old. Or at the very least, I want to night wean him and set limits during the day. I just read a bunch of threads on weaning and a lot of people said that they talked a lot about weaning with their nurslings before they weaned. What kind of things did you say? How did you explain weaning to them?

Not weaned yet here, but am working on nightweaning my 21 month old. The past few nights I've told her that momma needs to sleep and take a break from the "ah-ahs." Of course she didn't like that and cried and fussed and screamed ah-ah! at me. I told her several times during that crying session that when the alarm goes off in the morning then she can "ah-ah" again. So she cried a while, asked for water, and then laid down to sleep. I reminded her that when the alarm goes off, she can ah-ah again. She said "otay!" and then zonked out and slept the rest of the night. As soon as the alarm went off she asked "ah-ah?" so she figured it out pretty well.

[Plaid Leopard]

One thing that worked well with my older dc and seems to be working with my now 26 month old is allowing them "sips". When I am trying to cut down on nursing times but they want to nurse - but are not too sleepy, or hurt or upset, or other situations which warrant full nursing privilieges - I say they can have one sip, or two sips or however many I am ok with at that time. I think the fact that they see that the breasts are not completely off limits helps them to accept just popping on and off.

[justmama]

we nightweaned about a month ago(she's 22months now) and it went quite well. she knows that the boobies go to sleep when it's bedtime and when the alarm goes off in the morning, they wake up and she can have "nack." it only took about a week of her asking. she wasn't upset about it after about 3-4days, ,just asking to be sure that they really were sleeping. but she's quite verbal and understands well what we discussed. keep it simple. i offer her water if she's thirsty and suggest that we snuggle and she's totally fine with it. in the beginning i was careful to let her nurse every single time she asked during the day so that she realized that she wasn't being completely pushed away from her beloved boobies, just restricted a little. and she realized quickly that it wasn't a big deal so she relaxed within that first week and it's been wonderful. last night for only the second time in her life, she slept through the night completely and came into bed with me at 6am. i was thrilled! it was worth a few days of crying and reassurance to get even that one night of sleep.