How do you wean?

[chipper26]

I am all for extended nursing, but I just don't think I can do child led weaning. I know I'll be ready to stop before my dd. My goal was to nurse until she turned 2. I guess I thought it would be easier as she got older. Well, she is 21 months now and she loves her num-num now more than ever. Now I am thinking I will probably nurse her until around 2 1/2, especially since I'm going back to work part-time in August and she'll be 2 in July. I don't want to many changes and I want her to have that comfort from me.

Any suggestions though about gradual weaning and a way to slowly cut down? Just distraction, distraction, distraction? Are there any methods out there you'd recommend or a way you've done it that has worked well?

I'm even up for nursing her a bit longer (maybe until she's 3) if it's just before bed and when she wakes in the am.

[lookatreestar]

my dd is 3 and we are doing CLW she is pretty much down to naps (if she takes one) and bedtime. on her own accord. if she is sick then of course it is more but its great sinc ei dont have to worry about her getting dehydrated.

[swellmomma]

I haven't weaned yet but want to. DD is 2.5 but seems to be more attached to her boo-boos than she was a newborn. I wouldn't care really how long she nursed IF she slept through the night but she doesn't. She still wakes up 3-5 times a night to nurse. We do co-sleep BUT my ds set my bed on fire before xmas, so we are co-sleeping on a couch(well she has a mat on teh floor she starts on at night) which makes it hard to get comfortable nursing etc. I am so sleep deprived i am going batty. I will have a new bed when we move to our new place on Friday so that part will be fixed. It's not like she pops on for a second and falls back to sleep either. It is like she wants me to be her pacifier all night long, it gets painful.

A couple times now I tried to delay nursing and that set her into a major meltdown so severe she threw up. THat is not what I want for her, especially when she never ever ever tantrums about anything else. It was like being told she couldn't have them at that time was physically painful to her.

So here we are still nursing. The only thing that seems to have helped is telling her during the day she only gets them for 1 minute. She will have each side for 1 minute and then happily go off and play, when she is sick(rare), tired, teething etc I extend the time for her but typically we do the 1 minute sessions. She likes to wiggly around/do acrobatics while nursing too, so I have to tell her a couple times a day that if she keeps climbing/kicking the boo boos will be gone. I am tired of getting kicked in the face/head or having my nipple ripped off.

Funny thing in all of this, is she has started calling herself "mommy's baby". See extended family, strangers etc keep telling her she is too big for nursing it is for baby's so now she calls herself one. She even calls her school time baby school. I have started telling her that when she is 3 she will be too big for boo boos, with the hope that as she appraoches her birthday she starts weaning, or at least is ready to be weaned at that point. I just want my body back to being my body kwim.

[chipper26]

Thanks for the replies. I'm wondering what effect daycare will have on the nursing situation. She will be going for 5-6 hours a day starting in August. I don't know if that will make her want to nurse more when she sees me (I think it definitely will in the beginning) or if she'll gradually stop needing it. Right now, if I leave her with a babysitter for a few hours, the first thing she asks for when she sees me is "nummy." She pounds the sofa with her hand as a direction for me to sit down to nurse. It's funny.

When she had a cold about 6 weeks ago, she didn't nurse much b/c she was stuffed up and she did okay. I actually thought she was backing off a bit, but she's come back full force

I do not want to cause her a lot of stress over this. I know I'm her comfort. I see lots of toddlers walking around with pacifiers in their mouths and my dd never really took to one. I'm her pacifier. I guess we'll see how it goes.

[Mama2Kayla]

I started weaning both my babies around that age(20months). With dd it was easy because I became pregnant and my milk dried up causing her to lose interest. My son, on the other hand was a total boob junkie and would nurse all day at that age if I let him. I weaned him slowly over the next year by not offering the breast and distracting him when he wanted to nurse. I also nightweaned him @ 2, which IMO made daytime weaning a little easier. He nursed until he a little over 2.5 yrs old. It was so gradual, I don't even remember the last time we nursed, it just happened and one day I realized he was done.

[myk]

i was all for child-led weaning, but once she turned 4 i realized that it just wasn't going to happen that way!

what i did first was restrict nursing to before and after sleep. if dd needed comfort, i'd give her cuddles and kisses, and i'd give her a drink if she was thirsty, but i explained to her that mama milk was for sleep time now because she was getting to be a big girl.

eventually she dropped the wake up feeds, and then she dropped her nap so it was only at bedtime. that went on for a long time, and then i explained to her that she is so big and strong now, my body will stop making milk for her. but she'd still have special mama cuddles every night no matter what.