15 month old weaning himself - too young??

[always there]

Hi there

First to mention, I have two children, my first self weaned at 23 months and was a easy stressfree occurence. My second child is now 15 months and has decided he no longer wants to breast feed in the evening before going to bed. I know he has several teeth coming through at the moment and continue to offer every night but it seems early for me for him to stop ? He is still having a morning feed at around 6am (I would have preferred him to drop that one like my daughter did rather than the night one!!!!) is this enough, I´m disappointed, as like with my daughter I would be happy to continue into his second year but heh it´s his decision!!!

Any thoughts?

[PatioGardener]

For me, it would be too early.  I feel it is important for kids to breastfeed until at least age 2, so I would be working to encourage him to nurse more.  I'd treat it as a partial nursing strike.  Toddlers get so busy and distracted they really need to be encouraged to nurse. 

I like to compare it to encouraging them to eat vegetables (if they are reluctant).  Of course we can't force them to, but we can offer several times a day, present them with the opportunity and hopefully they will take it! :)

[TiredX2]

First, it's great that you nursed your DD for 23 months and have now nursed DS for 15!

That said, it would be very rare indeed for an infant to self-wean at only 15 months.  If you *want* to wean your child that young, it is totallly your choice.  But if a child weans that early it is generally a sign that they have *been weaned* not chosen to wean.  For example, does he nurse during the day?  Is he given bottles?  Other forms of milk?  If he is, then you have weaned him to those things, which is totally fine but still a choice.

Are you interested in contining to nurse?  What is his eating/nursing/ sucking schedule now?

[always there]

Hi and thanks for the advice, I actually have resolved it a bit as I realised that at night when his sister is having a story he feels he is missing out so I now read him a story first and then offer him to feed which the last three nights he has accepted!!!!! After doing a bit of research I figured out that there must be something distracting him at the times he normally feeds to affect his behaviour and have now looked at the other times in the day when he has refused.

We have had a lot of changes in our lives recently as we have moved country and our currently staying at my inlaws in France it´s hard as they´re not very supportive of my breast feeding in fact quite the opposite so I´ve been feeling a bit weird about the whole extended breast feeding thing.  As I said before, I wanted to continue into the second year with my daughter but she adamantly refused no matter what I tried and I didn´t want to force her!

His feeding schedule currently is once in the morning at about 5.00 am and then again about 7.30am then sometimes before his lunch nap and of course at bed time. He has never really been a snacker (although maybe that´s me!) and very rarely feeds to sleep. He also had six teeth through in the last 2 months and I read that this can affect their feeding.

I know in this forum it is recommended to continue breast feeding well into the 3rd or 4th year - not sure if I´ll make that, and I must say that when I queried my daughter weaning at 23 months on this forum I did get some very negative feed back from people who said I was doing something wrong.  Here in France and where I used to live in Spain it is very unusual for people to continue past 18 months and there is an immense amount of pressure to stop from relatives and health workers.  I know there is no foundation for any of the negative things they quote but it does make it difficult when you don´t have the support of people close by.

I myself are extremely proud of myself for breast feeding both my children and will never forget the wonderful initimate times we have spent together. Long may it continue!

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by always there 
I myself are extremely proud of myself for breast feeding both my children and will never forget the wonderful initimate times we have spent together. Long may it continue!

So glad to hear that things are getting a bit better and he is now accepting your offers no nurse.  It is really tough to nurse without support - kuddos for keeping at it in a negative climate!