Weaning Conflicts with a 3yo

[aylaanne]

My 3yo DS had been throwing temper tantrums surrounding nursing, such as when his sister was nursing (That's not hers! That's mine! It's my turn!) or when I needed to stop (No! Want more!), or when I said no (just a total meltdown). So I gave him a month's warning, and I cut him off after Christmas Day.

The trouble is, every day since then he's asked for it. He's had some kind of stomach bug twice, and I miss the quiet bonding time of nursing him. And there are still tantrums. I realize it's only been eight days, but I'm still second-guessing myself about whether this was the right decision.

Any suggestions? Any mommas btdt?

[PGTlatte]

If you are not feeling good about weaning him, or how he is feeling about it, you might consider nursing him again with some firm guidelines for when, and how long, and what sort of behavior about it is acceptable.  But if you really do not want to go back to nursing him and think you might feel resentful about it, or that it will lead back into behavior that outweighs any positives, then I would try to come up with some different ways to comfort him and help him process weaning.  When I needed to wean our younger son at age 3 due to my own medical issue, he came to be happy with sticking his hand down my shirt while he had a sippy cup of milk, from a special favorite cup.  This became his new way of "nursing".  We snuggled while he did this.  Still having this connection to my breasts and snuggling time helped him through weaning.