How does weaning end if they are madly in love with the taste of your milk?

[bright_eyes]

I hope this doesn't sound like a dumb question but I am seriously wondering about it?  I feel like it would be asking a kid to suddenly just stop eating chocolate, or something equally delicious.  Ds nurses at bedtime every night and I put a limit on the time he can nurse because I don't want him nursing to sleep any more and if he will nurse to sleep if I let him nurse as long as he wants.  So I nurse him awhile, until I feel like it has been long enough and then give him a one minute warning.  But every single night, without fail, he says, "But it's the super yummy part".  So I end up giving him one or two more minutes and then he'll come off and go to sleep.

I believed in CLW but wonder if I only believed in it to a point.  I never in a million years thought I could nurse past 3, and ds will be 5 in 3 months.  I really don't want to go past 5.  I really don't.  But I just can't see how in the next 3 months I can get him to give up the best tasting thing in the world!

I've been trying to talk ds into dropping the bedtime nursing session and we decided last night that we would do shorter and shorter nursing times until he was getting none.  His idea.  So we tried 3 minutes tonight.  I gave him 3 minutes and when I made him pull off, he had a melt down.  Was crying and telling me how he hardly got any of the super yummy part because the super yummy part didn't come until near the end of the 3 minutes and then went on and on about how I never let him have the supper yummy part because every night I make him stop (which he actually willingly does every night, once I give him the extra couple of minutes after the one minute).  So I let him have a few more minutes.  And this is why I get worried.  He loves the taste so much!  How will he ever give that up?

So please, tell me, how does it really end?!  Do they eventually just get to a point where they don't care if it is the yummiest thing ever and they just feel like they are done.  I really don't understand how this is ever going to end!  I mean, I know it will, but how?

[Think of Winter]

I'm wondering the same thing. My dd will be 5 in a couple of months. She loves bm, loves it, loves my breasts, loves the milk, loves nursing time. I love giving her something that means so much to her, but physically, I want to be done.

My ds stopped on his own soon after his 4th bday. He's a lot more easily discouraged than dd, so I think that might be why he quit earlier.

[pinky]

When my enthusiastic nurser was nearing 5, she started complaining that there wasn't enough milk and that the milk tasted funny.  This slowed her down considerably and led to her weaning at about 5.5 (earlier than I expected, giving her passionate love for nursing).  I learned later that as your child starts nursing less and your breasts need to make less milk, your body actually breaks down some of the cells involved in milk production--and all the salts, etc. in the cell go into the milk, altering the taste.  So your body actually ends up helping weaning along.  Cool, huh?

I will say, though, that my dd is now 6.5 and although she doesn't nurse, her love for my breasts has not diminished at all.....

[mrskingred]

In the same boat here, DS will turn 5 in July and is still actively nursing. We've cut down to two songs - he gets to choose the songs. The night before last he asked me when he would get big "breasties" like mine, not little ones like his and when they would start making milk. I had to tell him that it just wasn't going to happen as he's a boy.

[LiLStar]

For my 4yo, it ended when I got pregnant again (with the 3rd baby, she nursed through preg #2 and tandemed for almost 2 years) and the taste changed :P

[pinky]

I also wanted to add that with dd#1, it happened differently, since I was also nursing her little sister and had plenty of milk.  I remember thinking just what you did--why in the world would she stop, since she loves the milk so much?  And by the time both my girls were 5, I was feeling ready to be done.

All I can say is that she did stop.  She was about 5.5.  She was down to nursing only when waking up for quite some time, and gradually gave that up--I'd get up earlier than her, or she'd get up earlier than me, or one thing or another, and we wouldn't nurse.  One day she told me she was ready to be done and have a weaning party.

I have two girls who were very very different nursers, and they both nursed until they were done.  It really does happen that they grow up and outgrow the need, and then they stop--because they are getting those needs met in different ways.  So weaning for both my girls was entirely undramatic.

I realize that CLW isn't for everyone, but I'm so glad I was able to hang in there until they were ready to stop on their own.