night weaning advice for language delayed toddler?

[fizgig]

Our DS is fairly severely language delayed (including receptive language which means he doesn't understand a lot).  He is 31 months but has the cognitive age of about 16 months.

He still does epic nursing sessions all night long and it is probably his greatest comfort.  However, right now we are all feeling pretty sleep deprived and I see great agreement here that night weaning often helps kids sleep through the night.  I feel like DS really needs better sleep and I would LOVE to sleep for more than a few hours at a time.  But I'm worried about the process of night weaning.  He can't understand the basic things most people do - explaining dark versus light, etc. 

Do any of you have thoughts or suggestions for how to night wean?  Does it seem cruel to night wean him at this point?  I would love to hear any thoughts!

[APToddlerMama]

My son is 3.5 and also has expressive and receptive language delays.  At 24 months, he was at a 6-9 month level expressively and not much higher with receptive language.  Anyhow, we night weaned him at 15 months without too much trouble.  And this boy was serious about loving nursing.  I don't think receptive language is incredibly important in the night weaning process and I think you can do it regardless.  What we did was have daddy available, mom sleep on the couch, and dad offer water and crackers when DS woke up.  Surprisingly, it worked great. 

[askew]

I night weaned my DD at 15 or 16 months, and I think 15-20 months is a popular time for night weaning. So if your DS is at that level with language he is probably capable of understanding. I could not count on DH to help. I did it myself, I still co-slept and I told her should could cuddle but no nursing until morning. It only took a week with both my kids, and I night weaned them both at the same age. DD is my SN child and DS is typical. Nothing changed between DS and DD. I will say, however, that neither of them sleep better. DS is 4 and still gets up at night, only now he wakes DH instead. DD is 2 and she has been waking up every three hours for a couple of months again.