Bad Latch w/3-year old - natural self-weaning progression?

[LollyMom]

My son just turned 3 in February, and he used to be a champion nurser.  Since he turned 3, I've noticed that his latch is really poor and lazy.  I keep saying, "big mouth, no teeth, just tongue," to no avail.  He swears he will "nursey nice" but he keeps hurting me so I pull him off, but then he gets upset.  He still nurses well at night when he's sleepy - I guess instinct takes over then.

Is this part of the natural self-weaning progression? It's painful and annoying.  I will be super-sad when nursing is over, but I am really not enjoying this phase of it.

[Mosaic]

I dunno the answer, but I've sorta been wondering the same thing. My 26-mo has never had a great latch, but lately we've been dealing with milk blisters and nipple trauma, which slow my already diminished flow to nearly nill. My first didn't wean this way, but she didn't last this long, either. I'm somewhat inclined to think that this is part of the natural progression, at least for us, or at least for now.

[pamplona]

one of my favorite mommy bloggers describes something really similar to what you're experiencing before her 3 yo weaned.  here's a link if you want to check it out.  

http://dianaibclc.com/2011/02/24/old-enough-to-ask-for-it/

my DD has just turned 2 yo, and her latch is mostly still fine, but i'm not looking forward to that part of self-weaning!

[Springshowers]

I am finding with my 2.5 year old daughter if I nurse her when she is hyper it's almost always a bad latch. The worst are nights when I am trying to nurse her to sleep and she's practically doing cartwheels. One night last week she was quiet but the latch was so bad, and it took so long. An hour later I had to tell her we had to stop and just sleep (she was so almost asleep the last 45 minutes). She cried, then I cried and she went immediately to sleep. Usually she only nurses about ten minutes before she is asleep.

When she is truly sleepy or relaxed it's usually fine.

I am seeing her not ask for milk ALL DAY though, and once this week when I asked her to nurse (I was uncomfortable and we were about to start a 2 hour car ride) she tried but didn't really want to nurse. So I am thinking too she is starting to wean. The feeding to sleep though I don't think will go anywhere anytime soon.

[bakpak]

I'm a little late to this thread, but thought I'd give my 2 cents.  My daughter's almost 3 and still nursing, but seems to be weaning more lately (and I'm OK with that!).  I found that my daughter's biting wasn't the result of her getting lazy but was ME being lazy as the mom!  I solved ALL the biting-type issues by just making sure my daughter was positioned correctly.  So I suggest you return to basic nursing principles and how you first held your little one (okay, I mean after the learning period was over ).  A lot of times with these large toddlers, they can't even get in the right position for nursing while lying in your lap.  They'd have to be half wrapped around your body for it to work where their chins are tilted up and they can easily look into your eyes, and that's just uncomfortable.  I knew it was easier lying down, but it took me months of discomfort to figure it out.  Even lying down it's easy to not pay attention where she's lying.  If she's in the proper position it doesn't hurt.  Otherwise, teeth marks every time!

Good luck!