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Quick question....

post #1 of 5
8/17/12 at 7:37pm
Thread Starter 

I love breastfeeding. I think it is an amazing experience, and I'm incredibly grateful for it and all the benefits it provides myself and my child.  I breastfeed on demand, and she usually falls asleep after. At night, usually, we wash up, I breastfeed, and she goes to sleep. Sometimes, I hum, and that helps as well. She typically wakes up a few times to eat, then goes right back to sleep. All that being said, how can I "Wean"  her off of nursing to sleep? She is only 6mo though. So should I even be worried at this age about it? It is not really a big issue currently, but I think it is important for her to be able to go to sleep without nursing. Please let me know! Thanks!

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post #2 of 5
8/18/12 at 9:14am
My 16 month old still nurses to sleep when I'm available. There is nothing detrimental about nursing to sleep physically, psychologically, or developmentally. If routinely baby needs to fall asleep for someone else then baby will adjust and fall asleep differently for that person and still nurse to sleep for you. If you want to encourage that then pick a couple of nights a week and leave before bedtime and let your partner handle it. The downside is, you will have to provide pumped milk. When it comes to night nursing, if you plan on nursing into toddlerhood, it is generally not recommended to night wean until 18 months anyway. If you have no really strong reason to discourage nursing to sleep then I wouldn't mess with it. Just my two cents.
post #3 of 5
8/18/12 at 10:49am
Thread Starter 
Ok, thank you for your input! I plan on nursing as long as I am able, and she still wants to. Right now, she is thriving, so things are good!
post #4 of 5
8/23/12 at 9:23am

mY 6.5 years old was nursing to sleep hahaha.. it became a tradition and fun rather then a burden.

It is all how you look at it.

post #5 of 5
8/23/12 at 10:03am

i still nurse my 20m twins, so im big in nursing to be sure, that being said i really get that breaking the tight nursing to sleep connection for everyones sake. emergencies or issues arise and the ability to be flexible with feeding and sleeping can really be a good thing.  i just started to nurse earlier in the go to sleep routine little by little, so rather than the last thing, i made the last thing a song. and then rather than just a song separating nursing an sleep i including some massage then a song. so little by little my kids now have nursing as the beginning on their nap or sleep routine. we nurse on the couch in the living room and then get changed and brought to their beds and massaged a little and hummed to and then everyone sleeps. it was a gradual thing that happened over a few months.  and when i need to be somewhere else, rare around here but it happens, i just make sure dad has then feed goos and then he snuggles them on the couch and then continues it all. if i had done this prior to the wide spread adding of solid food (at nearly a year old for us) i would have dad include a bottle on the couch, but now it is not needed.  they go to sleep nearly the same with or without hte nursing, since it really is very far removed from the final settling.

 

i am now night weening my twins and i am finding it pretty smooth going, since i can do all those other things that cue sleep at the beginning of the night and they are working in the middle of the night most of the time now too.

 

im very happy with the choices and for the most part the timeline we have ended up with, i think it all could have been down a few month earlier, but not by much.