[sarahmck]

My daughter is 15 months old. She always nurses to sleep. Then she wakes up a couple of times in the first 8 hours of the night and nurses and then nurses tons in the final 4 hours of her sleep.

I always give her a boob as soon as she wakes up. More accurately, if I'm in bed when she wakes up, she comes and gets it for herself. She never goes to sleep without a boob except in the car.

I don't want to night wean, but would of course be perfectly happy if she decided to lengthen her sleep intervals at night. I'm wondering, though, whether I ought to be so quick to give her a boob. Should I be trying to get her to go to sleep without one? Am I guaranteeing that she'll keep night nursing for as long as she keeps day nursing by never trying anything else?

As an extension to this question, I nurse her in a similar fashion during the day. Namely, every time that she pulls on my collar (read: practically rips my shirt off) I whip them out promptly. She only has to wait if we're outside and walking or something, where it's very inconvenient to stop. Every time she's grumpy or frustrated or whiney, I offer a boob. For me, this is jut the path of least resistance. They distract her and she usually comes away from them in a better mood than she had going in. However, I sometimes wonder if I'm stopping her from developing other skills to cope with frustration. Then I think I'm just being stupid and she's only a baby and she's not meant to have those skills yet. I think of topless tribeswomen in Africa and doubt that they're telling their babies that they can't latch on.

Does anyone think that I should be trying to get her back to sleep or distract/console her in the daytime with something other than boobs? If so, what? I'm a one-trick pony!

Thanks.

 

[Trishy]

Well is it a problem for you? If it isn't just continue what you are doing. Wehn ds was around 18 months I started having some issues with how much nursing he wanted to do vs. how much nursing I wanted to do. I began to set some limits and distracted him with something else when he wanted to nurse. I also mostly never sat down where he could get to me or he would be sticking his hand down my shirt. After a few weeks we were at a place where he was satisified with the amount of milkies he was giving and I was happy with the amount I was giving.

 

[MyZoeJane]

Wow, I haven't been on this site for a long time but I came back to post more or less the same questions you did! I'm dying to hear some responses! My DD is 32 months old and shows no signs of giving up the boob any time soon. I wasn't "commited" to nursing beyond the "recommended" one year but I've just gone with it... and gone with it... and gone with it...

Well, I'm getting kind of concerned about her need to still turn to nursing for comfort. If she's bored, she nurses. If she's tired, she nurses. If she's hurt, she nurses. If she's sad, she nurses. Is there a point at which nursing is no longer an *ideal* source of comfort?

Sorry to hijack but I really hope many people reply!!!

 

[catgirl1007]

My DD went through an extreme nurse-aholic stage from around 15-20 months. I did a bunch of research and found out that's pretty common for that age group. She would nurse 10-15 times/day and 8-10 times/night so obviously there was a lot of comfort nursing going on. The only reason this amount has decreased is b/c I'm PG and my supply tanked. However, from what I've read from moms who weren't PG, once your child can understand words/phrases better, it's easier to reduce the # of nighttime feedings if that's what you want to do. I've read that some moms explain, "Nummies are for morning, go night night now" or something along those lines. I never wanted to try it b/c I was afraid DD would never go back to sleep.

I also wanted to allow her to comfort nurse b/c BFing serves that purpose, too (IMO). I always said I'd have to go to college with her.