[Shazer]

DD, 26 months, nurses in the early morning, at bed, and at naptime. She loves it and is always asking to nurse more, but those are my limits. I'm getting to the point where I want to wean her. She has never slept well and still wants to nurse at five in the morning (this is after agonizing months of night-weaning). I'm beyond exhausted as DH works non-stop, meaning that I have 99% of parenting duties. I also work from home.

This is going to be tough, and I imagine will take a long, long time to wean her. I'm ok with that.

But with weaning, I fear for her health. Although I feel like all nutrients are sucked out of me, I'm really worried what will happen to her. She's had at least one cold every six weeks since December, some lasting only a couple of days, the worst lasting two terrible weeks when I was also sick. The most recent cold was when she went to the nursery at church (never again

. Otherwise, she is a totally healthy, non-vaccinated, good food eating child. All of her cousins who were weaned early have had terrible childhood sicknesses, ear infections, strep throat, sinus problems, etc.

I worry about her antibody level and do want to protect her with BM. Am I worrying too much or should this influence me to keep on nursing as long as possible?

 

[blori]

Don't know if this will help or not, I found a great little book for kids called "learning to wean". It helped us begin the conversation about weaning and he (21/2 yr) could see that other kids weaned ( and had mixed feelings) Its just another tool along with distracting, change in routines, don't offer don't refuse. I don't think I've seen any weaning books for kids before, this has bright cute pictures and a nice story…We're not weaned yet, but its getting there. and I wouldn't worry about the health of yours, if she eats well and has had 2 good years of BF. If you wean gradually it is a process- 2steps forward, 1 step back... good luck
book was online at www.learningtowean.com

 

[Airam]

Hi,
I know that you are concerned about her immune system and keeping her healthy, but at her age there are many things you can do do strengthen her immune system if you want. You should look into constitutional homeopathy, or giving her essential fatty acids, vitamin C, acidophilus, and more. It seems like breastfeeding is wearing you down and you need a break. With my DD when she was 27 months old I was desperate to wean her off because I was 8 months pregnant and I REALLY needed a break, so I talked to her about being a big girl and tried to convince her that she could drink for a cup just before bed time. It took one week to convince her to try. In the end it was her decision (with a little push!) to stop because she became interested in other things. She kept waking up in the middle of the night and I left a bottle with Chamomile tea in it to help her self soothe back to sleep. Initially she wanted me, but within two weeks she took the bottle on her own and went back to sleep. After a few weeks she did not touch the bottle at all and she slept through the night.
Wishing you all the best!