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I have a breastfeeding concern that is the complete opposite of most of the people I know. My son (now 14 months) self weaned when he turned one. He nursed for the last time on his birthday and then flatly refused after that. My plan was to allow him to nurse on demand for at least two years, so I was completely unprepared for being done with nursing so soon. I don't know if that's just what he wanted or if it is my fault in some way. (I definitely have some lingering guilt about it). I'm also TTC again, and would love some suggestions about anything I could do differently in the future to make nursing more enjoyable for future babies.<br><br>
Here are some more details:<br>
-I nursed on demand from birth, and had no significant difficulties with nursing.<br>
-After the first couple weeks, he was a very fast eater- a 10 minute nursing session was long for him and he would often only want to nurse on one side.<br>
-Based in the few times I pumped I suspect that my milk let down quickly, but not a whole lot came out when I wasn't letting down.<br>
-He never seemed to love the act of nursing itself, and never liked to comfort nurse. He would nurse to eat, but would want to stop right away after the heavy milk flow was over.<br>
-He started eating solids around six months. We didn't give him much baby food and loosely followed the BLW method and allowed him to feed himself and direct how much he ate.<br>
-His weight gain was very slow and I wasn't confident that he was getting enough from breast milk anymore given how short a time he would nurse. (so I felt that introducing calorie rich solids was an important thing to do)<br>
-I always offered nursing before eating solids, but he pretty quickly started refusing to nurse right before meal time.<br>
-By 8 or 9 months he had completely stopped asking to nurse. I would offer before and after naps and bedtime, but he would't always want to.<br>
-Between 8 and 10 months he independently went down from 2 to 0 feedings at night. (we stopped sharing a bed at 8 months because he wasn't sleeping well next to me any more and we discovered that he slept much better in a crib in another room).<br>
-He gradually stopped nursing before his naps and bedtime (I tried to offer and encourage in a low stimulus environment, but he would flat out refuse to nurse and got VERY upset if I tried to push it).<br>
-The last feeding to go was the first thing in the morning feeding, which he gave decided he was finished with the day after his birthday.<br>
-I didn't purposely try to restrict, or limit, or cut back on his nursing at all the entire 12 months. All of the weaning was either caused by baby, something about my breasts/milk production/milk flow, or something I did unintentionally.<br><br>
So I guess I'm wondering if there is something that I could have done to make nursing more appealing to him? Or is it possible that that my little guy was just naturally self-weaned early? Also, if this has happened to anyone else, any suggestions on overcoming guilt would also be appreciated.<br>
Here are some more details:<br>
-I nursed on demand from birth, and had no significant difficulties with nursing.<br>
-After the first couple weeks, he was a very fast eater- a 10 minute nursing session was long for him and he would often only want to nurse on one side.<br>
-Based in the few times I pumped I suspect that my milk let down quickly, but not a whole lot came out when I wasn't letting down.<br>
-He never seemed to love the act of nursing itself, and never liked to comfort nurse. He would nurse to eat, but would want to stop right away after the heavy milk flow was over.<br>
-He started eating solids around six months. We didn't give him much baby food and loosely followed the BLW method and allowed him to feed himself and direct how much he ate.<br>
-His weight gain was very slow and I wasn't confident that he was getting enough from breast milk anymore given how short a time he would nurse. (so I felt that introducing calorie rich solids was an important thing to do)<br>
-I always offered nursing before eating solids, but he pretty quickly started refusing to nurse right before meal time.<br>
-By 8 or 9 months he had completely stopped asking to nurse. I would offer before and after naps and bedtime, but he would't always want to.<br>
-Between 8 and 10 months he independently went down from 2 to 0 feedings at night. (we stopped sharing a bed at 8 months because he wasn't sleeping well next to me any more and we discovered that he slept much better in a crib in another room).<br>
-He gradually stopped nursing before his naps and bedtime (I tried to offer and encourage in a low stimulus environment, but he would flat out refuse to nurse and got VERY upset if I tried to push it).<br>
-The last feeding to go was the first thing in the morning feeding, which he gave decided he was finished with the day after his birthday.<br>
-I didn't purposely try to restrict, or limit, or cut back on his nursing at all the entire 12 months. All of the weaning was either caused by baby, something about my breasts/milk production/milk flow, or something I did unintentionally.<br><br>
So I guess I'm wondering if there is something that I could have done to make nursing more appealing to him? Or is it possible that that my little guy was just naturally self-weaned early? Also, if this has happened to anyone else, any suggestions on overcoming guilt would also be appreciated.<br>