Wondering about how much non-me fluids to offer my 14 mo old

Ani nurses a lot during the day -- always at naptime and always at bedtime. And at least once a night. I would say 15-20 times a day or so.

She knows the signs for water and for nurse and I give her whichever one she wants. She loves both. She's 16 months and no where near even thinking about being ready to wean.

My daughter is 15 months and has just started showing interest in water. Before now, water was just for fun (out of a cup), but just yesterday she was "fussy" and after trying different things I realized she wanted water. I do use the sign for water with her but she doesn't do it yet.

The only other liquid she gets (other than nursing about 3-5 times a day and a gazillion times at night ) is soy milk (plain unsweetened). That's because I have recently stopped eating meat most of the time and as I am still unsure of our calcium and protein intake I feel more confortable with this...

Hope this helps and I'll be reading what others have to say

my DS is 16 months and doesn't really know how to drink from a cup or sippy. i will offer him sips of water from my cups, but he seems to only want to chew on the rim - if water spills into his mouth he looks startled and pulls away - unclear on the concept!

he had a slow start to solids, and i would say still gets more than 50% of his nutrition from nursing. in addition, the solids he does get have high water content - fruits & veggies for the most part, some yogurt. so i'm not too concerned about dehydration (also we EC, so i know from his pee that he's ok ).

i have been wondering when he will want/need water, though. we have him in daycare three mornings a week, and every couple weeks they will tell me they got him to drink some from a sippy (nuby soft spout) but i've never seen him drink any at home - then again i rarely offer him a sippy.

as for your nighttime question. i believe you can nurse for a long time even if nursing is not always what you offer at night. i would say if patting him to sleep does actually calm him down, and if you don't notice a refusal of the breast at other times because you've substituted patting at a nightwaking here and there, then you guys are doing fine. i'm not an experienced CLW, though - i'm not even sure i'm entirely planning to CLW - so this is just my opinion! i have times when i reach my limit with nursing him at night and then usually DH takes over and sometimes i get up and walk him or sing to him instead of nursing. sometimes nursing actually seems to keep him stimulated enough that he doesn't relax into deep sleep, and i need to unlatch him for him to fall completely asleep... other times nothing else will do to get him to sleep other than nursing... i just have to feel my way as to what will work for him and for me each time.

I'd definitely offer water during meals. Sounds like your little one is still very interested in nursing.

My DS is 2.5 and goes to get his own water from the fridge (thank goodness he rarely plays with the water dispenser).

At this point he still nurses several times during the day, but I flatly refuse to nurse if he's got food in his mouth

I also introduced rice and almond milk at about a year just so that DS had an alternative beverage. The rice milk was nice because it comes in small juice box sized containers. Now at 2.5 he prefers almond milk to moo milk (mostly for cereal, oatmeal, etc) and an occasional glass (abt 2-3 oz).

Of course he'll ask for soda if we're having some and will certainly drink juice if offered, but often choose water if that is offered first.

HTH

Thanks everyone for your imput. As a lover of water myself I keep a sports bottle on hand for me all the time and I think I will continue to keep water available to him all the time, but I won't deny him nursing when he wants to nurse.

Here's a little glich that we have been having with CLW though. Abouth 2-3 weeks ago he got REALLY cranky. He nursed CONSTANTLY. His poops reverted to the kind he had when he was 1 month old (yellow w/ seedy texture). We were nursing so much I didn't offer solids (not enough time in the day to meet my needs and nurse as much as we were AND make him something) No ammount of nursing made him happy. I was fixing dinner one day and he was pulling on my leg crying his nurse cry. I picked him up and he tried to flop over into the nursing position. I had to tend to dinner so I gave him a biter biscuit (ok a cookie.) He immediately popped it in his mouth and was very happy.
So over the next week or so I would nurse him then, if he asked to nurse again in the next hour I would give him solids. If he refused the solids I would nurse him. And now in the morning I give him a solid breakfast at about the same time everyday so we have a good start. He seems much happier.
I think he just didn't know how to ask for food, or I wasn't reading the food cues. I have been trying to get him to sign "eat" since he signs "milk" only right now.
Am I off the CLW path?
Thanks for reading this if you have- sorry it's long. It's important to me to CLW, I never expected it to not be crystal clear.

DD is 16m. She has never had any other milk but mine, and I'd say a few times a week has water. I offer it with meals etc. But never until after she's nursed, kwim?

She does about 3-4x a week have yobaby organic drinkable yogurt in a sippy cup. She really LOVES sippy cups b/c the little boy I nanny for PT has a sippy, so she is always trying to steal his (and it's filled with JUNK, don't even get me started!) so I give her drinkable yogurt and she's a happy girl.

She still nurses a ton, but doesn't night nurse. She night weaned herself at SIX WEEKS. yes that's right. I think a TON of that has to do with the fact she's a thumbsucker. She wakes once in a great while (usually during growth spurts) to nurse in the middle of the night, but it's few and far between. She sleeps 12 hours at night. So I dont' think that's ME weaning her @ night, since it's something she just sort of...did when she was 6w LOL (she was sleeping 8 hours a night then)

Anyway, it works for us, and I feel I am still following her lead in this, and so on and so forth. I think you just have to follow your gut, and your child's lead, and it can vary per child.