Need Weening Help Please

It's been a long, long time and I am not a new mother, only an experienced mom. I just fed him a bottle at night and rocked him alittle. He fought it for awhile, but then he got into a routine. Sometimes, you the parents have to set a routine, even though each child is different, they do get use to a routine. I know it's easier letting them sleep in your bed at night, but you could roll over on him. I always made sure my son had his blanket at least he had something he was use to at night. I had a harder time getting rid of the blanket that was torn to shreds. Good luck, like I said, I am older but it did work for my child. L. Clark

I wanted to ween my little girl as well by her first birthday. I didn't accomplish it right away though because she would not take a bottle or a sippy cup very well. but she was weened by 14 months old. If your little boy takes a cup or bottle well, then I would reccomend cutting out one feeding a week until he is weened. That is what my doctor and midwife reccomended. That way I didn't get to sore. If he doesn't take a cup or bottle then that should be your first priority before fully trying to get him off the breast.

You might also want to wait to stop breastfeeding until he isn't using the breast as a sleep crutch. I would feed my first baby to sleep all the time. But he was waking up in the middle of the night and not able to put himself back to sleep without eating. I was suffering the most from lack of sleep. I found this book called "Good Night, Sleep Tight" by Kim West that helped me teach my son to sleep on his own with out the horrible cry it out phase that I just couldn't do. I used her technique with my second child and she has been sleeping on her own since she was 2 months old. I could lay her in bed drowsy but awake and she would go to sleep on her own. It has made a world of difference in my ablity to be a good mother because I was getting the sleep I so desparately needed. Here is a link to her website: http://www.sleeplady.com/

Ultimately what ever you decide will be the best for you and your son because you are the mom and you know best. Don't continue breast feeding because someone else tells you it is best. If you feel it is time to stop then I'm sure you will figure out how to best accomplish it.

Good luck.

I would first question the reason for weaning such a young baby, but since it's not really my business I'll offer a couple of resources --

Look into the Dr. Jay Gordon nightweaning protocol. He offers very gentle, sensible advice for nightweaning and perhaps there is some advice you could use for weaning in general. You can easily find it by using google.

Also, here is a page from Kelly Mom on night weaning: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/weaning-night.html

If you are really really intent on completely weaning such a young babe I would recommend doing it very slowly so as to be the least amount of trauma for your child. Here is some advice from Kelly Mom on weaning in general:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/index.html

I should add that my 19 month old boy breasfeeds a couple times in a 24 hour period and I am so very glad to be still nursing him. Nursing an toddler is so easy.

Good luck to you :)

I did the exact same thing with my son and at 11 months i started weening him with a bottle just slowly replace each feeding with a bottle i used straight formula at first and slowly reduced it to cows milk after his first birthday . at night i would just wear thick clothes when i stopped with feeding him in bed. Remember it only takes 3 to 5 days to consistantly change any habit / routine with children.

I realized that when I tried to wean my son at about that age that it is actually a very difficult time to wean. Children are going through so many developmental changes already, that changing the one comfort they have always known is difficult. I have to admit that I gave up, and nursed another full year.

Still, as many mothers say, even if you nurse into a second year, it's time to change it onto your terms, instead of your infant's. So, the first place to start is by changing some of your child's habits. Help him learn to fall asleep separately from nursing, that is a first step. Weaning a child that relies on nursing to fall asleep is very difficult, so if you can remove that barrier, it will help. I am sorry that I have trouble remembering HOW to do this, however. I just know that the connection between sleep and nursing is what is most likely to make an attempt to wean traumatic.

Second, gradually replace the daytime feedings. This should be relatively easy, since while awake infants are eager to explore and learn, and can be distracted. I actually weaned days off with both my children first because it is relatively easy. But, I believe that may have made finishing the process more difficult.

I have to confess that weaning my second child, at age 2, was so difficult we took the "trip away" alternative. I had never been able to disassociate nursing and sleep with her, probably in large part because I lacked the will, since we knew this was our last child. Anyway, in order to wean her from nights, I LEFT for 4 days. She had no choice but to learn to asleep without nursing, and she had been prepared by being told mommy's milk was doing away and there wouldn't be any when mommy came back.

Hopefully the books in the post below will have more recommendations, but I think in the end what I recommend most is making sure that your heart is in whatever process you choose. Our little ones have our number when we're emotionally conflicted, so being confident in your decisions is very important. Do what is right for you and your children, and not what you think you should do, and you will be fine.

i was you.... with my first child. and his first birthday came and went.. and i got comments from family about "i thought you were weaning him". don't give yourself such a deadline. if you are truly done, then you have to get him use to sleeping without breastfeeding. i placed one habit for another. :) i started rocking my kids when it was time to stop breastfeeding. but mine were all older and understood that they didn't need it, had cups, juice. (all under two). do what feels right. but getting him use to sleeping without nursing is your first step. after that, the rest falls into place. i always suggest a special new cup they pick out to have big boy juice/milk. but yours is smaller. just breaking a habit i think. good luck..

My two children (6 and 4 years old now) were both weaned right about at 12 months.

I did it gradually by cutting back one feeding every week or so. They were eating a variety of solids, including yogurt and cheese, so I knew they were getting the food and nutrition they needed. As I slowed down on the number of nursings per day, my milk production also began to diminish, and since they weren't getting as much milk from me, my children started to lose interest in nursing. That in itself was almost all they needed to quit.

I saved the bedtime nursing as the last to drop, because they seemed to really need that time to soothe themselves to sleep. I made sure they were full of food in the evening, and that it was only the comfort that they needed. Then I would get their pacifier and hold it to their mouths (they kept spitting it out hoping for the breast), while I held them close in a feeding position. (I had done the same thing earlier with the middle of the night wakenings.) It was hard at first but after a few days, they adjusted to the change and were quite happy.

It was at times like this (like getting fid of the pacie too) that it was hard for me to deal with my child's resistance to the change. But I knew that it was what our family needed, so I had to stand firm, even when it's difficult. I find it easier to be firm with important issues now, since I succeeded in practicing it when my children were very young.

So if you feel this is the right time for you to ween, then make a plan and stick with it. Don't give up if it doesn't work the first day or two. Give your son several days to adjust to the change. If it still doesn't work, try adjusting your plan to make the change more slowly (smaller steps). You can do it! Good luck!