Weaning a Toddler from Breastfeeding?

First I want to commend you for nursing this long, I am still actively nursing my 22 month old. I also wanted to write a response to Helen D. and her comment about you being hostile when you are the one asking the questions. It is only too common that people offer their opinion on issues that are not considered typical like co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding. I do not blame you for not wanting to receive such opinions about your decision to nurse your 2 year old. I found the following quote on another mothers profile and I copied it, because I too receive unsolicited advice regarding my parenting choices. Perhaps you could phrase this in your next question so to satisfy people like Helen D and not sound rude.=) " I do not give or appreciate any advice that judges or implies that there is only one way to do things, i know that every family and every child is different and we all have to do what works for us. " (taken from Deb R.) I hope you find some good advice on your choice to wean your 2 year old.

My first child weaned herself off at 6 mos because I wasn't producing enough. ( I went back to work for a short period of time and it was a stressful job). My second child, I nursed until about 11 months. I basically only nursed her at night and gave her a bottle( the one that feels like a real breast for got the name) with warm milk and she was fine with that during the day. Eventually, I just started getting her to use the bottle before bed and she was actually ready to wean at that point.

Good luck and congratulations on making it this long with her!

Hi D.,
Congrats on b-feeding as long as you have. My daughters weaned themselves because my supply dropped and they decided they needed more than they were getting. But, my friend just weaned her guy and she had a difficult time. Nights were the worst for her but she just persisted by saying no to him and offering him something else to drink. He eventually gave up. If he started to meltdown really bad, she would give in.
Time is your friend and if you aren't under the gun for a personal reason just be persistant and comforting. It will happen when your baby is ready.

Hi Darci! My babies kinda weaned themselves. Jacob still has La Las in the morning which is a special reconnection time. If there is a special show on t.v., playdoh, painting or anything that brings a smile to your little ones face is a good alternative. My son will start to reach down my shirt and sweetly sind la la and I'll say hey lets go paint that flower we saw outside. After a short time it works. Make sure you use excitement in your voice. And keep the paint or her happy things in her line of vision. We all decorated a clear tupperware bin with stickers and I keep it by my computer. They all go to it and point at the item through the plastic and say what they want to play with. I keep puzzles, small plastic bugs. crafts, etc. in the bin. If you let them think its their idea to wean it will go very fast. But I let Jacob keep one special time for us and sometimes he forgets.-K.

Hi, I started with the mid day feedings first, I would give her a bottle in place of the breast at around 12. Then slowly I turned that into the morning and the late afternoon as well. Leaving only the last feeding at night. That one gave me a really hard time, which I eventually had to just let her cry it out for three nights, which worked perfectly, and she hardly cried at all. She stopped breastfeeding at 18 months, she's almost two and still has relapses every now and then still trying to take it out of my shirt, its pretty funny, we just laugh about it and divert her attention. Good luck to you,and kudos for doing it for so long. M.

We just recently weaned my son who's 22 mos now. We did it pretty gradually. Got him down to 2 feedings (first thing in the am and at bedtime) at around 17 mos. Did that for about 1 1/2 mos, then weaned the am feeding. Before taking away that feeding, I started explaining to him probably about 3 or 4 days before and reminders everyday, how he was a big boy and didn't need mommy's milk in the am anymore. We started pushing the weaning at that time because I was pregnant and breastfeeding was starting to get uncomfortable. I also told him the baby needed mommy's milk in the am. So when I felt he was sufficiently informed about the change, my husband started getting him in the morning, bringing him downstairs, would put on one of his favorite shows to distract him and would give him milk in his sippy cup and feed him breakfast. Then I would come down about 1/2 hour to 45 min later so my husband could get ready for work. My son would cry for about 5 min the first few mornings and then seemed to accept it. He didn't fight it much after that.

Then about 6 weeks later we took away the nighttime feeding. DId the same with explaining to him several days before what was going to happen soon. I told him he didn't need mommy's milk anymore and that the baby needed all the milk now. My husband had been doing his night time routine for a while before that - with the bath and story time. So then he just started putting him down with a sippy cup of heavily diluted juice. This actually went over surprisingly well.

The one thing that did occur was he protested drinking milk both times for about 1 to 2 weeks. he would drink very little for breakfast and would ask only for juice the rest of the day, refusing milk offered to him. But both times he eventually went back to drinking the whole milk again. In the interim I just gave him the calcium fortified juice and extra dairy stuff like cheese and yogurt.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck! p.s. I'm also a social worker now stay at home mom. Not sure when I'll get back into it. May go back when the 2nd one is around a year or so... we'll see.

I remember how hard and heartbreaking that was for my daughter and me too! I also cudn't do it until she was 2yo. I got plenty of ideas from other moms and read a lot about how to wean, but what got me to "just do it" was when the doctor said to me "whatever way you choose to do it, will be stressful, but she will get over it". As harsh as it sounded, it turned a switch in me, and I was able to deal with the situation as a project that needed diligence, would be difficult but would have a postive end.
At age 11 months, she weaned herself off the breast (I was lucky in that aspect) since I went back to work when she was 6 mos and she was at the babysitters for the whole day. But she was on the bottle up to age 2. At her 2nd bday, I just stopped giving it to her and dealt with her crying about it. I made one exception, the car. I cudn't drive whith the whaling so she had the bottle in the car. Night time was difficult cuz I needed sleep to function the next day at work, but I got thru it. You will too! Good luck!
J.

Congrats with B-feeding succesfully. I weaned my son a couple of months before his 3rd birthday, and by that time we were down to one nursing a day. What I did was to cut out one feeding at a time, starting with the evening one. The last to go was the morning one and it turned out to be pretty easy because in the morning, my son was active and ready to explore the day. That meant he was easy to distract. As for the time it took in total, it depends on how quick you drop nursing times. For me it took almost a year - by choice, but it can be done a lot quicker. Good luck with the endeavor.

i'm in the same boat and look forward to any responses you get

hi D.. my son weaned at 18 mos, he was ready, so it was pretty easy, when the nightime feeding was all that was left, i let him sleep over grandmas a couple of nights, and he just never asked again after that. my daughter was another story, though, she was 15 mos and still nursing a lot and loving it when i got pregnant again and doc wanted me to stop. the daytime nursings were fairly easy, just distracted her and didn't cuddle too much during the day :( the night and morning were tougher, in the am i changed our routine a bit so we got up and out quickly, we would eat quickly and i offered yummy favorites. nightime was the worst, in the end i just had to have hubby put her to sleep. she protested, but not too bad, after about a week it was completely done. it helped to keep her super active during the day so she fell asleep quickly. really, it was harder on me than on her. best of luck.