Almost at a year and feeling like time to stop

[LankyDoodle]

My LO still enjoys feeding 2-3 times a day. She is dropping the midday feed now too, so will soon just be morning and evening feed, which is good since I am back to work part time next week.

It would be easy enough in terms of timing, to carry on (except Monday nights she will have to go to bed later due to me finishing work later, and if she wasn't bf then my husband could put her to bed on time!). She has never really nipped or bitten at all, but now she is starting to such SO SO hard when she feeds without trying to bite, that I end up with very very deep teeth marks, and it is excruciating. This is not something I am able to stop - taking her off doesn't work and she is not doing it to be playful or naughty at all; it is mere strong sucking. She only has 5 teeth at the moment but it HURTS!

I am not sure what to do. The nursery will give her cow's milk during the day anyway, so I don't know - would it be sensible to give her cow's milk on the Monday night and still b/f the other nights? I WANT to carry on until she self-weans but I am struggling at the moment, and that in itself is making me feel like I've failed. I am a member of a couple of groups on facebook, both of which have a minority of extremely militant mums who say things like '12 months is too young to stop' when mums ask advice on how to stop. This doesn't help me feel any better.

Not sure what to do.

 

[lynnikins]

i think if you want to carry on just doing morning and evening theres nothing wrong with that, its very likely that if i have to get a job ( which is a strong possibility very soon ) that EJ will be fed in the morning and have an expressed bottle at night while im at work, currently he feeds 3 times a day and isnt ready to go less than that but if i have to i'll have to , thankfully he will take either a bottle or sippy cup so we have that option

 

[joeyjo]

G went thru a stage of leaving imprints and it was very uncomfy - I found if I held him better & supported his bum a little higher than usual (back to BF pillow) then it was a lot better.

 

[kerrie24]

Owen has had 8 teeth since 8 months and he leaves indent too.Sometimes they have been marked for days but it doesnt seem to hurt as much now,maybe im just used to it?If you want to stop,theres no shame in that,a year is brilliant.
If you want to carry on,maybe just doing a couple of feeds before and after work with cows milk the rest of the time would give your nips time to recover and she would still be getting some milk from you.