BF a toddler... advice please!

[Lolli_lotti]

My daughter will be 26 months in December. I only nurse her when she is going to bed at night and when she wakes in the night (still 2-3 times) I really need to wean her and I want to but I'm not sure how... Sometimes she gets so upset when I don't go to her in the night within a few minutes.

I use a nipple shield and have done since she was born as she had a hard time latching onto me. We call the shield "booby" so I was thinking of saying booby had to go help another tiny baby eat etc??? I don't know.

Any advice successful toddler weaning stories please and thanks xx

Sincerely; one exhausted mama

 

[luz]

My daughter will be 26 months in December. I only nurse her when she is going to bed at night and when she wakes in the night (still 2-3 times) I really need to wean her and I want to but I'm not sure how... Sometimes she gets so upset when I don't go to her in the night within a few minutes.

I use a nipple shield and have done since she was born as she had a hard time latching onto me. We call the shield "booby" so I was thinking of saying booby had to go help another tiny baby eat etc??? I don't know.

Any advice successful toddler weaning stories please and thanks xx

Sincerely; one exhausted mama

Do you use a binky? I weaned my toddler by giving him a binky and not even offering to breastfeed. When he would wake in the night i held his hand, rocked him, and gave him the binky to put him back to sleep. He was fine and weaned very quickly.

 

[Lolli_lotti]

My daughter will be 26 months in December. I only nurse her when she is going to bed at night and when she wakes in the night (still 2-3 times) I really need to wean her and I want to but I'm not sure how... Sometimes she gets so upset when I don't go to her in the night within a few minutes.

I use a nipple shield and have done since she was born as she had a hard time latching onto me. We call the shield "booby" so I was thinking of saying booby had to go help another tiny baby eat etc??? I don't know.

Any advice successful toddler weaning stories please and thanks xx

Sincerely; one exhausted mama

Do you use a binky? I weaned my toddler by giving him a binky and not even offering to breastfeed. When he would wake in the night i held his hand, rocked him, and gave him the binky to put him back to sleep. He was fine and weaned very quickly.

She has always turned down a soother. She doesn't like them. Good idea though. Thanks

 

[SarahBear]

What is the reason that you have to wean her?

 

[MommyJogger]

My daughter will be 26 months in December. I only nurse her when she is going to bed at night and when she wakes in the night (still 2-3 times) I really need to wean her and I want to but I'm not sure how... Sometimes she gets so upset when I don't go to her in the night within a few minutes.

I use a nipple shield and have done since she was born as she had a hard time latching onto me. We call the shield "booby" so I was thinking of saying booby had to go help another tiny baby eat etc??? I don't know.

Any advice successful toddler weaning stories please and thanks xx

Sincerely; one exhausted mama

Do you use a binky? I weaned my toddler by giving him a binky and not even offering to breastfeed. When he would wake in the night i held his hand, rocked him, and gave him the binky to put him back to sleep. He was fine and weaned very quickly.

She has always turned down a soother. She doesn't like them. Good idea though. Thanks

Just my 0.02, if the last time you tried was a while ago, you might offer again. My 2yo would never touch a pacifier when he was younger, but experimented with it briefly when DS2 got one. If the pacifier doesn't go over well, is there a chance your lo would "dry nurse" to sleep with a shield positioned away from the nipple? Maybe do it in steps to first remove the milk from the equation and then slowly work on removing the shield from the nighttime routine (because I assume a shield against ju?st skin would be uncomfortable). Just a note, removing nursing from the equation isn't all that likely to remove her waking or her need for comfort at night, it would just perhaps change the avenue through which she would receive comfort. If it's the getting up, etc, that's exhausting you, you might consider allowing her to join you in bed once she wakes in the night. Just your presence near her when she wakes may be enough that she falls right back asleep without you even knowing she had a waking. And even if it's not, I can vouch that it's so much more restful to attend to a child next to you in bed than for your feet to hit the floor several times at night. The nights I get up to pee a few times are so much more exhausting than even nights with lots of baby and toddler wakings that I don't have to get vertical for. There's another separation anxiety phase around 2 that might complicate this for you as well.

 

[staralfur]

I was going to say something similar about giving her the shield away from the breast.

I'm trying to gently wean my LO right now and what I'm finding works okay without too many meltdowns is taking my boob out and just saying "cuddle". If she tries to latch on I say "just cuddles, please." She'll usually be pretty happy with just laying her head on my boob or holding onto it. Sometimes she protests, but that's to be expected. I've also cut her feeding sessions shorter by saying "quickly" so she knows she gets to nurse but that it's going to be short and she can't just comfort suck for 20 minutes.

 

[superfrizbee]

DD used to wake at night to feed more out of habit I think. I decided to stop as I was pregnant and just cuddled her back to sleep instead. She cried a bit but wasnt inconsolable and settled pretty quickly. Once she was no longer nursing at night she wasnt much fussed in the day (she only nursed first thing anyway). I did dont offer dont refuse and she stopped herself quite happily.

 

[justmeinlove]

If it's just night weaning, the jay Gordon method seems nice

 

[noon_child]

I cut down on night feedings by offering strokes, pats, cuddles, songs FIRST. If she got really upset I gave her a nurse but made sure it was short by unlatching her once she stopped properly drinking (usually within 5 minutes at that age). Sometimes she protested and latched back on but I just unlatched her again after an even shorter feed.

 

[AEmom]

I was in the same boat last year. My daughter was 28 months. I just told her mommy is tired at night and "milkie" has to go night night too! I just gradually cut out a night feeding till it was just going to bed. In the middle of the night I would say later or ots gone night night. She would be a little upset but I would just offer to hold her hand and ask if she wanted a song etc. within a month she was weaned.

She talked about nursing though for a long time- very fond memories now a year later exactly and she isn't interested at all (I just had my second) and she watches him nurse but its nothing that seems special lol

 

[Pink Petals]

Jay Gordon method and if DH can step up his involvement that will really help.