Breastfeeding past 1 year

[LegoHouse]

If you breastfeed past 1 year, do you plan on weaning at any time?

My daughter stopped breastfeeding at 14 months, but what if my son doesn't want to stop until he is 4? I'm wondering if it would be less painful for him for us to stop now, than for him to become more attached and not want to give it up later on. My sister just stopped BFing as her daughter turned 2, and it was quite traumatic. If you have no intention of BFing past a certain age, what is the age, and how do you think your toddler will cope? Why did you pick that age?

I guess, I didn't find it weird that my niece was still BFing at 2, but I'm not sure which age I would be comfortable feeding my children myself to.

 

[Aimee4311]

I'm interested in this as well!

 

[Millnsy]

I stopped feeding my daughter at 15 months. She had almost self weaned any way and was only having the odd bed time feed by then. I didn't find it weird feeding her so it wasn't her age/ size. I got pregnant and decided I didn't want to be breast feeding back to back. Unfortunately I suffered a miscarriage so regretted the decision. 11 months in to feeding y second and I have no plan to stop. I'm sure when I go back to work she won't want as much and I expect it to dwindle naturally.

 

[cath]

I stopped at 12 months old. I was lucky and my LO was happy to take a bottle so I just stopped feeding her direct from the breast and put cows milk in her bottles. I did it gradually over about a fortnight by stopping one feed at a time. My decision was also because I had seen older children struggle with stopping so I wanted to stop before it became a big issue, plus by that time I wanted my body back. I went back to work when LO was 10 weeks old and had been pumping 3x a day at work so I had just had enough.

 

[hmaz]

I stopped feeding my son at 23 months. I never intended to feed him for that long ( I planned to wean at 12 months when I went back to work part time, but when I got to that point I realised neither of us were ready). For me, it was then easier not to set a tine limit and to just wean when I felt the time was right. by the time I got to 22 months ds wad only feeding before bed and during the night. I night weaned him as I desperately needed some sleep and then at 23 months he skipped the feed before bed a couple of times so I stopped that feed after that. For us it was a really easy, gradual process. I had been drEading weaning but it couldn't have been much easier in the end.

 

[Leids]

I was initially going to wean him at 12 months. Not only has my opinion changed, but the opinion of my entire family has changed as well (including in-laws)! We all agree that I should let him self-wean. I don't have any set time that I should quit. I am busier now, and I'm gone portions of the day without him, but he still relies heavily on nursing and I can't imagine quitting.

I can't imagine feeling uncomfortable at any point. But - I live in a very breastfeeding friendly area too. I see toddlers nursing pretty regularly, and no one gives odd looks. I rarely need to feed him in public as it is now though because he goes 3-4 hours (or more) between feeds and can munch on solids too.

That said, I can't imagine still nursing him when he's entering school (4-5). He'll be starting pre-school around 2 though, and I'm sure he'll still be nursed then.

 

[charlie15]

I haven't set an time to wean. I am just going to see what happens when I go back to work when LO is 12 months. I do want to TTC at some point so hoping I get AF back without weaning. If I do get pregnant while bfing I shall probably have to have a re think then as I don't want to tandem feed, for no offence to those that do, it's just something I don't want to do myself.

 

[Celesse]

I wean DD the day before her third birthday. I was ready a couple of months before as I was getting a lot of nursing agitation and Bfing her was feeling unnatural to me. It was a milestone that was really easy for her to understand..."When you are 3 you don't have boobies any more cos you will be a big girl". (We have no friends BFing older children so there is nothing in her world that would make her doubt this).

She just accepted it. We had a couple of days of her asking and testing the water but she was fine when I reminded her she was a big girl. After that she just wasn't interested and now talks about how she is too big.

When she was 2 and a bit I reduced her from free access to twice a day and she understood well at that age too.

 

[Sadie79]

My LO is still very reliant on the BF and is 22 months. I hadn't planned on going this long but in the other hand I never set myself a time limit. I think he would be heartbroken if i stopped now so i'm hoping he will get more independent over the next few months. I'm not going to force the issue....i don't think anyway! Good luck to everyone xxx

 

[SarahBear]

If you breastfeed past 1 year, do you plan on weaning at any time?

My daughter stopped breastfeeding at 14 months, but what if my son doesn't want to stop until he is 4? I'm wondering if it would be less painful for him for us to stop now, than for him to become more attached and not want to give it up later on. My sister just stopped BFing as her daughter turned 2, and it was quite traumatic. If you have no intention of BFing past a certain age, what is the age, and how do you think your toddler will cope? Why did you pick that age?

I guess, I didn't find it weird that my niece was still BFing at 2, but I'm not sure which age I would be comfortable feeding my children myself to.

I used to wonder the same thing, but I have since decided to just trust Violet to stop when she's ready.

 

[Tacey]

well, Alice isn't far off 4 now! I'm happy to leave her to it, as I've put in restrictions I'm happy with (1 short morning feed a day.) If I had wanted to, I think it would have been quite easy to wean completely after she was about 2, as it wasn't hard to night wean and restrict day time feeds. I think I'd have found it hard before then, as she was less verbal.

I think you're better off thinking about weaning when you actually want to wean rather than doing it soon to make it easier later. I certainly never expected to be nursing now, believe me!

 

[freckleonear]

I breastfeed my 3 year old. Around age 1-2 she was very attached and would have been distraught if I'd tried to wean her. From about 2 onwards she happily accepted any limits I put on breastfeeding and from about 2.5 onwards I think weaning would have fairly easy.

I think it can seem "easier" to wean earlier, but just because the child is more easily distracted and puts up less of a fight doesn't mean that it isn't having an effect on them (several mainstream psychological theories suggest that weaning before a child is ready can cause long-term problems).

 

[Marie000]

I have been wondering the same thing. I want to go to at least a year, but I'm not sure I will be comfortable going to 3-4 years. Part of it is that I want to be able to get away from that baby once in a while (terrible mom, I know. But in all fairness, I haven't had a break in over 6 months). Also, I am a very self-conscious person and I know the pressure to stop will become stressful at some point. Bf past a year is really not the norm here. I've already had people surprised to find out that you can still breastfeed at 8 months!

I have started pumping again and will reintroduce the bottle. Hopefully if she starts to accept it, it will be easier to phase out the breast later. At least, I hope.

 

[LegoHouse]

We're both happy at the moment. He has been a really easy, awesome little baby. He doesn't feed so much during the day now, maybe 3 times a day, more if poorly. He feeds a lot in the evenings still but it's just me and him most evenings as OH works and my daughter is in bed so it's quite nice to have snuggles I don't think I have it in me to give it up just yet...

 

[lunawaffles]

My baby boy is only 6 weeks now, but I plan on having him go as long as he and I both feel it's still comfortable. That said, I want to have anouther one around him turning 3 years old, so if it gets to that point and we're still going when I start TTC, then I may wean him if necessary.

 

[babyjan]

I've been breastfeeding for almost 18 months and it doesn't look like he will be stopping anytime soon

 

[Maxy1]

We are still going at 20 months. As with pp's I didn't plan to BF this long. I am getting some nipple damage now for some reason so I expect that I will stop soon. I am hoping to go til 2 years old so I have that 'milestone' effect that has been mentioned. DS is very resistant to dropping either of the two feeds he gets at the mo, so sadly it will be something I will have to kinda force. It will be hard to do and very sad but I am ecstatic with BFing that long and it will fit in with TTC for number 2!!

 

[vintagecat]

I'm trying it to make it to a year and so far it's going smoothly, so I think we'll just keep going and see what happens. I think self-weaning sounds great. My daughter really depends on nursing for comfort and sleep, so I don't feel like I can take that away from her. I'm also not certain we'll have more children, so a longer time nursing would be nice.