extended bf-ers

[twobecome3]

hey just wanted to get a thread going for any extended bf-ers out there. I only have one friend irl who is still bfing her toddler.

mine will be two next month. I bf pretty much on demand when its just us at home. we are cosleeping and she feeds quite a bit in the night still. she does have the odd night where she will only feed once. this is not the norm tho

she eats very little food.

 

[mum140381]

me 2 mine is 2 in feb still feeding regular and co sleeping but will go in her bed at first to sleep then comes into ours in the middle of the night but i am 9 weeks pregnant so trying to stop x

 

[Mrs Bee]

I've just weaned at 21 months went really well(I put BANDAIDS over my nipples and told my daughter they were broken - she took it really well) ....it's been a week now and she's gone from waking up multiple times a night for milk to once a night....and now a cuddle and water will send her back off to sleep....we are still co sleeping I never thought I'd breastfeed that long, but it's just what came most naturally to us she's even still napping...we fed to sleep so I thought once we were done breastfeeding naps would go, but thankfully we now just cuddle and she will drift off to me singing

My SIL also did extended breastfeeding with both her girls, and I only know one other woman who is still breastfeeding a toddler.... While breastfeeding a baby is perfectly acceptable here(in Australia) I still find even in conversation if people look at you like your crazy for feeding a toddler - I couldn't have imagined it any other way!

Well done to all you lovely ladies xxx

 

[too_scared]

I'm also still bf'ing and plan to as long as kiddo wants to. I'm nearly 17 weeks pregnant right now and my milk is pretty much gone so we're dry nursing. Ouch! I'm really hoping to tandem nurse. I think it will be a wonderful bonding experience between the kiddos.

I don't know anyone irl who is bf'ing a toddler. A friend of mine really wanted to tandem nurse but her son self weaned at 8-9 months. She thought maybe it was because she was pregnant but then her daughter self weaned at the same time too. She still had lots of milk. She was very sad both times.

Most of the people I know around here think I'm nuts to still be bf'ing. I don't give a flying ... what they think. Haha!

 

[CandyDay]

I still BF my 3 year old. We just do on demand. Since turning 3 she doesn't feed very often at night anymore. Usually not till around 6am. Its on demand, and she hardly feeds when we are busy doing stuff. She feeds more when we are at home not being busy.

 

[Odd Socks]

i'm breastfeeding my 3 year old - not a lot now, a couple of short feeds a day usually, as i don't have a lot of milk left! but going on longer than i imagined i would. she still relies on it quite a lot. i know a few people who have fed until 2.5 or so in real life, but now feeling almost like i'm the only one...

 

[staralfur]

My LO will be three in April and we're still nursing once or twice per day. I was hoping to have her weaned before her 3rd birthday but I'm not sure how realistic that is at this point.

I really had to make a point of limiting her because even at 2.5 she was asking to nurse SEVERAL times throughout the day.

Now that I've restricted it she only asks first thing in the morning and before her nap. Ideally I'd like to have her down to just the morning feed in the next month since I really only make enough milk for that feed now, the one before her nap is dry nursing and it drives me crazy.

I'm quite over it now! But definitely don't regret feeding her for as long as I have.

 

[Cangaroo]

I'm tandem feeding, though my 3.5.year old only has a bedtime feed now. She was still feeding several times a day when I got pregnant, and naturally dropped feeds as my supply reduced. She clung on to the bed time feed, and still clearly needs it. We no longer co sleep with her most of the time. She moved into her own room of her own accord last summer aged just over 3. She still sometimes comes into our bed in the night if she wakes, which is fine with us, but never asks to feed in the night now.

I absolutely did not expect to still be feeding at 3.5 when DD1 was born. I planned to feed until 12 months then switch to cow's milk. I've learned a lot since then and am happy to follow her lead.

My sister is still giving her 3 year old one breastfeed per day as well. I've known several people who breastfed into early toddlerhood, but no others over 3!

 

[luna_19]

I'm bf ing my 15 month old plan is to let him self wean but will see how I feel about it if/when I get preggo again

 

[JenX]

I'm still nursing my 20 month old, pretty much on demand. We co sleep and she nurses through the night as well. Just in the last week I decided we are only going to nurse at home from now on and we talked about it a lot. It seems to have gotten through to her. A couple of times when we were out this week (a play date and our breastfeeding group) she asked for it and I just had to remind her we are only nursing at home from now on and offer her a snack. That went waaaay better than I had expected. I'd love to cut down on the daytime nursing as well, but she's pretty boobie-obsessed.

 

[twobecome3]

for the tandem feeders - what happened with the newborn? how do you make sure they get the colostrum and not the toddler?

we will be ttc probably in the summertime, so a ways away still.

 

[twobecome3]

so ladies, how is your toddler with food? mine does not like to swallow food. I gave her pureed stuff until about age one (that she rarely ate) then just gave her pretty much everything from then on. she will usually shove a whole bunch of food into her mouth, then 9 times out of ten spits it all back out. there are a few things she will fully eat - yogurt, bananas, pasta.

everything else gets spit out.

 

[too_scared]

My little guy barely ate anything until my milk went away. He eats more now but he's still pretty picky about it. We did Baby Led Weaning. He's funny with food, sometimes he will like something a lot and then the next time he won't touch it. I'm thinking that's probably a toddler thing. Haha!

He mostly eats things like yogurt, cheese, and fruit.

 

[staralfur]

so ladies, how is your toddler with food? mine does not like to swallow food. I gave her pureed stuff until about age one (that she rarely ate) then just gave her pretty much everything from then on. she will usually shove a whole bunch of food into her mouth, then 9 times out of ten spits it all back out. there are a few things she will fully eat - yogurt, bananas, pasta.

everything else gets spit out.

My LO eats constantly. She loves food. She was definitely slow to start, though. She was on mostly breastmilk until about 1.5 probably.

 

[luna_19]

My guy is a little Piggie he eats a ton! We did baby led weaning so never did purees and he has been self feeding since 6 months. He would also nurse all day if I let him but I managed to get him down to morning, naps, bedtime and 1-2 times overnight because I wanted to get my cycle back.

 

[JenX]

We did Baby Led Weaning and she was very slow to start. We started at just over 7 months, but it was months and months before she ate appreciable amounts. I wouldn't say she's ever been a picky eater, just eats smaller amounts. Lately though, her appetite has really picked up and she's eating a lot more though she's still nursing just as much. We eat gluten and dairy free and eat sugar only in fruit or very tiny amounts, and this works well for her.

 

[Aliop]

I am feeding my two year old (turned two in December) and he is a complete boobie monster seriously, he'd feed constantly all day! I limit it as much as possible but on average would have three/four feeds a day. Luckily he doesn't feed overnight I have fed all my kids until they self weaned around this age but he seems to be hanging on for the long haul whereas I am starting to feel quite 'done'

 

[Emz1982_in_uk]

Hi ladies

My toddler is almost 2 and a half and doesn't seem to want to stop feeding anytime soon. Sometimes she feeds throught the night and other nights she sleeps until about 5am when she wakes for a feed I don't mind feeding her in the day but I don't encorage her. I am sooooo done with the night feeds. It's actually annoying me. She pulls me from pillar to post all night sometimes. I actually night weaned her for 5 weeks and she screamed every night for the whole 5 weeks when I could take no more crying, plus she wakes my 5 year old up and myself and my husband work full time

She eats ok but it's sporadic. She definitely prefers boobs to food!!! Is anyone wanting to wean soon? Some weeks I think I'll just let her self wean but other weeks I want her to stop.

I fed my son exclusively for 2 weeks so being here 2 years later with my daughter is a massive achivement but the sleep deprivation is getting too much. We bedshare and have since birth.

 

[twobecome3]

im not sure how to wean tbh, I always offer her food first. she just doesn't eat it im just hoping one day she'll start eating properly (not the chewing and spitting things out I described above)

I know I won't follow through with pushing night weaning, so theres no point in even trying, lol/

 

[JenX]

I'm not sure how to wean either, but I think I'll approach it in stages. My LO is very rule-based. Once you tell her something is to be a certain way, she'll keep you in line from then on so I'll try to use that to my advantage. We're no longer nursing when away from home, and then yesterday when her friend was over for a play date I told her we couldn't nurse while friends were visiting and she took to that well (though she was ready for her friend to go home towards the end so she could have some precious boobie!). I'm thinking around her 2nd birthday I'll try to limit her to just nighttime/morning and naps.