How do I drop feeds

[happynewmom1]

Our dd2 is a little over 13 months. Before she turned 1, I felt like she was starting to go a little longer between feeds but then teeth started happening. She nursed constantly. It feels like I have a newborn again.. Except much bigger.. And with teeth lol I'm not looking to wean her completely right away but I'd love to cut it down some. It's every two hours and some times less between feeds and she will claw at me and cry if I try to distract her or offer her something different. She's eating meals with us. I'm wondering if the increase in nursing is due to teeth.. I am pretty overwhelmed though.

Is there any gentle way to start cutting feeds or am I just in this until the phase is over? Which after googling, could be soon or months. Any help or advice on this would be great! I don't want to cut her off if she needs the comfort but it's so hard when she is demanding to nurse so often whether at home or in public and I have two others to take care of. I just don't remember this stage with the other two.. I weaned them at 13 months and 14 months with no problem..

 

[noon_child]

If you are pretty sure she is nursing for comfort then whatever you offer needs to be similarly comforting. How do other people in your family comfort her? Could you ay something like "You cant feed right now but you can have a cuddle". It may well end up with her crying as nothing is quite as comforting as the breast. It all depends how willing you are to meet her needs by breastfeeding or how strongly you want to cut down on feeds and meet her needs in other ways.

That said, at 1yr I remember my LO being ravenously hungry and she really needed those feeds for the added nutrition. She was having:
6:00am - Morning nursing session
8:00am breakfast of two bowls of cereal, one piece of fruit and sometimes toast too
10:30 - snack of cheese and apple plus nursing
12:30 - lunch (nearly adult sized portion of something like shepherds pie and veg)
2:30/3:00 - nursing session plus snack
5:30 supper (again large portion and endless fruit and yoghurt afterwards)
7:00 nurse to sleep
Woke twice on a normal night, but more if something was wrong and nursed each time.
A one year old can still be getting up to half their nutrition from breastmilk at that age depending how much food they are eating.

 

[happynewmom1]

That is very helpful! I don't think she eats as much actual food as the other two did at this age so that might be making the biggest difference. I really am ready to be done but want whats best for her so I'll carry on, I suppose. I think i thought she might just be nursing less at this point and not more so got a bit down about it :/ I can live with the night feeds.. The day ones are what's tiring.

I really appreciate your reply.