If you didn't self wean, why did you decide to stop?

[blake12336]

Lo will be 1 in November, and I am thinking about stopping breastfeeding around then. I am pleased to have got this far and I know this is selfish but I want my life back a bit, I'd like him to be able to fall asleep without boob, and also to not have to pump every day for work!

Why did you decide to stop and how do you do it?! LO loves his boob but I am really not enjoying it anymore especially as he now also bites.

Thanks in advance

 

[luz]

When my LO turned 1 i still bf him 2 times a day. Once before i left for work and then right before bed. We introduced cows milk in a sippy cup throughout the day. After reducing to that i dropped the morning feed and eventually the night one too. That was the hardest for us, because the boob is what put him to sleep. i nursed to sleep every night from day 1. I was actually pretty surprised at how well he took it. instead of giving him the boob i gave him his binky and wore a low cut shirt and would rock him. I think him feeling my chest was pretty comforting.

 

[Celesse]

I decided to stop when DD reached 3. I was ready a couple of months before as I was getting a LOT of nursing agitation when feeding her. She was tandem nursed from being 21 months and sometimes matched the baby feed for feed. I picked that date as it was easy for her to understand..."when you are 3 your a big girl and don't have boobies any more".

 

[Dk1234]

I stopped because my milk dried up while pregnant at 9 months but honestly I think that was perfect. He never got too attached so that it wasn't hard to drop and he went really well to a sippy. I'm gonna try and save up enough frozen milk to quit around the same time and still give 3 bottles a day. I'm pumping 6-8 ounces a day to achieve that.

 

[menageriemom]

I started don't offer don't refuse when DD was 16 months because I got pregnant again and it was painful to nurse a toddler. She took it surprisingly well and stopped asking completely after a couple weeks.

 

[AmeliePoulain]

I stopped at 15.5 months because I wanted to TTC again and my cycles didn't return until I fully stopped.

My daughter by that point only wanted to be fed before bed and the feeding seems to agitate her more than make her happy so it was very natural to stop x

 

[luz]

I also forgot to add one thing i did in stopping. I figured he was mostly just comfort sucking and not really getting anything, so i would let him 'nurse' for a few minutes and then take it away and give him a binky before he actually fell asleep. That way he got used to sleeping with a binky. Eventually i took the boob away all together.

Good luck!

 

[Kirstiedenman]

I stopped around 16-17 months well actually he self weaned so I cant really apply to this but I had already started weaning as I was pregnant and it was going really well I just explained to him that he was a big boy and didn't need it anymore. My first step was stoping feeding him to sleep I would feed him as soon as he woke instead so I think when he stopped having that reliability and my milk had started turning back to colostrum he decided he had enough but he still sometimes likes to rest his hand there especially when he is sick which is funny because he never once did that while he was bf

 

[blake12336]

Thanks for all of your replies! I've decided I'm going to feed him till he's one and then slowly not offer not refuse and see how it goes. I just used to love nursing but now the thought of it makes me cringe, I'm not sure if this has something to do with the biting though!

 

[Rachel_C]

We haven't weaned yet but I did night wean LO just after her second birthday because I felt it was time I got some uninterrupted sleep! It was quite important to me to follow the WHO guidelines of 2 years (and beyond) if possible and I know night weaning can sometimes lead LO to wean in the day too, so I didn't want to risk it before that. If the WHO guidelines were 18 months we might have tried it earlier, I'm not sure. We used Dr Jay Gordon's method and it worked so well and so quickly that I think the time was just right. If it had taken more than a week I would have taken it as a sign that she wasn't ready, but she was and I'm glad we did it.

I've noticed that LO feeds differently in the daytime since night weaning so I think we're probably on our way to her stopping BF during the day... maybe in the next 6 months or so. I'll let her do it herself, although I'm not sure it would be considered self-weaning since it was kick-started by me night weaning her.

 

[CatherineK]

When you stop is completely up to you, but just wanted to say that you can stop pumping at work and still breastfeed. I work full time, and hate pumping, but absolutely love breastfeeding after 12 months, when I stop pumping at work, don't worry at all about supply, can introduce alternatives when I am not there, yet still breastfeed when I am home. That being said, only YOU know what is best for you

 

[JASMAK]

My first I stopped at 20 mths as my daughter was due. I stopped at 19mths with my daughter (personal reasons), and my lo I breastfed until 24 mths as I had a complete hysterectomy and a tumour in my breast. I would have breastfed way longer.