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Is it time to stop?

I've had blood and know how much it hurts! But have found biting only happens during teething.

If you are happy to continue and LO is happy then why stop?

I always get 'your STILL breastfeeding' :dohh:

At the end of the day tho it's totally your choice, noone elses :hugs:

i agree totally with this statement! i too have been bitten and had bleeding nipples. now if he bites i break the latch and say 'no' firmly and sit him up and/or put him down. he seems to have got the message.
 
I think it might be that you need to know whether you're trying to figure out when he's ready to stop or when you are. When he's ready, if you offer, he won't be bothered, that's certainly what it was like for us when Aisling weaned at 12 months. I offered and offered and she continually refused. But if it's you who's ready to wean and he doesn't seem desperately bothered either way, maybe don't offer don't refuse would be a gentle way to do it.

It really is your decision and I think it needs to be made ignoring the comments of are you STILL bfing - it's how you and he feel about it that's important :hugs:
 
:hugs:

It's hard isn't it.

H still feeds morning, nap and bedtime and throughout the night - anything from once to four times if shes poorly or teething. She won't take a bottle to go to sleep, and she won't settle for anyone but me :coffee:

I'm waiting for the signs too. I think the only sign is refusal, and there's no sign of that here.

I feel 'wrong' to say I'm tired, worn out, and would happily be done with being the only one who can put her to bed or go to her in the night. I haven't had a full nights sleep in over 2 years :sleep:

I also feel a bit cheated that everyone always seems to talk of being down to one bedtime feed by this stage :dohh:

I do love her with every breath, she's worth it :cloud9:
Same here. When people have babies younger than Emma that are only down to one or two feeds I'm always a bit :shock: and than :dohh: about it. :haha: I counted Emmas feeds recently and she feeds 7-8 times a day still. And it's her that is asking for it. When I refuse she freaks out at me. :dohh:
 
G refused feeds gradually. If he didn't want a feed he would bite & push away if I tried to encourage it. The last to go was bedtime feed; I continued to offer for 3 weeks & at different times I didn't give any other milk before he weaned or for 3 weeks whilst I tried to persuade him back - he was only 14 months.
 
I'm just leaving amelie until she decides and it doesnt sound like your LO is ready yet as he isnt fussing on the breast or refusing. If you want to stop, then thats fine but don't do it cos of pressure from anyone else!
 
:hugs:

It's hard isn't it.

H still feeds morning, nap and bedtime and throughout the night - anything from once to four times if shes poorly or teething. She won't take a bottle to go to sleep, and she won't settle for anyone but me :coffee:

I'm waiting for the signs too. I think the only sign is refusal, and there's no sign of that here.

I feel 'wrong' to say I'm tired, worn out, and would happily be done with being the only one who can put her to bed or go to her in the night. I haven't had a full nights sleep in over 2 years :sleep:

I also feel a bit cheated that everyone always seems to talk of being down to one bedtime feed by this stage :dohh:

I do love her with every breath, she's worth it :cloud9:
Same here. When people have babies younger than Emma that are only down to one or two feeds I'm always a bit :shock: and than :dohh: about it. :haha: I counted Emmas feeds recently and she feeds 7-8 times a day still. And it's her that is asking for it. When I refuse she freaks out at me. :dohh:

Amelie was the same at that age. Shes still quite booby mad and can sneak 4 feeds in a day on the weekend but during the week its 1 or 2 and 1 during the night.
 
I continued to breastfeed my daughter until just after her second birthday. She gradually reduced the number of feeds to a point when it was just morning and night, then just night. One before bed from about 20 months until one night she said, no milk mummy just a cuddle and that was it.

I was working 4 days a week from 14 months so on days when I was at work, she wasn't getting many feeds at all. So my experience was of a gradual decrease in feeds with her stopping completely at 25 months.

You have done really well to still be feeding at 17 months, so you have nothing to feel bad about for stopping now if that's what you want to do. However on the flip side, please don't feel pressured into giving up by others if you don't want to. It's your decision to make and no-one else's.

I found that when she was teeting, she would occasionally bite and when she got some new teeth in, feeding could be uncomfortable for a day or so until she adjusted her latch to account for her new gnashers.
 
I think it's completely up to you.

I BF till 6 months when I went back to work full time and had people saying to me then "are you still BFing?" - I think because my parents' generation were advised to do it till 3m and then switch to formula.

We had a bit of an issue with it, he wouldn't have a bottle when I was anywhere he could smell (sounds horrid but they can smell milk on you can't they?)

I would say, if your LO is happy to accept cow's milk/formula from a bottle if you are in the house then it's probably not going to be that traumatic for them if you stop.

As others have said, I think you have done really well to BF for this long, and you should feel proud of that rather than guilty for considering stopping.
 
I am missing breastfeeding so much. If I sat down and let myself dwell on it I'd probably cry actually. I'm so happy on the very, very rare occasions she will have a feed before bed. I miss those cuddles! I guess I wasn't ready to stop and I didn't really expect her to self wean until at least 2, but Daisy is obviously ready to stop. I can't wait to start all over again with the new baby :).
 
:hugs:

It's hard isn't it.

H still feeds morning, nap and bedtime and throughout the night - anything from once to four times if shes poorly or teething. She won't take a bottle to go to sleep, and she won't settle for anyone but me :coffee:

I'm waiting for the signs too. I think the only sign is refusal, and there's no sign of that here.

I feel 'wrong' to say I'm tired, worn out, and would happily be done with being the only one who can put her to bed or go to her in the night. I haven't had a full nights sleep in over 2 years :sleep:

I also feel a bit cheated that everyone always seems to talk of being down to one bedtime feed by this stage :dohh:

I do love her with every breath, she's worth it :cloud9:
Same here. When people have babies younger than Emma that are only down to one or two feeds I'm always a bit :shock: and than :dohh: about it. :haha: I counted Emmas feeds recently and she feeds 7-8 times a day still. And it's her that is asking for it. When I refuse she freaks out at me. :dohh:

It's down to individual babies/children :shrug: I have never refused a feed to Isabella, but I am not there during parts of the day Mon-Thurs as I have to work, so she has cow's milk - I am not there so she doesn't look for it (she'd have a hard job getting it from my MIL or the nursery worker). She doesn't wake at night for a feed (and I have never done sleep training), so she doesn't get woken up for one. She has a long feed in the morning and then one before bed and have never been led to believe this is an issue.
 
Guess it kind of depends on how 'ready' you feel to stop and whether you want to plan yourself to stop and how to do it etc, or whether you just wait and see how he goes and if he starts to refuse, or keeps on asking, etc.
He hasnt bitten for ages but did this morning but was just messing about, he's also started to try to bite people's fingers whilst giggling madly. Sorry to hear he bit you that hard, that sounds painful :( but could be teeth, messing about etc? LO tends to 'mess about' more when there is less milk at different times during my cycle.

He also goes through phases of not being very interested but will still have a few feeds through the night (unless he's ill, when that's all he wants).
Like seraphim I have my moments of feeling ready to stop as I also havent had a nights sleep in 2 years :sleep: but they're usually during the bad nights when he doesnt snooze back off after a quick booby!
Those moments pass pretty quickly when I realise that when we stop, I may never bf ever again :cry: and we both still enjoy it and are not ready to stop yet. Plus I think it helps him calm down, get extra nutrition and calories (he's little and skinny so he needs it lol) and calms us both down. No one's said anything to me about 'still bf'ing' but I don't really tell people and they probably know they would get an earful if they did dare say anything :haha:
It's a joint decision, I think, between you and your LO. I know what you mean about not being sure how you know, but it sounds like, if you go down the self weaning route, it'll be pretty definite that he wont want it and you'll know then. :hugs:
 
How ironic that everyone has mentioned teething (with the biting) and last night before he went to bed I discovered not one but TWO top molars just breaking through! No wonder!!

His seven teeth just jumped to nine!

I think I was starting to feel a bit guilty as though I had nursed him "too" long just by what DH & SIL had said. I know DH won't agree with me if I decide to carry on a bit longer...but to make him feel a bit better I have told him we will drop the morning feeds and replace with cow's milk and I will now nurse only before he goes to bed until later this month when he turns 18 mos. After that I will follow his lead and see if he is bothered.

I suppose better to do it this way than for him to become attached and "need" to have it to settle. For now I think it's just a nice way to wind down the day and have a cuddle.
 
That sounds like a good plan. I hope all goes well :) I have been thinking how to stop as well, just going to let lo self wean too he still feeds 3x's a day though. x
 
Just an alternative perspective, I think that I had a "window" at about 14-16 months when I could easily have weaned Thomas - he was down to one feed a day at bedtime and some days he wouldn't even take that. At one stage I was sure he was self-weaning because he didn't have a feed at all for three days (and I was devastated because I wasn't ready). But by the time he was 18 months he was keener than he had been for months and I really don't feel like I could wean him now without a battle. That's fine by me as I'm hoping to go until two anyway. But if I had wanted to wean him I think I definitely missed my window of opportunity. So it's worth having a think about how long you want to keep going and if you do want to wean by 18 months or so it might be worth doing it now while he's not too bothered.
 
Just an alternative perspective, I think that I had a "window" at about 14-16 months when I could easily have weaned Thomas - he was down to one feed a day at bedtime and some days he wouldn't even take that. At one stage I was sure he was self-weaning because he didn't have a feed at all for three days (and I was devastated because I wasn't ready). But by the time he was 18 months he was keener than he had been for months and I really don't feel like I could wean him now without a battle. That's fine by me as I'm hoping to go until two anyway. But if I had wanted to wean him I think I definitely missed my window of opportunity. So it's worth having a think about how long you want to keep going and if you do want to wean by 18 months or so it might be worth doing it now while he's not too bothered.

This. Exactly.

My daughter is keener than ever to bf and she is a fully talking 2 year old now who can reason and plead and is fully aware of what she wants. I know it's going to be harder to wean her now than it would have been when she was younger.... That window of opportunity has definitely passed.

This self weaning everyone talks about. I can't see it happening :shrug: she's so attached to the boob and it provides so much comfort....

We'll see what happens when our lo is here... She'll be almost 3 then.... Will she have weaned by then? :shrug: hopefully...

But yeah, if you're thinking about it, and you can then perhaps it's the right time for you. If your lo is obviously not ready to stop then.... That's your answer
 
I agree with Polaris about a window of opportunity, glad it timed out that I was as ready as I ever would have been to wean. Meant it was stress free for W, just me that found it hard, bfing is emotional start to finish and ever after I think!
 
I think most women on here have the wrong definition of 'self weaning' anyways. Offering cows milk is no longer self weaning I don't think. Because that's offering a substitute which in effect will help the child wean from the breast. And ladies that wean them down to a day or night feed is no longer self weaning. :lol: Am I wrong with that? Everyone says they want to self wean but I must have a totally different definition of what it means. I know I can no longer say Emma will self wean because I do try to refuse her during the day and I occasionally offer a cup of milk. So it's not her weaning, it's me encouraging it.
 
Drawing blood? Bugger that lol. I think drop one at a time and I'm sure he'll be more than happy
 
I think most women on here have the wrong definition of 'self weaning' anyways. Offering cows milk is no longer self weaning I don't think. Because that's offering a substitute which in effect will help the child wean from the breast. And ladies that wean them down to a day or night feed is no longer self weaning. :lol: Am I wrong with that? Everyone says they want to self wean but I must have a totally different definition of what it means. I know I can no longer say Emma will self wean because I do try to refuse her during the day and I occasionally offer a cup of milk. So it's not her weaning, it's me encouraging it.

hmm I agree with parts of this, if the mother cuts down feeds by refusing to breastfeed at certain times then this isn't self weaning, however I think if a substitute is offered (cup of cows milk/ EBM) and the LO chooses that over breastfeeding then this is still self weaning. If you think about weaning in terms of food, I guess BLW is like self weaning (you put the alternative to breastmilk in front of them and if they want it they pick it up and eat it), and traditional weaning is like encouraged weaning (same as refusing feeds etc).

That probably didn't make much sense! And was really off topic - sorry OP!

Polaris makes a really interesting point and if I was still breastfeeding I think it would have definitely given me food for thought :thumbup:
 

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