My daughter has just turned 2, and still loves to breastfeed, and I mean she loves it. She comes to me for mummy milk when she is ill, upset, happy, bored, wants to sleep.... Everything.
We co- sleep and I will bf throughout the night.... It is hard to say how often as while I am sleeping she will help herself. Throughout the day she will breastfeed... If I'm not working, and we're at home I'd say maybe 7-8 times in the day.
She is physically very tall and a rambunctious toddler, and although I adore the close bond we have through extended breastfeeding, I have had enough. Due to the frequency of her feeding my breasts get full and heavy and prone to leakage on days I work
and I want her to be more independent of me. I want my breasts back... I want to be able to leave her more without her getting so upset.. I feel after 2 years she isn't any closer to self-weaning, and I'm so ready to give up....
So I tried reasoning with her, and that makes her so upset and it breaks my heart to see her cry... And then I get so sore with engorgement so I end up feeding her...
Then I tried coffee on the nipples, that worked... She says 'yuck' and moves on. BUT, her behaviour since I tried this has been appalling, she will hit me repeatedly and everyone else, including the cats.... And will continue even if we ignore it or yell at her. I can see it's frustration as it began at exactly the same day I tried the coffee trick.... And I'm worried that it'll affect her somehow psychologically...
I don't use the coffee at night, I still let her bf, but I almost feel like she makes up for the lack of bf'ing in the day and will do it twice as much. Her sleep is also so much more disturbed and I can hear she has nightmares....
I feel stuck, and I almost feel breastfeeding has done more harm than good at times...
Please any advice would be really appreciated.
We co- sleep and I will bf throughout the night.... It is hard to say how often as while I am sleeping she will help herself. Throughout the day she will breastfeed... If I'm not working, and we're at home I'd say maybe 7-8 times in the day.
She is physically very tall and a rambunctious toddler, and although I adore the close bond we have through extended breastfeeding, I have had enough. Due to the frequency of her feeding my breasts get full and heavy and prone to leakage on days I work
and I want her to be more independent of me. I want my breasts back... I want to be able to leave her more without her getting so upset.. I feel after 2 years she isn't any closer to self-weaning, and I'm so ready to give up....So I tried reasoning with her, and that makes her so upset and it breaks my heart to see her cry... And then I get so sore with engorgement so I end up feeding her...
Then I tried coffee on the nipples, that worked... She says 'yuck' and moves on. BUT, her behaviour since I tried this has been appalling, she will hit me repeatedly and everyone else, including the cats.... And will continue even if we ignore it or yell at her. I can see it's frustration as it began at exactly the same day I tried the coffee trick.... And I'm worried that it'll affect her somehow psychologically...
I don't use the coffee at night, I still let her bf, but I almost feel like she makes up for the lack of bf'ing in the day and will do it twice as much. Her sleep is also so much more disturbed and I can hear she has nightmares....
I feel stuck, and I almost feel breastfeeding has done more harm than good at times...
Please any advice would be really appreciated.
