Advice on Weaning Almost Two Year Old.

My son was the same way I think he stopped about a month and a half ago. The way that I did it is during the day I would just hand him a sippy cup and tell him how much of a good big boy he was. After a while that's all he wanted. I try to give cuddle time with him also (he stills needs this but not as much). Finally he just didn't want it anymore. I was told not to worry until they reach 2yrs. But I noticed it was mostly when my other children were home. He just wanted my attention.

I need tips from you moms who have breastfed on how to keep up that milk supply.... I'm on the third baby due in October and determined that this time the baby is getting the boob for the whole year.... My opinion on your concerns - she's going through the stage that she wants security from you or from something that she has had since she was a baby. Like a pacifier. My son is 18 months and want's his paci when he feels insecure and when it's bed time or nap time. He has also developed this very weird habit of sucking on my shirt when I'm holding him for bed time.... weird huh...

I know she's 22 months a bit older than I might be able to handle for breastfeeding. But to me it's the bonding that I consider the most precious thing you and your child can share. Let her wean herself. If this is interrupting your daily duties in your career, as a wife and in your duties at home then try giving herself something else to help with her. But if it's the fear of her not ever getting away from the "boopa" in time she will wean herself. And break it down a bit like others said. I'm not an expert in breastfeeding but if I went back in time I would suck it up with the pain and the tiredness from the beginning and do it for the year or more because of the wonderful bonding you get with the kids.

Good luck and if you have any advice on what I can start doing while pregnant to prepare myself to have a great milk supply when this baby comes... please pm me....i'm getting all the advice I can and am learning from it all.... :)

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I can't offer advice on weaning from nursing- I came to check out your answers for my own situation. But I wanted to mention that it would probably be best to not try to get her to take a bottle. That will just be another thing you have to wean. Even if you get her off the breast soon, she might turn to the bottle as a substitute, and you will have the same battle all over again. Let her forget about the bottle completely, get her to use a sippy cup or regular cup for whole milk as much as you can, and then you won't have two weaning battles to fight. The fact that she doesn't want it just makes that part of it easier for you. Then you will just have to focus on the breast weaning.

Good luck, I am trying to get my son to wean also. He is about 28 mos. He has only been nursing once a week or so for about 6 mos, and I keep thinking he is done, but then he asks for it again. When I distract or deny it, he becomes way more focused on it. So I am still trying to figure out what to do with a once in a while nurser. I can't decide whether to just deny it completely or keep letting him for now and see if he just forgets about it.

I nursed my kids until they self-weaned.
My daughter self-weaned at about 2.5 years old.
Up until then, I talked to her about it.... and when she asked I would say something like "in a minute, I'm busy..." then I would make myself busy and NOT sit down... then she would get distracted. And, I would also lessen the time that she was at the boob.... not let her just LINGER there.

Then, my friends who had kids that age and nursing... actually put band-aids on their nipples. Then told their kid "mommy's milk is broken..." or "Mommy has a boo-boo...." and they said that worked for their kids.

Try get your girl a lovey as well. Something else to comfort with. Make it real SPECIAL for her...

Now your 1 boob is bigger than the other... because it has reacted to the demand upon it, by your daughter. And the other boob was not used.

Or some Moms only let their child "nurse" at certain times.... night time. Telling the child when the sun goes down, and its night time only.

Meanwhile, give her cow's milk. Is she still drinking that? Give it to her however she will take it... just to segue her off of your boobs.

You need to talk to your girl about it, in a non-threatening way. Tell her she is a big girl etc. My girl just one day stopped on her own... just like that. And then she thought it was funny that she even breastfed. And then that was the end of it all.

All the best,
Susan

I nursed my son till his second birthday , after that i started to wean him off it took alot of patience but i tried all the tricks,,bandaids on the nipples putting ketchup or mustard and nothing worked. He did not care LOL.
So everytime he wanted to nurse i just distracted him by taking him outside showing him anything i could find outside to keep his mind off of breastfeeding. then i would carry him and walk down the sidewalk back and forth till he fell to sleep then go in and lay him down.
He never took a bottle after that i just went straight to the sippy cup .I would give him warm milk in his sippy cup while we were at home and that helped a little bit .
And the only reason why i weaned him off was because i knew he was nursing just out of habit to help him fall asleep and he wasnt eating to much either so i wanted him to learn that when bedtime came around he could just lay in his bed and fall asleep without my boob. and he needed to start eating more foods. But till this day i will admit of all my children hes the one thats closes to me .,my girls only breastfed till they turned 12mths.
bittersweet.

I nursed my daughter till she was 3.5, but at that point it was once when she was falling asleep. It was a slow, gradual decline in nursing that she dictated herself and it slowly decreased my milk till she would suck, but nothing came out. Then one night she didn't nurse to sleep and that was it.

I have a 22 month old right now (boy) who is very boob obsessed and no where near ready to wean. In fact, he got tubes in his ears a few weeks ago and he couldn't nurse for 4 hours before surgery (from 4 am to 8am) - LONGEST FOUR HOURS OF MY LIFE! After being denied the boobie that night, he really became obsessed and for about a week nursed heavily at night (just to make sure he wasn't going to get denied again I suspect). Moral of the story: sometimes when we focus on not giving them the boob it backfires HUGE.

My suggestion is to simply let her nurse as she is for a while - she may be getting molars. See if you can do fun things - distracting things - where she isn't only thinking "Boopas!".
You can also do the "One Quick Suck" tactic, where if they really need the boob, you sit down and give the a quick nursing session of like 5 minutes and then see if they will get down and play with something. If they howl, then they are not ready and don't make a big deal of it - sit and nurse until she is ready to get down. But there will be times when she just needed a real fast Boobie-Mommie moment and the 5 minutes works brilliantly.

They all stop nursing on their own eventually. By showing her mommie (and boopas) are there when she needs them, she is secure in her little world.

Good job nursing her!!

:)

First of all, congrats on the extended nursing. I think it's wonderful when moms nurse until age 2 or even longer. I nursed my daughter until she was 3 1/2 years old and let her wean herself (we were down to once a day by then).
As for the weaning, you'll want to do this slowly, especially since you've increased your milk supply by nursing more often. Lose 1 feeding a week at most so you don't become too engorged. It'll also be easier on your little one.
Because she's 2 though, you can ask her to wait a minute while you finish whatever you're doing. She's old enough now where nursing on demand doesn't have to mean right that minute, it can be 5 minutes from now and that should be okay.
Since she's nursing more it's obvious that she's clinging for some reason. She's feeling insecure. Has something changed? Did you move? Have another baby? Etc? Anything can cause little ones to become clingy, even changing daycare. Remember that by age 2 it's essentially comfort nursing. Nutritionally she should be getting most of what she needs from solid food. You're guaranteeing that she's nutritionally balanced by nursing and you're also offering additional immunity from colds and flues.
Try letting go of the daytime nursing sessions first. Those will be the easiest to get rid of. Just start distracting her, replacing it with something, making her wait a few minutes and hoping she'll forget. Offer her an alternative like milk or water as well in case she is thirsty/hungry. If she wants comfort, offer to cuddle instead of nurse.
I disagree with one of the posters who said the little one wouldn't be harmed by you cutting her off. Cutting her off from nursing is a little different than hiding her favourite blanket. Remember you're not just a blanket, you're her mother and she needs to know that she can trust you and come to you for anything. If you suddenly cut off that sort of comfort she may take that as you not wanting to comfort her anymore, in any form. It would be the same as suddenly sending her to her own room after co-sleeping for 2 years. Banishing her at this stage would be traumatic for her and so would ending nursing cold turkey. (You're not in an extreme scenario where you're having emergency surgery or going to the hospital. There is no reason to make this harder on your little one than it has to be.)
I would say just do it slowly both for yourself and your little one.
Good luck!

Weaning your child will not hurt her.
Yes, she's a sweetie and she is attached to the boob, but she will not be emotionally scarred or anything by not having it any longer.
I had to emergency cold turkey my son because I had to go into the hospital and it wasn't the way I had envisioned it, but he did just fine. He was 15 months old, eating all solid foods, drinking from a cup, it's not like his life depended on nursing any longer. He was DEFINITELY a boobie baby and we had already agreed that we would start cutting it down at 18 months. Due to medical reasons, that choice was made for us earlier and it's just the way it was. My son wasn't traumatized for life.....
Mommy still made the world go around. He's 14 and I still do as far as he's concerned.
Give your daughter a snuggie, a blankie, let her find other ways to comfort and know that weaning her won't hurt her.