Ending Breastfeeding

Awesome job on getting to 1 year!!!!! Weaning definitely doesn't need to be cold or dramatic. As far as losing interest....well, you might have an easier time when your baby is naturally in a period where she's less interested in nursing. They seem to go through periods of much interest and periods of disinterest as I like to call it.

Anyway, here are some strategies that I would use. If your daughter is really attached to BFing right now, you might find find putting restrictions on it is easier than replacing sessions at first. Or waiting until she's less attached. I wouldn't wean while she was working on new skills or teething.

-Nurse only in certain areas of the house like the same chair or the bedroom for example. This will help break the nursing association if she's used to nursing everywhere. I used to nurse my daughter where ever. So I only nursed her in my bedroom or hers for a while.

-Don't sit down. Do distract. My daughter used to nurse every time I sat in the living room with her. I would constantly redirect her.

-Nurse at designated times. This works better with older children, but you can try it. If your daughter wants to nurse, you can tell her the next time you'll nurse is -after lunch/before nap/fill in the blank. Offer a sippy of water or milk instead.

-Don't offer, but don't refuse.

-Remember to offer a lot of cuddling so she doesn't miss out on the contact she would have had if you were nursing more often.

My daughter was around 22 months and only nursing for sleep times when I did the following:

-Made sure we had a consistent nap and bed routine. It used to be lay down in her toddler bed and nurse to sleep. So instead I incorporated reading books and ending with nursing to sleep.

-I moved reading books after nursing.

-Then I slowly decreased the length of time she could nurse.

I think my daughter was around 16 months when I started with the earlier techniques and we finally weaned around 25 months. She was a very attached to nursing kind of kid. However, it was not traumatic or anything. It also didn't magically make her sleep through the night. Just thought I'd throw that out there in case sleeping through the night is a factor in weaning. Didn't make a difference for us.

Good luck! And again, congrats on nursing for so long!

I started weaning my daughter off by giving her a bottle during the day and I slowly increased the amounts of bottles until she was off completely, I would give her a bottle when she first woke up then I would give her one right before going to bed and then I would do during the daytime like everytime I went out I would give her a bottle instead of the breast until she was off completly.

Mine got distracted by the world and that was my cue to wean them. Took anywhere from 4-6 months; and by then I was ready, too. At this age your daughter can hold a sippy cup and enjoy a formula, some watered-down juices; and be introduced to the world of foods other than mothers' milk. This should be a mutual shift, though. Perhaps you still enjoy a night feeding...or morning. Take your time and let the routine end gradually. I am not a fan of "cold turkey". Unless some tragedy occurred, god forbid.
Blessings, S.

Hi!

I read your message and thought I should share with you what I did. Unfortunately I had to quit breastfeeding earlier than I wanted due to medical issues. I thought my son would have a problem with it. To my surprise he is very happy without it... I started out by sticking to a set number of feedings a day. I did 5 feedings and one pump. After a few days of letting him get used to this, I substituted a bottle for one feeding in the middle of the day. I planned to wait a few days before switching out another. My son had other plans. He cut out one feeding the next day. So we were down to 3 BF, 1 pump and 1 bottle. I then waited 3 more days and substituted one more feeding with a bottle in the day. I also started to pump a little less each evening before bed. After 4 days, I was able to make it through the night without pumping. Then 4 days later, I took out the bedtime BF and substituted a bottle. I had been told the night feeding should be the last to go, but with my schedule it was easier to remove than the morning. I then was down to the waking AM BF, and then bottles throughout the day. I took my sweet time taking away the last BF session. I subtracted one minute from each side every 3 days. I stopped cold turkey after 4 days of 3 minutes on each side. (I would follow up the short feedings with a partial bottle.) When I quit it took 2 weeks before I had any pains. I called the hospital lactation line one day when I found huge lumps under my nipple. They said it was milk. I left it alone (with several icings) and it went away in about 4 days. My little man has never acted as though he wanted BF again. I am sad but happy to see that he is not. Also, I had pumped so much that I was able to freeze a lot and am still able to give him a bag or two each day of BM. I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

They do naturally start to lose interest, but usually around the age of 3-4. For me we would start by eliminating one particular time we nursed. My son nursed on demand (whenever he wanted to) so we started with only at home. Then only in the morning, before and after nap and before bed. Then about every 2-3 months we would not stop nursing one of those particular times. First it was after nap, then before nap, then in the evening, then the last to go was the morning. I let him pick and sometimes he would fuss about it but not long or hard. It work well with us. In the end, he began getting up in the morning and starting his day, forgetting to ask about nursing and when it went a few days I told him the milk was going to be gone and we agreed to stop. It really went smoothly and both of us were happy with the outcome. Good luck.

You begin weaning by removing one nursing session at a time and do not remove another one until you and baby feel comfortable with the new change. The morning and last session of the day are usually the last to go and it could take about a month (or more, depending on you and your baby) to be totally weaned. Once you remove a session,you make that session difficult or impossible to get at by not wearing a nursing bra...replace that session with something like cuddles on the couch, or story time or a total distraction like going out to play and a snack with milk in a sippy cup afterwards. Will she just lose interest? Well, that entirely depends on each child. Wean with love and do it slowly.

The La Leche League suggests to take 1 feeding away every one to two weeks. I did that with my daughter and now doing it with my son. It does work. When she is asking for it during unscheduled times just redirect her attention.
Great Luck!

Hi. I nursed each of my kids for 2 1/2 years. Around age two I was beginning to feel like I was done and agonized over how to get them to lose interest. Forget about it! They usually don't and need to be led in that new direction. During the day I'd say no more nursey and offer a sippy cup. It was night time nursing that took the longest to break. When I finally had enough, it took a few days of being strong while they cried and we snuggled to finally have them fall asleep without it. We'd lie close, I'd softly stroke them and sing to them until they would fall asleep. And as sure as I was they wouldn't give it up, one day they just didn't ask again.

Good luck.
S.
Mom of two, raised completely holistic -- no drugs, vaccines, synthetics, etc.

Hi! You should start by introducing formula slowly. You should make a chart of the feeding times, if you are feeding 7 times as an example, for 2 days feed 6 time, then 2 days..5 times... so on and so forth... do make sure to remove every other feeding so your milk supply will decrease slowly and you won't get engorged.

Good Luck!

I'm currently in the process of weaning my son who just turned one. It's been a lot easier than I expected. First I cut out the 2 daytime feedings (one at a time a few days apart) and replaced them with formula in a sippy cup. Only the 6:30am and 7 pm feedings remained. When he is sick, sometimes he will get up in the middle of the night because he is thirsty. I'm trying to just offer him water then, which has worked 50% of the time. Once I switched him to only 2 feedings a day, my milk still came down, but it seemed greatly reduced in quantity. I quickly switched his morning feed to 6 oz formula since he was so hungry. He receives a good sized dinner around 6:30, then is breastfed, but really only to quench his thirst. I'm trying to switch him over to regular milk before taking him off formula and the last breastfeeding. Its been really easy much to my surprise. I feel one year of age is a good time. He is so distracted by everything he hasn't seemed to even notice and is still too young to ask for it and know he's missing out on it. Good luck!

Hi Z., I breastfed my last son for 22 months and I was worried he'd never lose interest and stop by himself. I cut out one feeding a day which he didn't even notice. Gradually I kept decreasing the number of feedings until he was completely weaned. It happened faster than I thought...about one month. It was a bit tricky though because my son didn't like the taste of milk or formula (& I tried them all with him). I guess, compared to breastmilk, everything else must have tasted bad. I gave him milk mixed with chocolate syrup which he slowly grew to love. Weaning slowly will help to avoid mastitis and give your little girl time to transition to milk/follow-up. Good luck!