I have never breastfeed a baby this long (14 months now) and I don't know how to wean him! It is bittersweet, but my little one is growing up and is on table food, does well with regular milk.... but when it is nap time or bed time he wants to be put to sleep nursing. How do I wean him?
My advice would be to go slow -- for your sake and his. Going cold turkey will put you at risk for mastitis and clogged ducts if you're not careful. Also, don't think that just because he's 14 months that he's not benefitting nutritionally from your milk. Quite the opposite, so if neither of you are quite ready -- that's ok.
Kellymom has some good articles on weaning you might look at: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/index.html
Unless you are wanting to be done, I would say take a position of "don't offer, don't refuse" - he will start wanting it less and less... my daughter weaned totally at 2 years and 4 months... but she was only nursing at bedtime a few times a week at that point...
It sounds like you are only nursing to put him to sleep. With my kids we quit the nap time nursing first. The first three or four days were fussy naps and heartache, but the kids were ready to wean and seemed to ease into the idea of no booby. Once they went down for a nap without begging then I cut out the evening feeding...we went to a sippy cup of milk before bed. My son was easy to wean, in fact after a few days of no breast at nap time he actually refused me in the evening. My daughter was more of a challenge...she was more emotionally attached to the idea. It wasn't worth stressing us out for me, so I just offered the sippy cup first and eased her into the idea of giving up the breast. It took longer, but she eventually started to "request" a cup instead of yanking on my shirt and crying. There is no need to rush things if you are all ok with it. Take your time.
My daughter has 5 and she lets the weaning take care of itself. With a sippy cup at meals and some during the day, but only in the kitchen or at the table, they gradually nurse less and less and then maybe only before bed and first thing in the morning. Her baby is over 2 years old not and nursed party until about 21 months. Then they were gone for 2-3 days and it took care of itself. It is a sweet time and easier for you also as you will dry up gradually and it won't hurt. Good lUck!
I weaned my 18 mo a month ago. About every three days, I'd just drop a feeding until we were done. She never requested it (never had before either) and it worked just fine. I would add some additional cuddle time to replace the nursing.
