Breastfed 2Yr Old Who Only Feeds Before Bedtime and in Early a.m. What Can I Do

My advice would be if you are ready to drop a feeding, then when he wakes up expecting to be fed, bring in a sippy cup of plain water instead. Give him a drink and then tell him its time to go back to sleep or if you don't mind leaving the cup with him you could just tell him, "good night" and go back to bed. He may cry for a few nights until he gets the idea that this is the new routine. Remember to only give him plain water as juice or milk can rot the teeth. I hope this helps!

The only way I have heard of is to stop breastfeeding altogethre. It worked for me at 19mos. Good luck.

you just have to decide when you are going to do it, stick to your guns! expect that your child is going to be very upset...but you're going to have to do it someday! don't give in either...it'll make the tantrums worse every time you try...only do it once! good luck!

well your not going to like my response to this but honesty is what your after 2yrs old is to old to be breast fed if he can take a cup during the day he can take one at night and in the morning your torching yourself it sounds to me the problem is the mom just being honest i hope you change this around so you can get the rest you need.i am also a mom to a 21month old L. M

I had this same situation with my son. For the bedtime nursing I started reading to him every night (before nursing) and that eventually took the place of nursing. Now the morning one was a little harder because my son would wake around 5:00am and would want to nurse.
I personally had a hard time giving that nursing up because if he nursed he would fall back asleep:)So the morning nursing I actually was on vacation and with all the excitement he completely forgot about it and never asked again. But unless you are going on vacation this will not help. My advice would be to try to put him to bed a little later and give him a healthy snack before he goes to bed. Maybe he really is just hungry!If that does not work and it's very early that he is waking up, 4am or earlier try to give a drink of water or have your husband so he doesn't see you. If he is waking 5am or later you may just have an early bird and have to get up and get him some breakfast. Try not to mention nursing, get his mind on getting up and eating. I hope this helps!

He doesn't need the nutrition at this age. Seems like he is in the habit of feeding at that time. Both my children slept through the night 8 hr by 10 weeks. All the information my pediatrician gave me always had information about helping baby sleep through the night by about that time. So a 2 year old certainly does not need the Breast feeding at this age, it is a choice not a need at 2. Seems like a comfort thing maybe, try to do a going to bed routine that is comforting like warm bath, cuddling while reading a book together, and maybe give him a sippy cup with milk (not breast milk) to help him get to sleep. Then after a week or so cut out the milk part of it. As for the early morning, it might take about 4 days but just go in there when he wakes and firmly but gently tell him it is night time and not time to wake yet. He will get upset as he is used to it, but after a few days he should not call out any longer.

Hope this helps.

When any of my 12-18 mo old children woke during the night to nurse my hubby gave them a sippy cup of water. I didn't go to them. They got tired of the water and began to sleep thru the night. Hope this helps! C.

What is 'middle of the morning"? 3a? 4a? 5a?

I like the snack idea...so long as you're okay with that habit continuing. If mine were waking at 3, I'd forgo the snack, but 4/5a would be a different story.

What worked for me with dd was to go ahead and get up for the morning at that feeding. We'd go to the kitchen and eat breakfast and start our day. For us, it wasn't that she wanted to nurse specifically -- she was just hungry. For the first week or so when she was still waking at 4-5a, we did an earlier than usual lunch and napped from 12-3 :-) After a week or so, she slept until 6a or so... and eventually moved to 7a - much more manageable for me :-)

That was with one child. I'm not sure how I'm going to approach this when we get to this stage with ds...I'll be looking at what other advice you get :-)

K. H, mama to
Catherine, 4y
Samuel, 14m

D.,

My second is almost 21 months, and still nurses, primarily before naptime and bedtime, she'll usually wake once in the night, then sometimes in the mornings when I want to lay in bed a bit longer, and "soak" (we co-sleep).

For my oldest, we were in the same routine, and she self-weaned a month or two before her 2nd birthday. I had heard about the vacation-thing, and sure enough, it worked for us. We happened to be at Disney World, so we'd get up in the morning and go-go-go then doze off on the way back to the hotel for a nap, then after nap get up and go-go-go until it was time to go back and go to bed (of course, dozing off on the way back, again). She kind of forgot about it, so I assumed that as soon as we got back home and got back into routine, she'd ask again. She didn't for a couple of weeks after we got home, and when she did, I told her, "I'm sorry, Baby. Mommy's boobs don't make milk anymore. Would you like some Ovaltine?" Sure enough, she went for it. :-D

We don't really have a vacation planned in the next few months, so I'm not sure how we'll handle #2. I'm traditionally NOT a fan of the just deal with it/cry it out method. <shrug>

Best wishes and luck to you!
M.

Well, I had to wean my little girl right after she turned one, she started chewing on me. What I did was slowly take away feedings, she used to nurse first thing in the morning, naptime and bed time by the time she was one. So I cut the morning one first and then bed time. Naptime was the hardest though. Good luck!!!

D., I've been there with two of my kids. Let your husband take care of his waking up to nurse. Perhaps this could be their special time (playing, then having breakfast) depending on how early it is. Another thought is that perhaps you could take a trip for a couple of days if this is too hard for you. I, unfortunately, had to go out of town to care for my mother who had to have. Being away helped with weaning.

With my daughter, I started sending daddy in to soothe in the middle of the night -- or just not going in. It was really painful the first night, but then she started sleeping through the night after that.

Your son should be drinking whole milk at this point...has he been getting any of that in addition to your breastmilk? What we did with my son is to give him a warm "bottle" of milk when he woke up in the morning. (I know the point is for him not to get up in the morning, but you will have to wean him.) I suggest using the gerber soft flat-nozzle sippy cups that look like bottles. We microwaved the milk for 42 seconds and it was perfect. If you give him the warm bottle, at least you can get back in bed sooner. Then one day a few weeks from now (since kids are supposed to be off the sippy cup by age two, shame on your pediatrician!) You can do the "big boys don't use sippy cups" line and get him some kind of character cup to use.
He is old enough that you may want to skip the bottle thing altogether and just go in and sit next to him on his bed and try to sooth him back to sleep. I just let my little guy wake up and fuss a little (I had to put a safety first ball on my son's door so he wouldn't wander unattended in the house.)Then ignore him when he wakes up and just let him play or go back to sleep on his own. Good luck!

well, I started giving him sippy cups in the morning. As for the night time feeding, I didn't have that issue

Hello D., I breast fed also. And the way I got my son off of the breast was simply by not giving it to him. It was hard being that he cried like crazy. But after 2 to 3 days, he figure it out. He was no longer going to get the breast. So try that... it definitely helped me.

I am in your same boat! My son is going on 27 months and I can't get him off the boob! I am so frustrated already because I long for a full night of sleep! Please let me know if you get any good tips, I have tried and tried and no luck! Makes ya wonder what's in that milk heehee!

Likewise!
J. :)

It will be hard to do at first but just stop breast feeding him. Pick one of the feedings first, don't eliminate both at once. Feeding him is a reward when he wakes up in the early a.m. Stop rewarding him and he should get used to being without. He will probably cry at first but after a few days he should stop and be able to coax himself back to sleep.

I would go to him in the morning when he wakes, tell him it's still time for night, night and lay him down, shut the door and let him sooth himself back to sleep. He's going to cry (probably alot!) for a few days, but he will eventually realize that he's not going to get a feeding and eventually, when he wakes, he'll go back to sleep on his own. The first week of this will be the hardest. In a few days, you won't need to go in and see him, just let him cry a little and he'll fall back asleep on his own. He's not hungry, he's just in a routine and now he can learn to get into a new one. That being, sleeping all night without a comforting snack in the morning. Good luck!

Hello,
I am a 36 year old mother of 3 children ranging in ages from 15 years to 4 years old. I too breastfed my children.

My youngest was doing the same thing and I was desperately wanting to be able to sleep in the early morning hours. I started giving her a small snack along with her breastfeeding session. With my daughter, I found that it started to help almost immediately.

I hope this helps you and your son.

K. T.

I don't know if this will work with a two year old, but for our 6 month old, we offered him water in the night instead of breastmilk, and he decided it wasn't worth waking up for!

It might be more difficult with an older child. you might buy a super soft stuffed animal or blanket and offer it only during that early feeding- and eventually substitute the object for the feeding....just thinking of ideas.

Hope it works out for you!

Congratulations on an awesome job nursing! You have given your child the best start he can get; they say, that a breast fed child is 10 IQ points above the average child - Good Job! Offer him the breast when you want him to have it and offer him an alternate time when he asks and you don't want to nurse. I have a 2 yr old that weaned last Oct. and she understands EVERYTHING I say. Go to him the first couple of nights, and change him or whatever and when he wants to nurse, give him his alternate time, kiss and hug him and put him back to bed. After a couple of nights, don't go. He may scream the first time or two but when you don't come, he will get the message and begin to sleep through the night. My 2 yr old can actually clear the kitchen table, plates and cups, not the frying pan, she can count and talk up a storm. So I would have no concern about her being able to understand, "We will nurse in the morning but no more in the night". Good luck.

Hi D. -

I have an almost 2yr old also who breast feeds. Unfortunately he wakes every 1-3 hours at night still. Some kids are like this - my other two were not but this one is and it is recommended to hang in there (easier said than done) until they start to wean themselves which could be very soon - 2.5 years is the norm. You have come this far and that is so great! Does your little one have their teeth - 2yr. molars in? Once these are in they begin to sleep longer as they move into being over 2 years - you are so close!!!

Alli

While I was in the process of weaning mine, I had to remind my husband that he was on night duty. If my daughter saw me in the middle of the night, she saw a free meal. If she saw my husband, she settled down and went to sleep without the need to nurse.

Well, I can share what I ended up doing...maybe it'll help..

When my son was 2 I got pregnant again and the sensation of nursing became unbearable for me - so I had to quit right away because it made me want to crawl out of my skin!

I just put the stuff to stop nail biting/thumb sucking on my nipples. Then when he asked to nurse I told him "oh no, I think it's yucky now" - Naturally he wasn't buying that LOL. But when he tasted it he was done. Oh the look on his sweet little face was priceless! He tried about 3 more times and then it was just over. We replaced nursing with snuggles :)

He transitioned pretty smoothly, but I still feel guilty about it for some reason. Probably because that stuff tastes FOUL!

M.
www.Freedom2WorkFromHome.com/M.

I have a 16 month and we (as of two days!) have just stopped. I weaned it one feed at a time. My advice would be to get up and feed him for the AM one. In fact that is how we cut thatone. My hubby woudl get up and feed the baby and play with her and then I would come down dressed and go about our day. It only took two or three days. She still reaches in teh am but it's been easier to turn her away. The afternoon one was harder for us. That we cut out becasue my mom is in town and we are running around. She is still reaching for them I just give her a toy to get her off!

Hope this helps at least with the am one. They say the evening one is harder but for us that was the first one we cut! Odd I know!

Good luck and good for you for nursing for two years.

Cheers

Jess