Weaning a toddler

clebl24

My 2 year old still nurses at bedtime and at night. I never intended to nurse past one year, but he has a dairy allergy so I stuck it out longer. I'm ready to be done. Any tips on weaning a toddler who loves the boob?

libby+nate

Sounds like my story exactly! My little one can't have dairy or soy, so we just kept at it! We are down to morning and bedtime. For nighttime I read Dr. Sears guide to night weaning online. I told her the milkies went "night night" and wouldn't wake up until Mr. Sunshine came out. For a couple days I showed her what the sun was and reviewed what night night was. The first couple nights we had to bounce and shhh, but I never gave in. I just told her they were night night. By night three she asked for water once and she slept through the night ever sense! This was at 20 months and she had still been waking up every 2-3 hours and nursing from 4-wake up. I was exhausted. I couldn't believe it worked so well! A couple of my friends have now used it and had great luck also! It's just a short online article you can find though Google. 
Now im stuck on cutting out her morning session or bedtime session next. Leaning toward morning. Following for more ideas! Little one turns 2 in November and I'm having so much of an aversion to nursing!

NotAPlaya-JustCrushAlot

I was in the same boat when DD turned two. I made DH do bedtime for awhile and then when I went back to our regular bedtime rotation, I told her the milk went bye bye. 

erinh2005

I got sick with the flu at 20mo with DD so I was just done. I don't know if that's advice but it worked for us! 

champhe

I'm in the same boat with my two and a half year old. We have tried Dr Jay Gordon's method in the past and it didn't stick, but I'm ready to try again. 

lildropofheavn23

I'm still nursing DD at 18 months so I have no words of advice for weaning. I would start with the bedtime session first though. Maybe have your husband do the bedtime routine for a while or start doing something else instead of nursing. Maybe read a new book or cuddle instead.

geoffandjen728

No advice, just solidarity. DS is 15 months and shows no signs of slowing down. During the day it's easy enough to distract him or give him food/drink, but he has never taken a bottle and nothing will calm him at night except nursing most nights. 

WombThereItIs

I might weaned first at 13 months. We had sleep trained for bedtime before thatso when we went cold turkey he got the deal pretty quickly. I told him I would see him in the morning and that was that. He woke up a few times the first night and second night by by the third night he was sttn like a boss. 

About a two months after that I stopped nursing before bedtime and just kept him distracted. Before dropping that session I made sure he wasn't being nursed to sleep, just maybe 30 minutes before bedtime. 

jessbruxanovaa

I've only nursed for 13 months and I already am so over it, I dont know how you ladies have nursed for so long! I bedshare with my son and he nurses throughout the night. But honestly I dont get any decent sleep. Im having a hard time as well. 

clebl24

We just got back from a family vacation. My LO still nursed at bedtime, but my mom offered to take night duty.  So he hasn't had "nu nu" in the middle of the night for a week. We're back at home. DH took him last night. He said it was a rough night. My fingers are crossed that things go well tonight and I stay strong in withholding since it's my first night in a week. 

Ambethsco

Yep... same story. 18 month old with dairy issues. He'a very attached and I'm seeing no end in sight. I'm so ready to be done. I didn't wean my daughter until we brought my son home from the hospital, so I've been breastfeeding for 3.5 years

clebl24

I'm glad I'm not the only one in this predicament.  I casually mentioned tandem nursing in front of my MIL and I thought she was going to lose her shit. 

Jbananas4

+1 for the Dr. Sears guide.  I had originally planned to wean at 12 months, but was only able to get the daytime feedings stopped.  I tried again to night wean at 14 months, but my son was having NONE of it.  TBH, I wasn't in a hurry to quit since it was just during bedtime, I kind of loved breastfeeding, and it had taken me 3 months to get him to latch in the first place.  However, at 16 months, I was over it.  So when he would start crying, I would tell him to look out the window (which would stop the immediate tantrum since he actually would look) and that we couldn't have "momo" because it was too dark out.  It took maybe 2-3 nights of crying and asking for it but after that, he was stopped asking at all.

jessbruxanovaa

clebl24 said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one in this predicament.  I casually mentioned tandem nursing in front of my MIL and I thought she was going to lose her shit. 

Lol this! I swear sometimes I say things like this on purpose just to pick at my MIL

kristical

Wish I had advice for you! My son just turned 2 and I honestly thought he was never going to wean since nothing worked. Then I got pregnant and he suddenly just stopped. It was so weird to me at the time because I didn't know I was pregnant yet. 

clebl24

@kristical, I've read that pregnancy hormones can change the taste of milk and sometimes the nursling won't like it anymore. I hoped that would happen with us. 

buffyjsa

My almost 2.5 year old daughter still nurses in the morning and before bed,  I'm not rushing to wean her (though my husband keeps asking me when she's going to stop).  Maybe I'm crazy, but if we had gotten pregnant sooner, I would have liked to tandem nurse.  At this point, baby number 2 will arrive shortly after DD's 3rd birthday, and my husband is pretty adamant about having her weaned by then.  I don't even know where to start, so maybe I'll just keep procrastinating...