If you BF-ed past a year...

Kellina71

... did you have a schedule to it or just BF on demand.  For awhile Alana was only BF-ing before nap/ sleep and when waking in the am, but now every so often she will look at me and point to my boobs and say, "milp"  "milp".  So I just BF her.  Luckily so far it has been at times when we were just hangin' at home, but I am not really wanting to whip out the boob if she starts yelling "milp" "milp" in the produce department or other populated places.

Anyway- I am a bit worried about weaning if we are still doing "on demand", so I feel like I should go back to our previously scheduled program.

Experiences?  Advice?

spicy-mustard

I BF-ed Owen until 19 months and when he started doing that (asking), I would just distract him.  If that didn't work I'd go to the car. 

tmp-195892875001867

I BFed C until 16 months.  Cut out the morning feeding at 14 and the before bed at 16 months.  For the am one, I just gave her breakfast instead.  For the pm, she didn't really care.  I just always offered her sippy.   She never really asked for it, I guess she wasn't as attached to it as I was. 

KellyMRocks

I'm obviously not there yet...But does she drink cows milk? I would say that you could BF on demand when it works for you. If she wants to nurse in the produce aisle, say no, offer sippy. You might get some tantrums, but I think it would be a good tool for teaching that she can't always have what she wants.

But then, I havent been there, so maybe I'm just talking out my rear :

ljlkm

I BF on demand and haven't run onto that problem. I usually make sure DS has eaten before we leave and he doesn't do it for comfort because he's distracted by his surroundings.

Ang&Garrett

Garrison went to 17 months and Gavin is still going.  It is usually just when he wakes up unless he's not feeling well or is super tired.  But never when we are out and about.  He is just too busy to want to nurse in public. 

futrkingsley

I was BFing on demand about 10 times a day when DS and I were together at that age.  We have never nursed in the produce aisle but have made frequent trips to the car or some other semi private space to nurse.  If it's super inconvenient, I distract, redirect or talk about when we can nurse (like at home, etc).

At age 2 he still nurses about 6 times a day when we are together all day, and if we are out for a long time, or it is nap time, he will frequently ask for booboo mook.  If it's possible we do, like at a birthday party last weekend where we snuck away for some milk, if it's not we don't (like at the farmer's market).  He complains sometimes and I offer other things and thankfully so far we haven't had a complete meltdown about it. 

 

NCSW

We had a basic schedule, but we still did on demand sometimes. It really just depended on the situation and how she was feeling. If she was sick or teething, we basically went back to on demand.

Kellina71

futrkingsley:

At age 2 he still nurses about 6 times a day

 

WOW!  That is awesome! 

Thank you all for your input!  I think I should have added that I feel like my milk supply is REALLY low and she is mainly comfort sucking.  I am pretty sure we will wean in a couple months, so I hesitate to let her nurse whenever she wants. I think I will go w/ offering another drink and distracting.  

Kelly- feel free to talk out of your @ss whenever... I often do.   

kittylove

We have a schedule for the most part but I will "on demand" feed for a good reason (teething, sick, or a trauma). When I switched to the schedule the first thing I did was try to distract with real food rather than nursing. Then a toy and if he was still asking for it, then I nursed. After a while (a week) I would stop giving in and keep trying to distract. A few times that ment a tantrum, once for an hour but after 2 weeks of not giving in to random times he stoped asking at those times.

Now I do something that looks like don't offer and don't refuse but I will offer if sick or not feeling well when he just won't eat. If you can make it to the LLL meetings in Oakland the leader there has really great advice about child lead weaning, and toddler weaning in general.

bb_n_jp

Sam is down to only nursing at bedtime, but when he "asks" for it at other times, I just distract with a sippy or real food.

He hardly ever asks, though, and is nursing less and less at bedtime.  I think he's kinda weaning himself, probably because I have zero supply.  It is kinda cute when he asks for "Buh Buh" (boobie). 

ashleyhuney

Still nursing at 2 here as well, and public nursing has never been a problem.  He calls nursing milk so it's not like he'd yell out hand over the ta tas or something   He's sllloowwly weaning, started dropping feedings at a year until we were down to just early am and before bed time at 17 months ish.  We've held steady at that for a while - there was a few boosts when he was sick but usually it's 0 - 2 times a day.  Since sometimes we'll go a day without nursing I really thought he'd self wean by 2, but with the intro of the BBB last month and PTing this month I'm in no hurry to wean.  I myself nursed until 2.5 so that feels fine to me.  I do think that if he's still nursing at 2.5 some non-child led weaning might happen, but who knows!

Oh, and as far as your question, on the off chance J has asked "off schedule" once he was past 18 months I did tell him that mama milk is for before and after bedtime and he just accepts that.  I think it's happened once or twice, in public he's just so busy!

amyfelice

Gosh I'm so impressed and envious with everyone that is BFing past one yr. I wish my baby had gone a little longer. Maybe next time. 

Lady Galadriel

Well I seem like the odd mama out but here it goes. DD is 19 months old and I still bf on demand. That mostly equals when she gets up and goes down for naps/ bedtime and many times in between.

If we are in public I just put her in the ergo with the nursing hood up and continue with the task at hand. We have always done this so to us its normal. DD can not have sippy cups of milk though which probably colors my view of where/when to BF her.