weaning vs self wean 21mo

kjohn091

Hi everyone. I have lurked with the occasional post for  a while now. But I need some advice! My LO is almost 21 mo and I was hoping she would start self weaning or at least start slowing down... no such luck!

My main issue is the fact that she has meltdowns and tempertantrums if I tell her no or that she has to wait for "Na-Na's"  She still wants to nurse sporatically throughout the entire day, 5-6x/day! I try and offer food or drink alternatives but as soon as she finishes she wants to BF again. She will pull at my shirt, and put her hand down my shirt while screaming trying to BF... at home, in public doesn't matter. ( I tell her I cant understand her when she talks like that, I try and tell her she needs to ask or do the sign to BF- but nothing seems to work)

I definitly dont want to force weaning on her bc obviously she still has a strong attatchment/comfort from it... but I am at a loss as to what to do to make it more managable or to at least reduce how often she nurses?

I dont know if there are gentle weaning ways... ( I dont really want to just STOP) or if theres something I am doing wrong or i need to do diffrent? I was hoping to only be nursing before bed at age 2... I am running out of time to make this happen

THANKS!!!!!

 

 

poison489

My son only started slowing down on nursing at around 28 months.  He would nurse up to 8 times a day and 3 times at night.  I started out with night weaning, just talking to him about how it was time to start sleeping through the night and how mommy's milk was tired.  It took about a week or 2 and he started sleeping through the nights with less and less nursing each time, without tears, until he just slept through the night.  As he started doing that, he also started nursing less during the day and focusing on eating more solid foods.