Did any of you leave town to wean your baby off breastfeeding?

mtnrider · September 2010

My friend left town for a weekend and made her husband deal with her daughter when she weaned her. I'm just wondering if this has worked for other people. DS is going to really resist weaning and I know if he sees me he will scream all day long and hold out for the boob and not eat anything else, so maybe I should plan on leaving town for a few days too?

WifeofaMarine · September 2010

I know people that have done it and its worked for them. Personally, I wanted to self wean and for DS to be done BFing when he was ready. He self weaned at 16.5 months. And I got a lot of negative opinions from people who thought it was weird that I was BFing a toddler, but I know plenty of people that BF even longer than that.

hilanic · September 2010

My SIL did this when her DD was about 28 months old. It worked. I do not know how bad my brother had it for the three days she was gone.

mtnrider · September 2010

WifeofaMarine:
I know people that have done it and its worked for them. Personally, I wanted to self wean and for DS to be done BFing when he was ready. He self weaned at 16.5 months. And I got a lot of negative opinions from people who thought it was weird that I was BFing a toddler, but I know plenty of people that BF even longer than that.

I have no choice, neither of us are ready but I have to wean him at a year for medical reasons. Sad

mtnrider · September 2010

hilanic:
My SIL did this when her DD was about 28 months old. It worked. I do not know how bad my brother had it for the three days she was gone.

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm worried about is how miserable DS will make my husband's life while I'm gone!

AJBMD915 · September 2010

Wow, I think that is incredibly selfish, heartless and cruel, both to your DH and to your DD.

I just started replacing nursing sessions with snacks. The first big cutback was mid morning and mid afternoon. She was allowed to nurse when she first woke up, at nap time, bedtime and if she woke in the middle of the night. Then it started to be just nap, bedtime and middle of the night. Then it was don't offer. If she asked she could nurse, but if she didn't ask then I didn't offer. She was weaned in a couple of weeks and it really was painless. Sure, there were days when she really wanted to nurse in the afternoon, but once she realized she could have some special yummy snack, she got over it pretty quickly.

ncbelle · September 2010

I'd strongly advise against this method at his age and assuming that he's still nursing quite a bit since you say he's attached - that's a pretty harsh method :-(

It's MUCH better to gradually wean - drop sessions and replace with milk or a snack or formula. Also, MUCH easier on your body - physically and emotionally.

You shouldn't go cold turkey from multiple sessions to none, whether leaving town or not, if you can possibly avoid it.

hilanic · September 2010

mtnrider:

hilanic:
My SIL did this when her DD was about 28 months old. It worked. I do not know how bad my brother had it for the three days she was gone.

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm worried about is how miserable DS will make my husband's life while I'm gone!

She probably wasn't nursing as much as you are right now so her body and LO took to it better. I wouldn't do this if you are nursing a lot. I would start now gradually weaning, replacing nursing time with a bottle or a snack and lots of cuddles!

Good luck! I am so sorry you have to wean due to medical issues!

mtnrider · September 2010

ncbelle:

I'd strongly advise against this method at his age and assuming that he's still nursing quite a bit since you say he's attached - that's a pretty harsh method :-(

It's MUCH better to gradually wean - drop sessions and replace with milk or a snack or formula. Also, MUCH easier on your body - physically and emotionally.

You shouldn't go cold turkey from multiple sessions to none, whether leaving town or not, if you can possibly avoid it.

Ok maybe I didn't explain it right, I'm talking about leaving once I'm down to only one nursing session a day...

mtnrider · September 2010

AJBMD915:

Wow, I think that is incredibly selfish, heartless and cruel, both to your DH and to your DD.

I know it's no fun for DH but how is it cruel to DS? I think it's meaner for him to see me and not be able to nurse. If he cried and I held him he would just keep rooting and trying to get at my boobs the whole time. And I couldn't let him cry without picking him up! So the solution seems to be to leave! Don't forget, I'm talking about leaving once I'm down to one nursing session a day, not now while I'm still nursing 4 times.

gumiberg · September 2010

i might do this - we only nurse 2x a day and honestly, its more about me than them. they easily accept milk and food in replacement of nursing...so, to make it easier for me, i may take a vacation and leave them at my moms.

i dont agree with the poster who said it was cruel...i mean, people who breastfeed are allowed to take vacations away from their LO. i dont really see this as anything different, its not like the LO is going to starve.

flutenewt · September 2010

I'm still nursing DS at bedtime and when/if he wakes up in the early morning. I've stopped nursing him all other times during the day. On several occasions he's gotten fussy during the day and wanted to nurse, and it's nearly impossible to tell him no and still console him myself. It sounds horrible, but when he gets like that now I often just get up, leave him with DH, and walk out of the room, within just a few minutes he's totally calmed down and forgotten about nursing. It's like having me near and smelling the milk just drives him crazy, but when I'm not around, even for just a few minutes, he forgets all about it. DH has even been able to put him to bed a couple of times with my having to nurse him first.

So I guess I'm trying to say two different things, really. First of all, if you do go away for a weekend after getting down to just one nursing session per day, your DS probably won't suffer too much without you as long as DH keeps him fed and distracted. But on the other hand, if he's already down to just one nursing session per day, maybe you don't need to go away for a whole weekend -- just disappear for 20-30 minutes when he'd usually get that last feeding.

armywife7205 · September 2010

ncbelle:
I'd strongly advise against this method at his age and assuming that he's still nursing quite a bit since you say he's attached - that's a pretty harsh method :-(
It's MUCH better to gradually wean - drop sessions and replace with milk or a snack or formula. Also, MUCH easier on your body - physically and emotionally.
You shouldn't go cold turkey from multiple sessions to none, whether leaving town or not, if you can possibly avoid it.

This... I dropped out both nap feedings within 2 weeks and could have done the other 2 shortly after... but let her self drop those. you are going to regret cold turkey I think!

risysmama · September 2010

I didn't leave out of town, but I left the room. The middle of the night feedings were the last to go and DH helped out tremendously to wean DD off of that. Each time she would wake up, I would sneak out of the room and he would comfort her. The first couple of days were rough and she cried and cried, but by the end of the week she was sleeping through the night!!! She was about 16 months when we weaned, and I think it was a good time for both of us. She was getting more independent and I was pregnant so nursing was getting extremely uncomfortable for me.

NJ2NC · September 2010

I ended up weaning DS this way, but it was unintentional. DH and I had planned a trip in July for a week while my parents watched DS. DS had already transitioned to whole milk, but was still nursing once or twice a day. In any event, when I came back from my trip DS was not interested in nursing at all (I followed his lead, waited for cues, etc...). I think I was more upset about the whole thing than DS. FWIW, my mom never had a problem with DS protesting or refusing his bottles. With that said, if I had it my way, I would have let DS self wean

KarBear · September 2010

I did, but not for this reason. I had a 10 day business conference, and I didn't want to pump full-time, so I figured that was as good of time as any. We did this at exactly 1 year, but DD remained on bottled BM for another few weeks.

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