Weaning
princesa2423
member
Hola!
So I'm posting this on a variety of boards here. I'm trying to wean my 20 month old DD, and want to get a multitude of opinions and suggestions. She's EBF, and some days it's really exhausting, and others I don't mind it so much. It's actually a wonderful bonding experience, but now with the squirming and wanting to nurse every two seconds, it's really becoming a lot for me.
She's also what me and my friends call a boob fiend lol. She pushes on people's chests and pokes at mine sometimes and laughs. At one point I thought that meant she was viewing them less as food and ready to wean, but nope, no such luck.
So far we've gotten to the point where we don't nurse when we're out shopping or at restaurants or anything like that, but at home, especially at night she wants to nurse CONSTANTLY. She falls asleep just fine at night for her father (we're divorced), and the same when my friends watch her. She falls asleep just fine for naps with them, but with me she just HAS to nurse, or she'll scream and holler and get terribly upset. One of my particular concerns is when she falls asleep, the milk in her mouth the dentist said could begin to rot her teeth. I don't want that at all! But I'm just at a loss of how to wean her.
Any and all suggestions welcome!
Re: Weaning
I don't have any real experience with weaning and my son has never been grabby about my boobs, but I would start with putting her off ("We'll have nummies after we play/ dinner/ bathtime, etc") and start to cut out one session every few days.
My LO isn't quite 20 months yet, but redirection still works for the most part when he has a temper tantrum and I would treat her meltdowns as one of those and ignore it. We are down to twice a day (morning and bedtime) and morning is only on one side. I've started cutting him short at night and he protests a little bit but is drowsy by that point and doesn't put up much of a fight. I would just take it really slow and once you're down to just a minute of nursing, try cutting it out completely or skip a day or two.
Sorry I'm not much help, but good luck!
1) breastmilk directly from the breast will not generally cause tooth decay the way formula or other milks can. for two reasons - 1) nursing directly from the breast puts the milk farther back into the throat and it does not pool in the mouth, 2) breastmilk contains chemicals (like lactoferrin) which hinder the growth of the bacteria which cause cavities
2) the wanting to nurse all the time behavior isn't super uncommon, but - my daughter did it too - I think of it more as a behavior/follow-the-rules sort of issue. so, at some point, we had a rule - no nursing for an hour after the last nurse. mostly, mornings were the time that she'd want to nurse five times in an hour, and that got old. so, we'd nurse once, then not again for another hour, and I'd get us busy and going on about our day. (we'd leave the house, which isn't so easy at night when you're getting ready for bed, I know.) yes, she cried about it at first, but that was the rule, and I was very consistent with it.
You don't have to completely wean if you don't want to. Setting up rules and boundaries that YOU are comfortable with will take some time and work and may well not be without tears. (If she's anything like my daughter, she sees your boobs as hers and she wants to make the decisions regarding them.) But you can do it - whether it's just a one-hour break or full weaning.
great advice!