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Attachment Parenting
yankeebear
member
Weaning 21 month old
yankeebear
member
Hello. I was hoping to get some advice on this. I am ready to wean but want to do it as gently as possible. LO only nurses to sleep now. My DH thinks I should just do it cold turkey and she will be OK with it in a couple of days. I'm just wondering if there are any other options. Any advise is appreciated.
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Re: Weaning 21 month old
There are a number of ways to wean, but the gentle ones take some time and patience. One common method is to limit the amount of time she nurses, and to make that time shorter and shorter every few nights for a couple weeks. Some moms do this by singing a song and telling LO they can nurse until the song is over. They speed up the song bit by bit as the days go by. Another idea would be to say that she can nurse until you count to 20. Count slowly the first few days, then speed up. Then tell her she can nurse until you count to ten...
One thing you'll need to consider is that she is nursing to fall asleep. She'll need to find another way to fall asleep, whether it's being rocked to sleep, or snuggled by daddy or you, or sung to, or having her back rubbed, or any/all of the above. It can help, while you're nursing, to rock her and rub her back (or do whatever it is you plan to do in the place of nursing to help her sleep), so that as she nurses less and less, she develops another positive sleep association to fall back on.
This is often the last session to go and the hardest for LOs. They do love it so. I urge you to do it slowly and gently, and to remember to replace nursing with LOTS of other snuggles and affection: babies associate nursing with love, and you'll want to show an abundance of love in other ways!