weaning 14 month old from nursing?? help please!

Re: weaning 14 month old from nursing?? help please!

• jllmb79 member

  April 2014

  With DD#1 I weaned when I was pregnant.  I actually replaced her nursing sessions with breastmilk in a bottle. I had a ton of breastmilk frozen. I did it about every 4 days. When my frozen started to run out I started WCM in the bottles instead, gradually. One month after fully weaned from BM I went cold turkey from bottles to sippys. 

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

   

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• ashiscute member

  April 2014

  I weaned my DD at 13 mos while pregnant with DS.  When I got pregnant she was still nursing 3 times per day.  I just dropped one feeding every few days and replaced it with a little milk or water.  At bedtime I had DH help by taking over for a week or so that way she knew it wasn't an option.  She did fine. 

  I weaned DS at 14 mos and although I wasn't pregnant I did the same thing.  They both asked for it a few times after weaned but were easy enough to distract.  And for awhile afterward I tried to stay out of familiar nursing situations (like being I my bad, using the boppy, etc.)  Good luck.

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• honeydew01 member

  April 2014

  Thanks for your post. I am following as well.. I am not pregnant but would like to wean my almost 14 month old as well...I struggled with low supply pretty much the whole time, I am still pumping at night before bed, wake up at 2am to pump, then pump in the morning after her nursing session...drinking tea, supplement..I think all these were reasonable to do for the first year but not now at almost 14 months. 

  
  

  DD nurses quiet often still.  She nurses when she wakes up, before naps for just a minute or two (put in crib awake), after nap and at bed time...Only the morning nursing session is longer and I can hear her gulp milk, others are comfort nursing I believe..

  
  

  We need to change the sleep routine that she has had the whole time so she doesn't get to nurse before going to the crib that's why I have been a little hesitant to mess with it..

  
  

  Anyway sorry I don't have any advice but wanted to thank you for the post..

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• AimeeL85 member

  April 2014

  Yep, I just finished weaning my 15 month old this week. I felt guilty as well as I would have loved to let her self-wean like my son did, but for a couple of reasons had to make the choice. 

  
  

  It was much easier than I expected. When I started, she was nursing 4-5x per day.  I cut out one feeding at a time. I did away with the feeding before morning nap first, and then before afternoon nap....because I knew her belly was already full from breakfast and lunch at those times. I still sat with her in our chair and rocked for a few minutes before putting her in her crib.  I cut out morning feeding next by using distraction, I would just bring her right out of her room to start running around and playing - she never even cared!  Finally I cut out bedtime feeding, which was very very easy, as she practically gave it up herself at that point. She would only nurse for 30 seconds or so on each side and be ready to get in her crib. 

  
  

  She was much more attached to nursing than my DS ever was, so I was surprised it was as easy as it was. 

  
  

  DS (7 years old) from FET in 2010
  DD (5 years old) from IUI in 2012
  TTC 3rd and final!: IUI #1 in progress!

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• sschwege member

  April 2014

  I was in a similar situation with DD.  I got pregnant when DD was 18 months old and fully weaned at 20 months.  BFing while pregnant was super hard for me and I just wanted to be done.  I think breaking the routine was key for us.  DH started putting her down for the night, I would get out of bed first thing in the morning so DD wouldn't expect to nurse in bed and I stopped watching Wheel of Fortune for about 2 weeks (that was her association for her afternoon nursing session).  It's hard, but it all works out in the end, congrats on making it past the one year mark!

  
  
  
  
  
  My Ovulation Chart

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• Jbunny100 member

  April 2014

  I am just about finished up with weaning my 13.5 mo old.  I am also pregnant and found that my supply dropped considerably once I was about 6 weeks along.  I have a lot of frozen milk so at first I replaced 1 feeding a day with a bottle of breastmilk.  DS was nursing 4x/day.  I dropped 1 nursing session every 1-2 weeks (I had to drag it out because he got sick).  Now that my frozen supply is getting lower, I've switched to giving him 2 bottles of WCM, 1 sippy of WCM, 1 BM bottle, and 1 nursing session.  After next week I will just give him a little bit more in his sippy cup.  I honestly think he is only getting 2oz max when he nurses.  He hasn't seemed to cared about the switch.  I think he likes that fact that he can get up and go quicker with a bottle.  I nursed before his 2 naps and was very nervous about that since he nursed to sleep.  I found he actually fell asleep faster when he was just getting the bottle. 

  
  

  Good luck to you!

   

   

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