Weaning - Edwardsville,IL

I would still allow her to nurse right before bed, but then have that be the last time until morning. My sister is going through the same thing right now with her 21 month old. Her daughter knows she is only allowed to nurse if the sun is up. She calls nursing "momma water", and my sister tells her that even momma water goes to sleep at night. This seems to work.

Is she only nursing at nite? If she is nursing during the day the best way to ween and what worked for me is to distract her from that nursing by giving her food/snack. Play games with her on the floor. You can give her a sippy cup of milk/water. Do that for 3 days straight and she will be done with that nursing. The nite one was the hardest and took the longes to quit. I stopped all the others first and my son just quit the last one on his own. He was 16 1/2 mths when he was ween from the breast all together.

Good luck

Oh if she is only nursing at nite the method of breaking her during the day should work at nite, minus the playing.

If you want to try getting her in her own bed, she might sort of wean on her own, if she's just nursing because you're there next to her. She might just be waking up and since you're right there...why not nurse? You could try getting her out of your bed very gradually. First, you could have her sleep next to Daddy instead of you, so you're not as available. Then you could try making her a bed on the floor in your room, then eventually move her to her own room. That's what worked for my son, but it was a very gradual process. I ended up even telling him that mimis (that's what he called nursing) were sleeping, so he couldn't have any until morning. It's worth a try! I just think that in order to minimize the trauma of it (for her and you), gradual is the best way to go about weaning her and/or getting her out of your bed. It will just be easier on all of you. Good luck!

Okay, this was me 4 years ago. I did the not-sleeping-by-her thing, which helped a bit. When she was 2 and nursing just at night and in the morning, I started getting up before her, and she didn't get to nurse when she woke up, and it was fine. I'd just come in and act like its time for her to get up and give her some cuddling but not get in bed with her, being clothed already. The getting up routine was then the same as always from that point on-just without the nursing happening first. Then one day we took her to grandmas for three days (she often visited there) When I went to pick her up and she wanted to nurse, I said, "sorry, its all gone". She seemed suspicious and a bit unhappy, but was glad to see me. We just distracted her with something playful or got cuddly when she tried again to ask. For another three days she would ask, and I'd give her the same answer and give her milk or water if she wanted it. By the end of the week, she'd look at my chest now and again and then say, "all gone, right?" and I'd nod and hug her and she seemed satisfied that was it. I made sure she didn't miss the physical bonding, just that it was now different.
On a funny note, my 7 year old put my bra over her shirt one day a few months later and my 2 1/2 year old got really upset and was crying, "those are mommies nibbles!" like if she couldn't have them, no one could!
I will also add, though its wierd, that my catholic mother in law swore by some moon-based calendar that addressed whether the moon was in the head, chest, legs, or feet,etc. Apparently you did not want to wean when it was in the "head" or "neck", but ideally when it was in the legs or feet, (like the baby wouldn't "dwell" on it if it wasn't near the head?)which is where this calendar was when I brought my daughter to them for three days. She says it worked for her and all my sisters-in-law to make sure to follow that calender. Sounded voodoo to me, but maybe there was something there!
We recommenced with the family bed after that- which is another challenge I can't give great advise about!

Hi J.,

Our daughter was 19 mos old when I realized that I was tired of being the pacifier too. I loved nursing her, and truthfully, I wasn't sure I was ready to wean at that point. (I had to quit cold turkey when I started taking a narcotic cough medicine and didn't have any stored milk.) It was such a difficult few days that we felt like it would be torture to let her nurse again and have to go through weaning all over again.

We had also been cosleeping, and at the same time we realized that nobody was actually getting good quality sleep. We tried several different methods of sleep training and found that crying it out was the only thing that would work for her. It hurt SO much to listen to her, but my presence or even speaking to her through the door only made things worse. After three days it was like a switch flipped and she realized that she really likes to sleep. Now she is 22 mos old and has started telling me "night-night" at 7 every night. She still feels the need to cry as I tuck her in, but is done by the time I get from her bed to her door. It's just the thing she does to unwind, which I have heard is not abnormal.

Good luck!

Hey there... our 2 1/2 year old slept with us until one month before she turned 2... she also nursed until 3 days before she turned 1. I weaned her slowly over the course of a week taking away one feeding at a time. This was the best method, I might add... you take away the middle feedings throughout the day initially. The morning feeding and the sleepy time, right before bed feeding is the last one to take away as it is the one that they love the most. Makes sense, right? :) Anyway, only take away one feeding every other day or every 3rd day. It can span over a couple weeks period, but with our little one she transitioned very well. Another MAJOR benefit to this is that I didn't become engorged at all. My body adjusted to the process and the milk slowly diminished.

Good luck! I know it was very hard for me emotionally to wean ours... it is so hard to know it's the end of that special bond.