Weaning Advice - Los Angeles,CA

She is old enough to understand what is going on, so just tell her that she is a big girl and it is time to start drinking milk in the morning that is not from Mommy. She may fuss, but just stand firm.

Offer a sippy of warm milk. Every morning make it less and less warm.

I weaned my now 26 month old at 20 months. It only took a week or two. She wasn't as predictable as your daughter but it wasn't traumatic for her. Do offer her a warm sippy of milk and snuggle and cuddle with her. My son was very attached to his morning nursing as well. And I gave him the warm sippy and lots of snuggles. There is no reason to make it less and less warm. My 5 year old still asks for me to warm his milk in the mornings sometimes.

You will probably have to nurse her during the weaning process but try distraction. With my daughter, say she asked while we were in storytime, I'd tell her "in just a few minutes, when we leave" and redirect her to the story and then she would usually forget by the time we left. But the times she didn't forget and would ask again, I would nurse her. It was really much easier than I thought it would be as she was very attached.

Your little one should be getting around 16-20 ounces of milk per day once you wean.

i found the morning to be one of the easiest to wean, just distract her with something special, grab a sippy and go play outside or a special treat for breakfast right away or new toy or something like that

I saw this post and figured I stop in real quick and recommend a link that usually has some good parenting advice...this one is specific for weaning so I hope it helps! Good luck!

http://www.theskinnyscoop.com/search/wean?utm_campaign=th...

My mom put Anbesol on her nipple to wean my brother (though he was older) one taste of that and he NEVER asked or attempted to nurse again!

i think its great that your nursed this long but why stop now. baby likes to nurse first thing because it tastes good and she wants to be close to you. its a win-win. enjoy nursing and holding her because the time goes by so quickly...

is it causing a problem in your life right now or are you just tired of nursing? if so, then just tell her the kitchen is closed. it won't be easy but she'll live.

I wasn't able to breastfeed, so I don't know if the weaning process is different. However, I will share how I weaned my son off his wake up bottle. It was very simple!! He would wake up and I'd put him immediately in his highchair and give him breakfast and cup of milk. He fussed a bit the first couple of days, but that was it. I simply didn't give him the option.

I did the same as a couple of the other moms...told my son (16 months) that it was "all gone". He might have reached for my shirt once or twice after that but he never got upset. I cried harder than he did!
Like the mama before, I didn't give my son milk after that. The only dairy he got was cottage cheese, yogurt, etc.

After 16 months, my son had weaned himself to morning feeding only and one day, I just woke up and told him that there was no more milk. We cried for about 20 minutes...me holding him. The next day, he cried for about a minute and the 3rd morning, he didn't even ask.

My other son was also 16 months and had weaned himself to 1-3 small charity nursings throughout the day. One day, I told him that the milk was almost gone, a few days later, I told him it was gone. He tried once, but then stomped off mad....and he never asked again.

My daughter was exclusively breastfed for 18 months and I HAD to cut her off. She refused ANY solid food. I went away for the weekend and she started eating everything. She ocassionally asks for "boobies" because she sees babies nursing, but that was is. No drama.

We have never given our kids milk.

Human milk is perfect for human babies. Cow's milk is perfect for calves. My kids never have ear infections and if one starts to come on, I know they've had too much cheese, so we stop the dairy and increase the PB8 and by the next day, they are fine.

Good luck.

I had the same concern with my 14 month old when I started weaning him. We had the same pattern that you have with your little one. Dropping the night feeding was not a problem but we did give him a bottle of whole milk before bed and we still do that (as he's not a great drinker during the day). The morning ended up being easier than I thought. Right when he gets up I simply drop him in the high chair and give him breakfast (which is about 7:30) and then he gets a morning snack around 10. Within about two days he stopped looking for milk. My pediatrician has told me the little ones should be getting between 16 and 24 ounces of milk or milk products a day. Yogurt measures ounce per ounce like milk. One ounce of cheese is worth 4 of milk. We're lucky if we hit 16 ounces a day but do our best. Hope this helps.

We found that the AM feeding was harder too...Along with the great suggestions you already have, here's another thought or two. You could still nurse in the morning, but limit the time, making it shorter each day. Shorter time on each side until you're down to like 30 seconds per breast.
Also, you could try dropping the AM feed when daddy is home on a weekend or something. This is what we did. She was almost 17 months and down to nursing for like 2 minutes max, and so Daddy went and got her up. I made myself scarce until after she was into her breakfast time. It was totally not a big deal that way - I think I was more sad than she was! She was occasionally curious about my breasts and even 8-10 months later would say something like "eat the boobie?" And I just said, No, we don't do that anymore! LOL Who knew they had that kind of memory??? I sure didn't! Good luck, and congrats for nursing so long!

I nursed my oldest just over 3 years and my youngest 2 years....I let them decide when they wanted to stop. My oldest, weaned her firstborn at 12 months...what seemed important to her she didn't pursue with her own. Every mother does her best!