Weaning Help! How?

Is there some reason why you have to wean? It doesn't sounds like either of you are ready to. Maybe just give it a while longer?

The process once started was pretty easy. I was nursing him in the morning and bedtime and pumping once in the day. About 101/2 months I started cutting down the afternoon pumping by 5 min (week 1 went down to 10 min, week 2 down to 5 min, week 3 down to 0min). I can't remember if I had already started pumping in the morning by that time or not. But after the week of no afternoon pumping I started cutting down the mroning pumping in the same fashion and giving my son a sippy ocup of milk. No problems. After that process I continued on to in the same fashion with the nightime pumping. and giving him a sippy and snuggles in the same glider. We used the Boppy for every feeding until I started giving him the sippy. He had no problems. And the bedtime transition was more traumatic for me than for him and I have always been slighty ambivalent about the breastfeeding experience. We still do lots of bedtime snuggle time though which is the best part.

Is there a reason you need to wean right now? How old is your child? It sounds like it's easier and you both may not be ready, just wondering the reason? I didn't need to wean, so I have no advice on that. My son nursed until he was 1 1/2 and basically just stopped on his own. I had intended to stop at a year and then once a year hit, realized we both weren't ready so I let it go and he stopped on his own 6 months later.

Good morning! Well, I stopped breastfeeding our son just before his 2nd birthday. So that makes almost 2 years I nursed him (he never took a bottle). I totally get what you are feeling! When I finally weaned him, I was only nursing at nighttime. So I wasn't getting totally engorged and actually only had to pump 1 time after I quit "cold turkey" . depends on the age of the child and how often you nurse right now. My advise would be to do it in stages, get down to only one feeding time then (ours happend to be at bedtime) then once you have enough strength to stop (takes lots of will power on your part) just pick a night and stick to it. Having good spousal support is also good if you have that available. Our usual routine was rocking and nursing till he fell asleep, but it got changed to reading a book or two and then rocking and music till he fell asleep. Then for a period he only wanted his daddy so that gave me a break. The first night I waited till he was really tired and kind of late for bedtime, so that maybe he wouldn't cry as long, he cried, I just told him that he was a big boy now and I that I loved him and that I would hold him and rock but no "eatting". (he didn't take a pacifier either) If yours does, that will help. Then after about 30 min. he finally got calmed down and went to sleep. I went in the other room and cried to my husband. I felt like my baby was no longer a baby. But that quickly changed and I was so glad that I did it! A feeling of accomplishment!! His crying got less and less before bedtime once he realized that the nursing was over. It will get better over time and you will thank yourself in the end. Just make sure YOU are mentally ready for it. Also, don't let anyone tell you when you should stop. I clearly went outside of the reccomened time line for nursing and did it over 2 years. I had LOTS of people asking me when I was going to stop. I just said when I am ready! So hope you feel the support from me and hope this helps!!

Good luck!

Hope this helps!!

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I just out one feeding at a time. I started cutting some mid-days first. I kept the night time feeding and morning feeding until the end. It took almost 6 weeks to wean, and by then we were both ready. The night time was the toughest.... it was quite the transition, but we survived. I spent many nights singing and rubbing her back to get her to bed without "me". Good luck!

I had the same problem. I seriously never thought my son would stop nursing but he was fully weaned by 13 months. I cut out the middle nursing first. Then I cut out the night nursing. I had previously seen a post on this on mamsource and used it's advice on this. When my son woke up to night nurse I said - you are a big boy now and you don't need to eat now. please go back to bed. He screamed at me but I did not give in. I did however hold him to make him feel secure. He used to night nurse a lot so this was hard but within 2-3 nights of doing this he was nightweaned. then i cut out the bedtime feed and finally I weaned him from the last nurse which was the morning feeding. It went really well since he was used to taking bottles of breastmilk/whole milk. The only real problem I had was with my body. I had read many books on how to wean but they really don't tell you about how to wean you. Make sure you continue to pump while weaning. when you drop the 1st feeding, pump for 5 mins during that feed the first day and decrease by 1 min each day until that pumping session is fully finished then move on to dropping the next feed the same way (this is what the lactation consultant advised when i experienced engorgement). If you still feel engorged you can put cabbage leaves on your breasts just remove them when they wilt. good luck and feel free to contact me with any questions.

My experience was a bit different from yours, but I can tell you want worked for us. First, by about 6 months we changed my son's bedtime routine so that he nursed, then got his bath, a bedtime story, song and rocked to sleep. A few months later we transitioned to just putting him in the crib awake and he goes to sleep all on his own now. Usually his dad did most of the bedtime routine. I think before you cut out the night time feeding you need to gently get him used to falling asleep without nursing. Learning how to sleep on their own is a very important skill. By the time he was a year old I was having trouble keeping up with him pumping at work, so I started cutting out the daytime feedings. For me giving him pumped milk or soy milk in a sippy cup didn't work. He knew it was time to nurse and that's all he wanted. What did work was substituting a snack. He loves fruit, so that's what we did instead of a bottle. After about a week he got used to having a snack and I could give him anything and milk in a cup and he was totally fine with that. With time he eventually lost interest in the night feeding. He would just want to take his bath, so I let him nurse if he asked, but not if he didn't. He dropped that one at about 14 months. So at that point we were just down to his first morning feeding, which I was reluctant to drop because it meant I got to lay in bed for an extra 30 minutes each morning :) But one morning when he was about 15 months old he just pushed me away and he never nursed again. Cutting out the daytime feedings was definitely the hardest for us, but I needed to do it because I was working and I knew he didn't need it nutritionally anymore. The others I feel good knowing that he sort of decided on his own to stop. Hope that helps a little. Don't rush it unless you have to and do your best to make the transition a slow one for him. And also don't let anyone make you feel guilty for weaning, it's a personal decision and no one has a right to tell you what is right for your family. Good luck!

You have to be consistent if you really want to do it. You also have to realize that if you are nursing to sleep, that is almost a different process because you have to break that cycle first.

For weaning, I took one feeding a day and only did the sippy cup (soft spout by NUK). Oh, he screamed and didn't want it. It sounds awful, but while he was screaming, I just held the spout in his mouth. When he calmed for a second and realized that there was milk there, he drank it. After about a week, he was good with that feeding, then onto the next. Don't leave the hardest one till last, make it second to last. Good luck.

just wondering why are you weaning? you said you make excuses to weight another day, sounds like you might not be ready either. i have always let my babys seelf wean they will start skiipping feedings then stop when they r ready. pluss theres lots of benefits to longer nursing.

What age is your child? Personally unless there is some real reason to wean, like going back to work. Or not available to nurse I wouldn't bother. I nursed all 4 of my kids. The oldest two for only a year, my third until he was 20mos and my 4th until she was 2.5yrs old. Personally unless there is some real important reason and you don't mind nursing you can let them decide when the time is right

When it was time to wean my son at 13 months, first I cut out the feeding that he was wiggliest and least interested in. (When he started sleeping through a night feeding a couple days in a row, I stopped that feeding and just snuggled him when he woke till he fell back to sleep. He was weaned at night from 7 months. It almost felt like he led it, since he showed me he didn't need them by staying asleep.)
It seems like your biggest problem isn't the weaning. The big thing for you is to teach your son how to fall asleep without nursing. If I'm understanding you correctly, this is the way he settles himself for naps and night time, so he needs to be taught how to calm himself in a different way. Try a transitional object or lovey. Pick a blankie or stuffed animal or some clothing that has your smell. For a few weeks, when you nurse him, it's there with you each time. When you comfort him after he falls and starts crying, it's there. If it's small enough and your son is old enough, leave it in the crib with him at night. My son never settled on a lovey, till I did this and basically chose one for him!
After a few weeks with a lovey, work on getting him to take his nap without nursing. Let him cuddle his lovey and you. He's probably going to scream, and you can be there for him to tell him that it's okay to go to sleep, but don't cave and nurse him! You will teach him that if he just keeps screaming, he will get to nurse. After a few weeks of napping without nursing, move on to try the same thing with the night feeding.
I was lucky that my son already napped without nursing, but it took maybe three weeks till he really got over the going-to-bed-night nursing. He didn't cry for the whole three weeks, but he did play for an hour in his crib instead of sleeping! I found that offering a cup of milk or water instead of nursing only made him mad. In fact, he hated cow's milk until about a month after total weaning. I kept offering it, and now I can get him to drink 2 1/2 cups a day. In the meantime, you can feed him plenty of cheese and yogurt. Don't feel like he has to drink a cup of milk for every dropped feeding! Good luck!