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Night nursing toddler!

Annesofie - posted on 07/16/2011 ( 3 moms have responded )

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My daughter will be 3 in November and I still nurse her at nights. I've found a lot of information about nursing and natural weaning - and I want to keep nursing my daughter until it stops in a natural way - but none of the information mentions nighttime nursing and weaning! I don't know if I am crazy for going on and hoping that it will also end naturally, but I'm starting think I have to find a way to help her stop it...because she doesn't seem to need it any less, in fact sometimes it seems the opposite! My daughter has eczema so she scratches a lot in the night and as a result she can't fall a sleep again without nursing - this makes it a bit more complicated. I would really like to stop the nighttime nursing, but I think it will only be with cries and tears and I don't know if I want to do that. Any of you ladies have any suggestions about my situation? Do any of you still breast nights? She sleeps in our bed and I want to continue like this...

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Annesofie - posted on 07/17/2011

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I'll definitely start talking with her about! I have tried it before, but since she also just laughed then I thought, well, that's not going to work. But I can see the idea in going on and letting it sink in slowly!
I haven't been able to find the cause of her eczema and I have tried to cult dairy, wheat and a lot of other things too. For a long time she has been in homeopathic treatment and that does seem to work, but it doesn't go away completely. She doesn't have bad eczema, but the night brings it out!

It would be great if others had suggestions for the night nursing as I'm getting a little bit grumpy about it..... :)

Teresa - posted on 07/16/2011

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I night weaned my son at 2 and he nursed til 3.25... and was 'force weaned' on July 1. We've always co-slept.

I can't tell YOU how to do it, but I can tell you how I did it. :) I started talking to him at around a year and a half... telling him he was a big boy and didn't need 'baboo' at night. Most of the time he just laughed at me when I said that. lol... It took about 6 months for it to sink in enough to work. When he woke at night I would tell him that it wasn't morning yet. Some nights he'd go right back to sleep. Some nights he'd whine a bit for a few minutes and go to sleep. Other nights (most of them to start w/...) he would start to get upset and those were the nights I'd just nurse right away. Eventually those nights got less and less until he was sleeping through the night. I think in the last year of nursing I only nursed him in the night twice and those times were when he had a tummy bug and I was willing to give him ANYTHING that he wouldn't puke up. Now the only times he wakes at night are when he has a bad dream or has to pee.

I hope you can find something useful out of that rambling!

Maria - posted on 07/16/2011

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Mine still nurses at night too. I am hoping the night waking to nurse will stop when he weans.... I haven't been able to find much information on it either. I would think sleeping together would make it harder to night wean, it is just so easy to roll over and lift up your shirt :-) . I am not anti co-sleeping, just not sure how weaning works with co-sleeping... I'll be interested to hear if anyone has better advice on this as I was just told be my pediatrician that the longer I wait to wean at night the harder it will get. (Hope she wasn't right...)

Have your explored different ways of treating the eczema? I ask because my toddler son was waking up every 1-2 hours due to his allergies (His food allergies caused eczema, and his environmental allergies caused coughing and congestion...). When we got his allergies under control his night waking dropped to every 3-5 hours. When we forget his allergy meds at night I know iit!

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