Poll: how often does your 18-24 month old toddler nurse?

A - posted on 10/10/2010

My son is in his 16th month so a little younger than youre asking for, but he still nurses (on average, it varies of course) probably 8 times a day/night. Sometimes he eats a load of solids and only nurses 3 times during the day, and then throughout the night. Or he doesn't eat any solids and eats 5 or 6 times during the day, plus through the night. So it really depends.

My child also sometimes likes to nurse during the nap (he's having more days where he's going back to sleep on his own to finish his nap) and also needs the breast more throughout the night than really to go to sleep. Sometimes he'll just cuddle me at night to fall asleep instead of nursing. He's also getting to the point where its uncomfortable for him to nurse and sleep, so at night lately he's been nursing for just a few minutes then rolling over to go back to sleep and get comfy.

April - posted on 10/06/2010

@Teresa....my son likes to nurse in the middle of nap too!! not everyday (thankfully! nap time is mommy alone time) . anyway, i never heard of anyone else's child wanting to nurse in the middle of nap...glad we're not alone!!!! :)

April - posted on 10/06/2010

my 21 month old nurses first thing in the morning, late morning nap, right before bed, AND all night long (3 to 7 times a night). in a 24 hour period, he nurses about 8 to 10 times.

Teresa - posted on 10/06/2010

Well... he's 2.5 now, so a bit older than your asking age range. On an 'average' day (yeah, what's that?) he nurses twice in the morning, once to fall asleep to nap, once in the middle of the nap, once at the end, and at bedtime. I TRY to get him to sleep through the night, but that's pretty rare now. So, I guess that would be about 7 times a day. Sometimes it may be as little as 3 times, but that's extremely rare. There are probably quite a few days that he nurses more than 7 times as well....

Dani - posted on 10/06/2010

My 21 month old nurses like 3 or 4 times a day. Its at bed time and when hes cranky.

Marabeth - posted on 10/06/2010

My 18 month old nurses anywhere from 3-14 times a day and most days I'd say it's around 6.

Lori - posted on 10/06/2010

My son is 23 months - on days when I work (Mon-Thur), he only nurses in the morning, and before bedtime, and then several times a night (co-sleeping, so I often lose track of how many times he wants to nurse). But if I'm at home with him, he generally will ask to nurse again before naptime, and maybe a late afternoon session, depending on the day.

Tine - posted on 10/06/2010

It TOTALLY depends! My 22 month old daughter has a wide variation. On days where she's feeling good and is well occupied and happily eating food she likes, she can go several hours at a time between feeds. Other times, if she needs it more emotionally, or is tired or teething or whateve, she still feeds really frequently. I don't worry about it, I figure she is still the best person to know how much she needs to feed! :-)

Nicole - posted on 02/23/2009

My son is now 26mo. old and is nursing less and less, but some of that is because I am 33w pregnant and I can't handling nursing much and often say, are you sure you really need to nurse or OK, but only for 5 mins. Anyway, at 18-24mo. he was definitely nursing 6-8 times a day still. Now at 26 mo. it's more like 4 times a day. I expect him to bump that back up more once the new baby is here, I will be doing tandem nursing.

Nancy - posted on 02/23/2009

At that age, my girls all nursed many times throughout the day and night.  Eventually when they were older they all slowed down.  My oldest got to where she only "needed" to nurse when going to sleep at nap time or bedtime.  My second and third gave up daytime and "to bed" nursing before they were done nursing throughout the night. 

Each child eventually does stop nursing.  If you would like him to slow down, perhaps offering a drink, snack or other activity when he wants to nurse.  Many who nurse older nurslings use a "don't offer, don't refuse" approach so that it is the child who "asks" and eventually the child will become more involved in other things to remember he wants to nurse.

Good luck!

JC - posted on 02/23/2009

I nursed my son to right about that age. The only reason i stoped was when i had my daught and it made is so mad when i stoped to nurse her so i just stoped nursing him. He didn't mind it at all. I just nused him twice a day at about 18 months.