Weaning advise...

Lydia - posted on 04/09/2012

Thanks for your advise... Thought I'd share how it all went. I started leaving out the waking up milk and gave her some chocolate milk instead. Than I thought the best thing would be to drop the nap time nurse but my daughter got sick at this time and actually got more attached to the nursing than ever.... so I took a weaning break but still stuck to the no nursing after waking up in the morning. In the meantime the night time nursing really got so hard on me, because she woke up a lot while she was sick and whenever I finally was back to sleep (so hard to find a comfortable position while pregnant) she would wake up again. So I couldn't take it and I stopped nursing her for night wakings all at once (anyways it was so irregular that I couldn't drop one after another). First night she got so angry at me but after 5 minutes cry she cuddled up with her daddy and went right back to sleep. She started sleeping through the night pretty quick after that (or sometimes when she wakes up she'll have some water and go back to sleep). I only nursed her before nap time or bed time for the last few weeks now and wanted to drop these by the end of April. She turned 2 last Friday and this was the last day she nursed. She didn't nurse now for 3 days and didn't even ask for it. I guess she sort of knew I wanted to nurse her until she is two and decided it's time to stop the day after her birthday. I am really glad it went so much easier than I would have thought, especially when she got sick in February and was so attached to the nursing I thought she never gonna stop!

Lori - posted on 02/12/2012

I weaned my first daughter at 23 months. I was pregnant, and it was beginning to hurt like crazy each time she nursed. She had been down to nursing only at nap and bed time and upon waking just like your daughter is. The only difference I guess is that she didn't regularly wake during the night anymore. If she was sick or teething or if we weren't at home she'd still wake during the night and want to nurse, but otherwise she'd sleep through.



My suggestion is to cut out the nap time feeds first. One at a time. Which ever will be easier. Most babies it's easier to cut out the waking up feed first. Get her up, and immediately offer a cup of water or milk. If she doesn't want the cup right away let her wake up a bit and offer it again. Once she's OK with that for a few days cut out the just before nap time nursing. You said she can fall asleep without nursing, so it should work pretty well. Once she's taking naps without nursing then you move on to night time. Again pick the one she's least attached to. Probably the one when she first wakes up in the morning. Then if she hasn't already slowed down night waking and nursing, try to cut those out. Rock and sing her back to sleep or do whatever you do to put her to sleep without nursing. Finally you cut out that last nursing.



This is a general order, and as I said you do the easiest to give up one first. My daughter gave up nursing to sleep before she gave up nursing upon waking. For her the very last nursing session to go was the one first thing in the morning. And when we gave that one up I couldn't get her to cuddle in bed with me in the morning without demanding to nurse, so I'd have to get up right away. That lasted about 4 months. After that she'd come cuddle in bed again without demanding to nurse.



Good luck on your journey and congratulations on the new pregnancy!

Kim - posted on 02/12/2012

Have you tried offering her a warm cup of milk, maybe with some yummy ovaltine? This helped my daughter. She loves her get up milk!