what if child led weaning never leads there?

Xander is 2 1/2 going on 3 and still nurses every night. Lately he is waking up and demanding to nurse again. It's easy to say I'll tell him no but at 4am when he is yelling "booooobeeeeeee!" I am not the most rational person. I just wondered if other long-nursing mamas went through these same sort of spurts and if their little ones eventually did grow out of nursing. I am expecting too much of him at too young an age because of all the negative western attitudes about nursing??

 

well i havent been through the weaning process yet but i do have compassion for you cuz i am going through the same thing but my son is 8 months. He wakes up at least twice during the night and does his little laugh cry for a boob. or if he is sleeping in the bed with us he will pull up my shirt and grab my boob out of my bra and start nursing.

 

Isn't that funny how they do that?!?! I woke up this morning with my boob in pain. Looked down and my 7 month old is trying to wrap my nipple around her finger!!! That hurt!!!

As for the child-led weaning, I'm really not any help either. Maybe he is just going through a growth spurt or something and he just needs some extra comfort.
I have heard of a mama who left her toddler in bed with her husband and she went to sleep in another room. He (this child) didn't wake up during the night when she wasn't there and after a few nights, she started sleeping with DH and child again with no more night nursing.
Don't know if it would work, but you could try it???

Good luck and remember, he won't be nursing forever.

 

why bother? for most of the rest of his life he'll be trying to suck on a boob anyways, theres jsut maybe 10 years in your young life when he won't want boob, by the time he's 12-13 all he'll want is boob, no point in trying to disuade him....its like the war on drugs, excpet, boob stylings.

and no, im not being serious

 

my first child was nursed til she was 13 months, we both would have gone longer, but I followed the advice of another mama. SHe had a four year old who yelled mama, I want some tittie now! ( in KMart!)

Anyway, I got her down to one last nursing at night, and got a nighttime job waiting tables! I couldnt sleep in another room cause we were living in our RV

I wish I could offer a real answer, but all babies are different,

I will tell you how I got her to stop biting tho, no tittie! She had 6 teeth by the time she was 4 months old, and started to try them out! She learned really really quick! that HURTS!

My twins just stopped (in spite of my wants) at 7 months....they were just too busy for me!

 

The longest I've nursed is 24 months. And it was not "child-led" so I'm no help in that area either. But you know, you could night wean him if you feel uncomfortable, yet want to continue the nursing relationship. I night weaned #1 at 16 months and #2 at 14 months. I can go into detail about it if you'd like, just say the word.

 

I child-led nursed w/ both my kids. My son stopped very suddenly @ 2.5 years while we were on vacation, but my daughter nursed until almost 3.5 years (about 4 weeks before her brother was born) and she just gradually went to 1 nursing and then one day she just thought it was kind of silly and said she didn't need it anymore. She was nursing at night a lot at 2.5 and I slept in another room to attempt to gently night -wean her (it worked). I struggled with doing that at all, but I was pregnant and very tired and felt like we BOTH needed more sleep to ensure happier days. It was hard, but went very peacefully. I never denied her, I just was not available. When I was there she could nurse. I redirected her which went very well for us. I just paid closer attention to my instinct of when I felt she really needed to nurse, which was pretty often. And the times I redirected her, she went along without any hesitation. If I remember correctly, before we started all this she had a surge of nursing a lot, which I assumed was a growth spurt.

 

my daughter is 9 months and all she ever wants is boob. she wont eat any solids just boob, boob, boob.

 

Yes, they will grow out of it with encouragment. My almost 4 yr old is down to nursing just at night.(to fall asleep) And in the middle of the night I tell him "no, just cuddle with me and I will rub your back" that will always do the trick but 8 months ago it wouldn't. I hope to have it completely ended with in the next few months.


Im tandem nursing (him and my 20 mo old daughter) so it has been more difficult to do child led weaning when he sees his little sissy getting the boobie all the time.

I will be thankful to get my boobies back to myself though!

 

my little one slowly stopped...she was onto just a morning nurse for some reason even though we were co sleeping (I am a heavy sleeper though) and then one day I didn't sit in the same chair that morning and she didn't have anything and so I tried that again the next day and same again and voila! she still a year and about a half later will at times pat my boob and then have a pretend bubby session but it's more just nuzzling and comfort and I don't stress at her as she doesn't try to rip my top down in public. My mum tells me that all the little ones she has known have gone through this reversion stage where they want to pretend to be a bubby and I don't know if it is true but it seems to match up to her awakening to herself as an independant being and therefore makes sense to me.
From what the other guys have written before me about weaning I am seriously thinking that changing routine may be part of it?!
she was probaly about one and a half or a bit older if my dodgy memory serves me right! It's all a strange foreign blur now to me and I wonder at times as I look down at my boobs how the hell they ever kept anything alive!!

 

.......to read about another long time nurser.

My 4-1/2 year old daughter is still very upset about the prospect of stopping nursing. She told me she NEVER wants to stop. We have been trying to ween for a year and a half. I do not like nursing her so much any more, it feels weird with her teeth, it makes me cringe a bit and I don't want to have negativity with nursing her. Lately we play this game called skip and when she can't remember she says "Mama is today a skip day or is tomorrow?" I say "Yes today is skip..." and I feel so guilty because often I am lying and it was supposed to be a nurse day, but it actually is working a bit to confuse her and make her skip more. But she got me this morning, she just plopped into my lap and nursed away. I have been nursing her and my 10 month old daughter too. My fam is not so supportive, they shake their head at it and they're supposed to be alternative hippy types...we grew up in Santa Cruz ...geez...my mom hasn't shaved or worn a bra since the 70s why does she care if my daughter nurses longer?

Kath

 

hahahaaa!!! oh, that's good... thanks for the laugh!

 

I'm not a parent, I'm a 14 year old kid, but my mom nursed me, my older sister, and my younger brother each until we were 4 years old (we're all 4 years apart, so it worked out to no tandem nursing), and I think it's a great thing, nothing's better for you than mothers milk.

 

Oh my. Katho, and everyone else who's doing child-led/extended nursing:

I recently went back to work. I work for a birthing hospital and it makes me sad to hear how many of my co-workers are uncomfortable seeing a nursing momma nursing her babe. It's disturbing to see their reactions when I tell them that I am still nursing my daughter at 16 months and that I plan to nurse indefinitly or until she decides to stop.

I have sooooo much respect for those of you who are at 4+ years and still going. I have those times now when I wish she would be done with it. Especially when she's rough and pulling on it. Or when she slaps it and says "boo" over and over.

But when I walk in the door at night, and I see how much she loves it, and how happy she is nursing...I'm really glad we're still going. I see the new born babies and hear the noises they make while they're nursing, it reminds me of her. She still makes those same new baby noises, ha ha ha. I think I might be getting a little bit of baby fever. Oh no, I want another. Aaaah!