DD is 17 months and still a really avid nurser. My goal is to BF until she is 2 and then reevaluate how I feel about continuing to BF. Currently I "think" I am going to let her self wean but in all honesty I'm not sure I want to be nursing a 4 year old. If your child self weaned how old were they when they started to nurse less? When did you get to a point of only nursing at bed times?
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Miss A is just over fifteen months and a real booby baby but I have just noticed that she's recently upped her solids and might be in the process of dropping her mid-morning feed. She can go 5-6 hours between feeds if we're out and about and busy but if home she likes to nurse every 1-2 hours!
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DD can't go more then 3 hours without nursing. If we are out and about she still frequently nurses in public. I'm hoping we can get to a point of her only nursing a few times a day not counting her night time sessions. She is still nursing every 2 hours at night but I'm currently ok with that.
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@CraftyMom13: we're still nursing 8-10 times in 24 hours but we seem to be moving closer towards STTN but Miss A is a major comfort nurser so some nights i jump into bed with her and I feed her at around midnight and then again at around five but other nights she'll sleep nine hours!
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@Kemma: I seriously cannot wait to wake up in the morning and realize I just slept a straight 9 hours! DD has always been an awful sleeper she was waking up every 45 minutes so her new normal of every 2 hours is quite the improvement!
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Thanks for asking this. I can't answer because DD is just shy of 14 months and is still a nursing champ. I'm interested in moving at her pace, but I'm wary of how long that will be.
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@rattles: This is my main concern as well. I look at my 5 year old and I cannot even imagine still nursing him. It's hard for me to picture myself comfortable nursing a preschooler. I feel guilty thinking about weaning her at some point though and my husband seems completely fine with her nursing into her preschool years but I'm not sure how I feel.
I have a 5 year old DS and 17 month old DD
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hm, DD (12.5 months) is nursing about 6 times in a 24 hour period, but in all honesty, i'll probably try to transition her to only morning and night by 18 months at the latest.
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Ellie was nursing much less by age three. She had gotten to the point that she was more conscious of doing it around other people. By age four she was nursing first thing in the morning and at bedtime. At the end of age four, she was nursing pretty much only at bedtime. She was weaned at age five and about two months. It's funny because just a couple of months later it was sort of unthinkable to consider nursing her and made me feel akward. It was kinda strange.
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Actually, her last feed to be dropped was the morning feed. She was down to just that feed at around 26 months. We weaned completely from it at around 28 months. I was glad to be done just a little before 2.5 yo... We slowly weaned, and I feel like it was the way to go for both of us.
At 17 months, she was still a boob addict and I was scared she would nurse til preschool too, but we slowly worked at weaning at that point and it definitely got easier each month she got older. I just kept at it with "not offering/not refusing", placing limits on nursing in public, and starting to limit the length and number of sessions per day.
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E dropped down to nursing 1-2 times a night (usually just once, 2-3 hours before he got up for the day) around 13-14 months. He weaned at 15 months because he got sick and was too congested to nurse, and I wasn't pumping. I don't think we would have lasted much longer past that had he not gotten sick, though, because I'm pretty sure my supply was already dwindling.
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We just completely weaned recently at 23 months. I just gradually reduced the number of nursing sessions and whenever she asked, would try to distract her with something else. It was very gradual - we slowly went from nursing 8x day at 18 months to just twice a day by 20 months.
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@pinkcupcake: I like hearing this. I want it to be gentle and non confrontational, but I don't know that I want to be nursing past two. It's clear she's not ready though - I couldn't nurse her for 36 hours because of some medical tests I'd had last week, and it was a nightmare. Obviously it wouldn't be cold turkey like that if I chose to wean, but it's nice to hear of your experience.
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@rattles: I hear ya. We had an absolutely wonderful nursing relationship, after getting off to a very rocky start (first 6 weeks were total hell, and I just set mini goals of 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, etc for myself), so it was very important to me that when we weaned, it was gentle, kind, and as non-traumatic as possible
She loved nursing so much that I really was afraid I'd be nursing her 'till kindergarten! 
For me, the key was distraction. I tried the "don't offer, don't refuse" method, but when she was 18 months old, she was *still* nursing up to 10 times a day. I started distracting her and offering milk or water in a cup instead, when she wanted to nurse - it didn't work all the time, but sometimes it did. Also, my husband took over the night time routine which really helped, since we were able to the cut out the bedtime nursing at 18 months.
I think so long as you do it very gradually, and with sensitivity and love (I held and cuddled her so much during the last couple weeks!), it will be very gentle to her
Good luck!
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