Hellobee Boards

I tried to dry up when I stopped pumping at work and on weekends she still asked all the time.

@JoyfulKiwi: this might be a silly question, but how much milk is your LO taking on the motn feedings? Is he just having a quick suck or is he guzzling back the milk? My LO has only just started to STTN but I think she was genuinely hungry because she'd been dropping day feeds but hadn't increased her solids enough to compensate for the drop in milk (she's 22.5 months).

Another thought could be to try having a designated spot for nursing so it becomes slightly inconvenient for your LO to nurse, or you could try putting him on a schedule so he knows when he can freely nurse but outside of those times he doesn't get access.

I feel like words are so powerful at this age. Maybe even make him a picture book. Tell him: "We are going to nurse before bed, and then in the morning when it's light. If you wake up in the middle of the night, we aren't going to nurse. Mommy will (sing you a song, give you a cuddle, whatever), but mommy will not nurse until morning time." Then when you do nurse in the morning, you can say "Is it morning time? Yes! So we can nurse now." Be really excited about this nursing session. Be very matter-of-fact about the middle of the night one. But be serious. And consistent. Even one time giving in is going to be difficult. During the day, ask him lots of questions: "Before we go to bed, are we going to nurse? YES! In the morning, are we going to nurse? YES! Are we going to nurse during night-time? No...what else can we do?" Talk about it during low-stress, non-nursing or bedtime related times, and emphasize how a big boy nurses twice a day (or whatever phrasings feels natural/works for him.)

My toddler just kind of stopped nursing, but we had other middle of the night wake-ups, and going in and telling him "it's night-night time. Mommy sleeps now. LO sleeps now" was enough to get rid of them (after a few days).

One day, randomly, at 27 1/2 months she didn't ask at night and then again in the morning she also didn't. So I went cold turkey and told her my milk was all gone. Got her a special cup for almond milk (which she would NEVER drink before) and it went really well. She was fine, I was a crying hormonal mess.

I recently cut back from morning, multiple times a night and bedtime to just bedtimw with my almost 2 year old. Basically it was a lot of talking about how we only have milk at bedtime and at night you can fall asleep without it.

We also went from co-bedding to her own double bed, I stay with her until she falls asleep and usually spend half the night there after she wakes. Even with night weaning, she still wakes up once or twice a night, but will go right back to sleep with cuddles.

The night weaning took 3-4 days. The first night she cried for about an hour, I just talked to her and comforted her with cuddles, signing, back rubbing. It was pretty brutal with her screaming "oh noooo mama, titya (russian for boob) a dodo (french for sleep)". But it got better each time. And after 3-4 days, she would just cuddle to fall back asleep. She will still occasionally ask for it, but is ok when I refuse. A big help was for me to wear tshirts with high collars to bed so she can't reach

Eta: For now I love that we've kept one session and I am able to keep nursing for emergencies. For example, she really only naps in the stroller and the other day it was just not happening, she kept playing with the canopy and got her finger caught. By the time I got her home she was in full blown hysterics and nothing I was doing was calming her. So out came the boob and she was asleep in minutes. I will miss the boob magic one day!