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I read that babies under 12 months don't self-wean, so whenever I had trouble with my babies, I just pushed through it. Past a year though, I was willing to let them self-wean.

With Xander, he self-weaned at 14.5 months. We were only nursing once a day at this point in the morning. He was always a good morning nurser, since he was usually still fairly sleepy, and wasn't as easily distracted as he was during the day. Leading up to him weaning, he just started nursing less and less. We went from 15 minute nursing sessions down to 5. I would get him up to nurse and he's usually willingly come nurse, and then one day, he just didn't seem interested. I put him on the floor and sat in the rocking chair, boobs out, ready to nurse, and he just walked away, and I knew we were done.

I'd definitely keep nursing up until at least a year.

My daughter is 12 months now and still nurses a lot... I figure I'll just kind of know when she'll want to wean. I'll simply nurse her until she doesn't want to nurse anymore.

I've also read babies don't typically self wean under 12 months (and other places I've read 18 months...)

We certainly went through periods of distracted eating or shortened feedings. I'd just keep offering I've heard that they can decline for several days and then get back to it (for one reason or another). If you're dealing with distraction/barely eating...may be nurse in a calmer environment (if possible) or may be time to drop a feeding.

My DD self-weaned at 19 months. At that point she was down to 1 feeding a day. The 'first' day she barely ate, and then started playing around...the next day didn't eat and gave me a pretty good bite...I tried for probably a week just to be sure it was what she wanted and she would refuse to latch/just swat at me.

My LO self weaned around 20 months. She was always a big comfort nurser, though, and rarely got expressed milk since I am home with her. For us, she gradually stopped asking for feeds- it had been that as soon as she woke up in the morning and after nap she would ask for it, then one day after nap, she didn't ask and I didn't offer and she just had an earlier snack than usual from then on. So we were down to just morning and bedtime. One morning, we got her up and she didn't ask for milk, I didn't offer, and again, just did breakfast a little earlier. We were on just once a day for about a month or so when it got harder to get her to nurse. Before as soon as I would take out the nursing pillow or ask if she wanted milk, she would get really excited and run over. I started having to ask a couple of times, but then she would still happily nurse for a full session, so I knew it was coming to an end. One night I didn't ask and she didn't ask and we were done. She asked once a few days later but wasn't upset when I offered cows milk instead.

It was very gradual and natural and since I was almost as attached to t as she was, I was glad I knew it was coming.

I don't think babies under 14-18mo self wean. Anything sudden is a nursing strike. True self weaning will be very gradual (I have read) and they are older. It's very common for disinterest and refusals sometime from 6-12mo. I believe most would come back to it- though some women can definitely take advantage of this to wean (remember not offering the breast is a weaning technique). Also if you get pregnant, the change of milk back to colostrum can cause some babies to wean before they otherwise would have.

Around 9 mo mine lost some interest and I had to pump on the weekends to maintain my supply for the workweek pumps. She took her bottles though. So we really did NOT nurse as much from 9-12 mo. She flat out refused some bedtime sessions and even whole days. Always drank the bottle though!

At 12 mo I quit pumping so we just nursed morning, before bed, and sometimes once overnight. Around 15 mo she found a renewed interest in it and will often ask to nurse at other times (I usually tell her she needs to wait) and nurse for 30m ++ and get mad (for a few minutes) when I pull her off. She is 17mo now and still nursing, I am trying to X all overnight feedings (she sleeps through half the time and wakes up 1x the other half demanding milk).
So mine has MORE interest in breastfeeding now at 17 mo and this hasn't happened since before 9months! I really didn't want to nurse past 2 so I'm not sure when she'll be ready or if I'll end up doing mother-led weaning.

If your baby is under a year and you're not pregnant I wouldn't take anything as being self weaning, personally. I've even read that some people think true self weaning happens between 2-4 but I don't know that I'm cut out for that! http://kellymom.com/ages/weaning/considering-weaning/how_weaning_happens/

@Ajsmommy: Honestly, I think that concept is just propaganda. Some babies are just far less interested, especially if they also get bottles, or they love their solid foods. I would not worry for a second about a baby who was gaining well and self weaned at 11 months. In fact - that would be awesome. My second daughter is already not a comfort nurser, at all, so I'm hoping for something like that.

@ms. pug: Yay! Congratulations on nursing for so long!!

@ms. pug: Ooooh! Congratulations on that as well!!!