Breastfeeding Weening and Food Questions

Some kids wean themselves. ie: my kids self-weaned.

Your milk supply will naturally diminish as the child naturally lessens in breast feedings.

Don't pump.
Just use breast.

Milk production, takes time... to end completely.
After I finished breastfeeding, I still have drops of milk from my boobs if I squeezed it, even several months after, my kids stopped nursing.
Or you can tell your Doc and they can give you a prescription to stop milk production and dry you up.

My kids ate what they were able to eat and liked and what I made.

Kids tastes changes all the time.
For example: NO adult, has eaten the SAME way or the SAME things... all their lives from when they were a baby. It, changes. It is normal. It is what happens.
Main thing is, that a child learns their body's cues... for hunger and fulness. So that.. they do not eat for dysfunctional emotional reasons or out of boredom. A person should know, their body. When they are hungry and stop when they are full. Regardless of the quantity they ate.

When kids are hitting growth-spurts... their appetites naturally, increases and they get hungry more frequently.
Again, EVEN for adults.... their appetites are NOT the same every darn day. And even for adults.. they do not eat the same exact thing, every darn day. Kids are that way too.
NO one eats the same thing or the same way, everyday.
And for women, we crave things when PMS'ing and we tend to eat more.
Everyday natural appetites and food likes/dislikes, changes. For everyone.

Adding this: My son climbed too. Its normal.
But so one day he climbed his crib and fell out onto the floor. He didn't get hurt. But it TAUGHT him, not to do that again. And he didn't. I was already telling him, he can get hurt don't climb.
He never climbed his crib, again.

Get the book "What To Expect, The Toddler Years."
Toddlers are a whole other developmental stage.

You can stop pumping. The less he nurses and you pump, the less milk you'll produce. Nurse him before he goes to bed, send Dad to soothe, lay him back down, and offer water in a sippy if he wakes.

Feed him what you're eating, from meats to veggies to starches (rice and potatoes) to fruits, cut in small enough pieces for him to handle. Switch to mashed sweet potatoes, they have more fiber. Make sure his crackers and bread are whole grain. String cheese, yogurt and cottage cheese are good foods for him. Cook veggies until tender enough for him to chew or offer undressed salad. Put his own plate in front of him in his high chair, he eats his food, you eat yours, and the cats don't get it ;) Vary the foods he's offered so he'll develop a wide palate of foods he likes, it may change day to day for awhile. Eat what he eats and by watching you he'll eventually learn...he's still in the learning to eat phase.

He could be climbing out of the crib today, climbers are climbers. Go through his room on your hands and knees to see what he'll see and grab, move and secure items as necessary for his safety, put a gate in his bedroom door in the event he climbs out so he can't wander into unsafe territory.

Welcome to toddlerhood :)

kellymom.com has a lot of good info. I slowly transitioned DD to only nursing at night before bed and then made our sessions shorter and shorter til she stopped asking. She was 2.5. Start by distracting him from one session at a time, knowing that nights and naps are usually the last to go. For my DD it was breakfast that went first.

For foods, we gave her small bits of whatever - our food, finger food, cereal, cut up fruit, etc. If he won't eat meat, try other proteins like beans. He'll figure it out.

If he wakes in the night hungry, try two things - a healthy snack before bed and send his father to soothe him.

To the part of your question about having trouble with meat: Have you tried fish yet? My twins love salmon and any white fish as well. I just bake it plain or with a little salt free seasoning and then squeeze lemon juice on it. Its easy for them to eat (although I am slightly paranoid about bones so I flake it up very well even though I use filets . . . you never know). They also like shrimp (thankfully we were not allergic to shellfish). I buy the frozen cooked and peeled kind and it is super handy for a quick meal. Just grab a handful out and thaw under cool running water. I cut in bite small pieces and squeeze lemon juice over it and its ready to go. Oh another great way to get protein in his diet is to use ground turkey in spaghetti or chili. Check out weelicious.com for a great chili recipe that is mild enough for him but warning it will be MESSY! Finally, beans are a good source of protein if he just refuses to eat meat. Plus they are also a handy finger food that can be cooked ahead and stored in the fridge. I am careful with using canned versions because they are often loaded with sodium. Oh and greek yogurt has protein in it. I use the plain kind and just add fruit to it to sweeten it up a little.
Also, I do think it is normal for kids to love something one day and then refuse to eat it the next. At least I know my twins both do that . . . one will absolutely refuse to eat any part of lunch except for the fruit several days of the week (even though lunch is usually the left overs from the night before that she loved!). I have figured out that lunch simply isn't her meal. She eats very good at dinner especially on the nights she chooses not to eat her lunch! But I have friends who tell me their little ones will not eat dinner well. Every mother friend I have tells me battles over eating are normal normal normal. I like to read this blog called raising healthy eatershttp://www.raisehealthyeaters.com/ the author has an interesting take on feeding toddlers that I am attempting to implement. Reading her daily experiences helps me realize that lots of Mommas are going through feeding issues just like me! I hope this helps. Good luck!

You pump for 30 mins?????? Holy cow! You need to stop that. I had an oversupply for both my babies and had to pump to be comfortable, then used the pump to decrease my supply.

Every 2 days decrease your pumping time by 2 minutes. Once you get down to pumping for only 5 mins, you can quit...no need for any pumping sessions of 5 mins or less. Cold turkey might not work out so well depending on what level supply you have now.

When my kids weaned they dropped the bedtime nursing before the wake up one. That meant they needed a good, filling snack just before bedtime. I used cows milk to thin yogurt enough that they could drink it through a straw, about equal parts of each worked for us. That was the only snack that would hold them all night.