How to Begin Weaning?

Very often kids wean themselves while mom is pregnant. The milk changes taste somewhere along the way, and then the supply decreases.

If you're cycling already, you can get pregnant regardless as to whether or not you're bfing.

Otherwise, I agree with the idea of a lot of distraction!!

Good luck!!

I am in a similar situation with my 1-year old. I finally just started offering him regular milk in a cup multiple times a day. Then, I only nursed 3-times a day, then 2. It was hard at first b/c my son was constantly grabbing at me wanting to nurse, so I'd go get his other 'milk.' There was about a week of him being upset, but he seems to be getting it now.

I hope that helped at all. Best of luck to you!

A., I had trouble on my first child. She was agressive with breast feeding and I finally got her to stop at three. I vowed to stop earlier on the second; and managed to switch to the bottle at 10 mos. It was a little difficult (mostly for me) watching her take the bottle and cuddle with it, instead of me. So I'd hold her with the bottle. Sometimes she'd move my shirt away to try to nurse. I'd smile and stroker her face and sing to her a bit. We got thru it! I kept reminding myself "It's for the best" and with her teeth health, it was. She has better teeth because we went to the sippy cup just after that. My third; I did the same! Potty training is easy too! Just give them a bath every nite (don't skip) the warm water makes them have to go. Do not leave them; as they'll want to poopie right after they get in the tub just about. Everyone of my kids were trained by two! E. C.

Use Daddy as much as possible. We weaned daytime first, because he would do other things and preferred to "eat on the go" instead of nursing, so try to find something else to interest him. But when he got fussy, my husband would go to him, because if mom did, he wanted to nurse. So if he's home on the weekend, start trying then. Just decrease the number of feedings, don't try to eliminate all of them at one time

I would gradually reduce the total number of feedings... first cut out all the night time feedings. Personally, I think it is better to not feed at all during the night rather than trying to gradually reduce (at nite)... when he wakes up he doesn't have a sense of time and it will confuse him when sometimes you feed him and other times you don't... try soothing him by rubbing his back and letting him cry a bit or hold him. Once you eliminate the night time feedings you can think about the day time ones. I stopped feeding before bedtime./... as a precursor to sleep and would focus on feeding him when he woke up... that is what I did and worked for us. Best of luck to you!

Oh! One other tip... steamed/frothy cow's milk. Even in a sippy cup the froth makes a difference... my son LOVED it. Great substitute for the breastmilk when he starts to cry. Many cappaccino makeers have that feature, or you can buy an inexpensive milk frother.

Hi A.,

It may help to keep in mind that better than 60 % of children will wean during pregnancy. Milk supply drops as the pregnancy progresses and by the third trimester the milk is colostrum again in preparation for the new baby. Most do not like it as it is not sweet like mature milk. For now, I would suggest cutting out the one nursing that he can do without and will not miss. And then after he is used to no longer having that nursing, you can cut out the next nursing, etc.

Hope this helps.
G. T.

Hi A., I recently went through the same thing that you are. I cut out all the night feedings wen he was around 15 months. It was hard and we had 1 or 2 difficult nights but once we did it he was fine. I offered him water at night to help. I then waited a while but eventually tried to cut out one daytime feeding at a time. I distracted him with food and drinks or activities.
I did get pregnant and was still nursing at least 1x a day. I just stop cold turkey. I started cramping when I nursed and got nervous. My son was angry at first but he got over it very quickly. I was so worried but he is fine. Now we do a lot of snuggling.

Stopping the night time feeding was the most difficult but if you are like me, you are exhausted and need your sleep back.

Good luck!

I would try "Don't offer, don't refuse" If you want to cut down on the number of times he is at the breast offer a substitute or distraction before he asks. My daughter always wanted to nurse when I sat down to do business on the computer so i made sure she was actively engaged and offered her a snack of something else and then would sneak to the computer. I also tried altering our routine some along with this. If she came and asked to nurse then I did not refuse her. She was not weaned before I was pregnant but she was weaned before her sister was born.

I let my son decide when to quit nursing. And I was sad when he quit. Enjoy this closeness as long as you can. They are only babes for a very short time. AF

Gradual weaning may not do it at this age, I'd pick a date and officially shut down the dairy bar and tell him there's no more. Then he can get over it and move on (one hopes). Rationing the milk will may just make it even more desirable. Another reason to go cold turkey-- it gets harder to get pregnant as we age (and it's harder to get pregnant if you're nursing), and you may not have lot of fertile time to spare. Everybody's different, you might be fertile for 10 more years, or maybe just a couple. Problem is there's no way to know until it's too late!

I am currently breastfeeding my 18 month old while pregnant. There were a few weeks when it was very uncomfortable, but otherwise, it has been fine.

As for weaning, I would try to distract him from his feedings and offer a sippy of milk instead. If he really wants to nurse, let him. I used this method to cut down on some feedings with my daughter.