Seeking Advice on Weening 16 Month Old Son

The way I weened my son from each nursing, I would give him something to eat and distract him with a toy.
Play ball with him so that he is running around and getting worn out so he will be tired and hopefully just crash. Do that for 3 days straight and he will be done with that nursing. As for the night ones are the hardest,and you dont want to play with him, give him a sippy cup of water or even breastmilk. I would ween the morning/afternoon ones first.

My mother offered me this information when my daughter, now 23, was waking in the middle of the night for a bottle. Offer your son a drink of water in a sippy cup or a bottle. It may take at least a week of offering him water, but he will soon find out that this is all he is going to get. It worked for me, I hope it works for you.

Hi L. I am actually working on weaning my 17 month old daughter right now. I don't like the cry it out method for night time but found that in the middle of the night she is usually just looking for mommy and not necessarily wanting to nurse. Have you tried holding him in a nursing position and rocking, bouncing, butt patting, whatever works for him? For nap time we just started feeding her lunch right before nap time and then she knows after lunch it is nap time so I put her in bed. Read her a story and then just sit quietly with her till she falls asleep. My daughter also never took a bottle. Good luck and if you want more info on things that worked for us feel free to send me a private message.

try just holding him close and rocking/singing to him. I nursed my first until he was 20 months, but we cut out the middle of the night feeding when he was just over a year. Once he got out of the habit, he didn't wake up so much. The down side is once he got into a "big boy bed" he just comes into our room when he wakes up. Luckily we have a king bed!

L., I had the same problem with one of my sons, but at only 10 1/2 months. I left him with his grandparents for the weekend, and he had to take a bottle, or got nothing to drink. Noone says it is easy to wean some, but I agree with your husband. You need a break from the "little man".

I suggest that you buy a baby gate so that he has to stay in his room if he wakes up at night and you don't have to worry about him wondering around the house. Check on him when he wakes up, without any light on or talking to him. Pat him, put him back to bed and give him one of those wonderful platex sippy cups that don't leak full of water. You will have a few rough nights, but in the end you both will be happier. Remember you are teaching him to self sooth, which will help him deal with life in the long run.

I nursed all 4 of my kids and when it came time to ween them, i did offer a sippy of bottle, BUT at 1st i would bout all breast milk for a week then 1/2 milk 1/2 water, so on until it was a bottle of water the little one was taking. Going right in tot he water just didn't seam to work with my little ones. Who now are 10, 8, 7, 6.

Does he still nurse during the day? That tends to be the easiest to stop first because you use distraction. I weaned my oldest from night time nursing first. I just laid down with him to go to bed, but I didn't let him nurse. After about 30 minutes of fussing he gave up and just let me hold him. It only took 3 nights to wean him and each night got easier. I nursed him for nap time for a few days, but that was easy to cut out after doing the night time weaning.

My youngest was harder to wean because he was older and more attached to nursing before I weaned him. In fact, my oldest had given up daytime nursing by himself, while I had to work with my younger one to get him to wean. It took longer with my youngest and there were more tears, but he was about 18 or 20 months and I was just ready to stop.

If you don't really, really want to stop then don't. I had just been pregnant and/or nursing for about 4 years and that was long enough for me. Good luck.

My son (who is now 10) was also awake several times during the night wanting to nurse. I found that it was more of a "mommy time" thing than actually being hungry. He just wanted comforting. I think if you offer him a little water and some comfort, and yes, there will be a few tears, he'll get the hint that his nursing days are soon coming to an end, but mommy is still there. Good luck!