Weaning from BF - Cold Turkey at This Point?

At 18 months my son was only nursing for comfort. Mainly at night. MULTIPLE (2 to 6 times) a night!.

We just went cold turkey. The first night was tough. We co-slept and he kept trying to lift my shirt but I would just hug him and tell him to snuggle with me. I also introduced a bear that night. So, me and the bear snuggled with him every time he wanted to nurse. By the third night, he was totally over it!

Hi J.,

I don't think you have to go cold turkey. It sounds like it will be tough on your toddler and physically for you. Especially since you are still nursing her quite a few times a day/night, you may get engorged.

When I decided to wean my son, I cut out his favorite nursing last. Which was the before bed nursing. I was also still nursing him when he would wake up at night, however often that might have been. When I decided to wean and he would wake up at night, I just went into his room, gave him his paci, picked him up and rocked him a bit until he fell back to sleep. Most of the times this worked. Sometimes he'll have a hard time getting back to sleep, and these nights I do believe he is a little hungry so I'll offer him a drink and/or a snack, after that he usually falls back to sleep easily.

Once I was successful at cutting out the middle of the nursing, I never did it again. I believe you have to be consistant or it does send them mixed messages. I waited a few more weeks to cut out the bedtime nursing.

For this nursing I just changed up our routine a little. I had been putting one in place for a few months before I started weaning so he would get the idea it was bedtime. Now we have bathtime, brush teeth, read stories, turn out the light with some soft music in the background, I talk about our day for a few minutes, what we did, played with, etc, and then I sing a few songs to him while rocking with him in the rocking chair. He's lights out and I put him in the crib.

Sometimes, I will offer him a snack after bath if he didn't eat a really big dinner to hopefully avoid him waking up at night. He is not a big milk drinker, so I usually give him a little fruit or yogurt. You could do that to get her over the idea of nursing.

Good luck!

I don't think I would jsut stop cold turkey. You are still feeding three times in a 24hr period you might really throw her off depending on how attached she is to those feedings. I would start dropping the middle of the night feedings one at a time. Follow her lead and then drop another shen you think she's ready. You might have some issues with her adjusting from waking up and being fed to waking up and having to put herself back to sleep without nursing. I just stopped this week BF my 17mo. But I had slowly gotten her to one feeding a day before I stopped. Didn't even faze her.

When I was stopping the nursing at night, I listened to the baby's cry to decide if it was a hunger cry or not. I tried just holding/rocking her and then putting her back to bed w/o nursing. I think I may have tried offering a bottle of water too. Then back to the crib. If I thought she was genuinely hungry, then I'd feed her, but I refused to night feed just out of habit.

You might try comforting her at 1:30, but if she wakes again in a couple hours, feed her... to stretch the time out from 2x to 1x/night before going cold turkey.

However, I stopped night nursing at a younger age, so maybe your strategy will be different. At 16 months, I think typical milk consumption is 3x per 24 hrs, and nothing for the 12 hrs sleeping overnight, so your little Rebecca should be able to go through the night with a little deliberate sleep training.

I'm sure you already know, but be prepared for her to rebel for a few nights until she gets used to it. Good luck!

You'll need to replace the nursing to sleep routine with something else, whether that's a bottle, cuddling, story book, etc. because it's part of whatever bed time routine you have in place and your daughter will expect it.
I would personally not go cold turkey for two reasons: 1. It will be a lot less uncomfortable for you. You'd be surprised at how full you'll be even missing only 3 feedings a day and 2. I think it would confuse your daughter, particularly if she is very attached to those feedings.
I agree with others who mentioned that she should be fed if you feel that she actually is hungry and is not just comfort nursing. The middle of the night ones will probably be easier to get rid of than the bedtime one, although you might lose some sleep for a night or two. If you can get your partner to go to her at night. That way she won't be tempted to nurse.
Hope that helps.

I think that ultimately HOW you handle it will be up to you (and your daughter). However, I can only suggest that whatever you decide, make sure that you follow through with it no matter what. If you decide that today is the day to stop completely, make sure that no amount of guilt on your part changes your mind or your daughter will be REALLY confused.

This is one of those think (IMHO) that consistancy is going to really be the key rather than HOW you stop.

That being said, make sure that you take care of yourself when you stop nursing. One of the things that really "made" me take care of myself was when I nursed - when I stopped, I kinda forgot about taking care of me :(

Good luck and I understand completely where you are coming from - sometimes you just need to be done. 6 years is a LONG time :)