Weaning My 14 Month Old

Daddy may be the answer. We just went through this with our 10 month old. I have always let my husband sleep since he has to get up for work in the morning, but her night time feedings had dragged on long enough. It took several nights of my husband going in and patting her and talking to her (but not picking her up) for her to learn to put herself back to sleep. She wasn't too happy to see him in the middle of the night, but after a few rough nights she is now sleeping through the night without nursing.

What I do is when I'm nursing and the baby is laying next to me, is let him nurse a bit and then pull him off and usually he's okay, if not I give him a pacifier (to supplement).

My 7 month old now for the past two nights has slept at least 8 hours in his crib. I had him next to me for the first 6 months and slowly we've gotten to this point. Good luck!

Hi R.,

First of all I want to tell you that I'm proud of you for nursing your son , I realize how much you had to keep up with while working taking time to pump everyday so that your son would have the best there is for him GREAT MOM keep up the great mothering.
Try giving your son a little water when he wakes up sometimes it good for dad to do this for your son is sued to you nursing him when he sees you that is what he;ll want. If you cann't get your husband help make sure you tell your son when he goes to bed that when he wakes up all mommy is going to give him is some water, it may take a few nights but soon he will realize thar you are not going to nurse him. Stick to it ,it will be hard at first but in the long run of things you will get the rest you need also.

A little about myself I'm a mother of eight beautiful daughters i nursed all eight to around sixteen months of age so I know whar your going through. I'm now a grandmother of 18 beautiful grandchildren even number of each, I fell blessed beyound words,so my hubby and I will celebratemour 40th wedding anaversary. Life is good

I didn the same with my daughter and she was fully weaned by 16 months. Except that I switch to whole milk for daycare and nursing whenever we were together. I didnt punk after 14 months. The benefit of that was not having engorgment as I began to wean.

But I went on a three day trip for work and when I came back she was weaned. She asked to nurse a few times and I just used distraction. And also, I think she was sleeping in her own bed at that time.(not permanantly)

First, a caveat: we do allow some crying (Ferber method) at our house, so you can take that into account. However, I was never willing to let a child cry in their beds if there was a chance they might be hungry or in pain. So when I was in your situation, I have tried various things to avoid nursing while also assuring myself that he was not actually hungry.

First, it was around this age that all my children needed what we thought of as "two dinners." We tend to have three regular mealtimes at our house, and our kids have never gotten into a grazing pattern. As they started feeding themselves more and more, it takes a long time, and they would lose interest before they were all the way full. When we started feeding them dinner early around 4-5, and then again right before bed at 7-8, they would often eat the amount of a full meal both times, and it immediately helped with night-time hunger.

Second, if it's less actual hunger and more just waking up for the comfort of nursing, I would ask my husband to give a cup/bottle so my son would not smell my milk. Once we were off of nursing, we have even switched to water in the cup instead of milk. Sometimes the water would make him mad, because he wanted milk. But, if just being rocked with a little drink of water calmed him down, then I could at least rest easy that he wasn't actually hungry for more calories. Just some ideas we've tried. Best of luck!

Easy for the doc to say - he/she's not being woken up by a crying baby.

Personally, for the sanity of everyone in the house, I let night-time nursing go on long after they stopped nursing in the day. I was desperate for sleep, and if I could roll over and make the baby stop crying immediately, and fall right back asleep myself (bed-sharing) I was gonna do it. It was like magic.

Eventually, they do nurse for shorter times, and wake up less frequently, especially as your supply goes down (and if you're only nursing at night, your supply WILL definitely drop.) Although comfort nursing (even with no milk) is a excellent soother, too.

When I got pregnant with my 2nd, the milk supply REALLY started drying up, a little TOO fast, so I gave my nighttime nurser a big cup of honey milk or (not too sweet) chocolate milk just before bed to keep his tummy full longer. Sometimes he'd still wake up and he would need a little help going back to sleep, sometimes I just had to touch his head, or even if I snuggled close so he could feel my breath on his head. Other times he would comfort nurse for a few minutes, but there was so little milk there, he didn't get much if any. And... gradually things tapered off on their own and we never had any tears.

I gradually let my daughter ween herself...she was about 14 months as well. The gradual part was not letting her nurse fully on each breast and eventually it was one breast a night until we just switched to sippy cup with her milk in it. It's not a bad thing to let them nurse in the evening...I don't know why the Ped. would say that...

How ever long you are willing and want to let him nurse is your business. I say if you are enjoying the bonding time, there's nothing wrong with it! He'll wean himself...when he's ready, you can let him have milk in a cup before bed time. That's what we do and my DD is 2 now.

And as some of the other moms said below - CONGRATS on nursing!

best of luck!
A

My first automatically gave up nursing at night right around he 12 month mark, but my second kept on going for quite a while after that age. Is he in your room, or in his own? If he's in yours, you could just gradually allow him to nurse less and less at night, and just pat his back until he falls back to sleep, or offer a sippy with some water and then pat him back to sleep. I started telling my youngest that she could nurse again when the "sun comes up", but she wouldn't cry about it; she was just a bit frustrated. We found that having them sleep in our room cut back on the amount that they woke up just to see us; your son may be looking for some good company and comfort at night.

First, congratulations for nursing for 14 months!

After one year, he's less likely to be crying from hunger than is he for comfort. The least painful, most effective way to night-wean is Dr. Jay Gordon's: http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp

Your husband will have to establish himself as a night-comfort person also for it to work, since it's easier if he is the one who rocks or walks with the child.

I've generally kept nursing at night as long as I really thought they were still hungry during it. My youngest just weaned from that at 15 months, and I thought it would never happen, but it did. Suddenly he just started sleeping all night. For the most part they figure it out on their own and stop waking. I agree though that Daddy can be the answer. If I have to check on mine I have daddy do it because then he isn't looking for food. I also had him put him to bed when I was trying to stop giving that bedtime feeding so that the boy could learn to fall asleep without nursing. Good Luck!