My Son just turned one year old. We were lucky in that we have been able to breastfeed this entire time. In the week's leading up to his birthday, I successfully weaned him from about 4 nursings a day to 2. Now he just nurses in the morning and at night. Most people tell me it is hardest to give up the before bed feeding, but the one I am dreading is the morning one. Ever since I can remember, my son has a habit of waking up around 4:30 or 5am for a nursing session, then back to bed, usually until about 7am. I've tried and tried to push that time out - yet he seems to revert back to it everytime. I'm a full time working mom, and I leave for a trip in a couple of weeks. I'd like to wean him from this early morning nursing session, but am not sure how to do it. He is not drinking bottles anymore, just from the cup. Any advice?
A.-
Kudos to you for doing it for as long as you have. When I weaned my son I was told to drink pepermint tea. I drank it in the morning and at night. It worked for me with 2 kids. I have a 6 year old and a 3 year old both boys.
Good Luck!
We just did this too and it went SO much better then I expected! My daughter woke up every morning in the 5 o'clock hour, I'd nurse her and she's go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8:00. I just started by not getting her until 6am. At 6:00 I'd get her out of bed, give her a drink or a yogurt or something. It only took 2 mornings of crying and she started sleeping until 6:00 but was SO ornery for a good hour. We did this for about a week until she figured out that life is much happier if she stays asleep for a little longer! The last 5 mornings, she's gotten up at 7:30!! YEAH!! Good luck - just know that it will probably be a lot easier then you expect!
A. your son may not wean from this early AM nursing session until you are not there for a few days...at least that was my experience with my daughter. Once I returned from my business trip (she was about 15 Months old) she nursed once and was done.I found that both my children seemed to know when I was gone which made it much easier for my husband to feed them, but as long as I was in the house they knew that too making it almost impossible for him to feed them. R.
Maybe you shouldn't be in too much of a hurry for your son to give up his morning and/or bedtime nursing with you. If you are a full time working mom, he may be using that time to be with you because he misses you during the day. That special time may be his way of staying connected to you because he is away from you all day. No one else takes the place of Mommy. Just something to think about...
A.,
Developmentally, our little ones don't get their long term memory capabilities until around age 3. I was very worried about weaning my youngest (at 16 mos.), who was really emotionally attached to our nursing routines. However, my pediatrician reminded me of the memory factor, and assured me that if we could get through 2-3 days, she would quickly forget and move on. Reading the other responses, I can see that that is the case, as it was for me. And I agree with so many of the other moms, these things are often not nearly as bad as we anticipate! I did replace that snuggle time we had by taking a few moments to read books or snuggle on my bed when she obviously needed that "mommy time." Good luck!
I didn't wean my daughter until later & am still nursing my son so the weaning process has happened naturally. Here is what worked for night weaning though. I keep a cup of water next to the bed & offer it when he wants to nurse at night. If he only nurses in the morning & at night I would just offer extra cuddling & rocking at night. In the morning just give him the drink & lay back down with him. I say mommy's milkies are resting, it takes a little while for them to not be upset. Hope this helps!
Brekka
okay, I just did this. I waited a little longer--my son is 16 months--but I don't know if the age really matters. I waited because my son is small for his age, and truly seems hungry when he wakes up, and I thought he needed the calories. But my doctor assured me he should be sleeping through the night at this age, and I am doing my son, and myself, a disservice by allowing him to keep up this unhealthy pattern of waking during the night. So I decided to quit. (He has been weaned during the day for about 3 months.)
I took away one feeding at a time. The first was the worst one. I would nurse him at bedtime, and then he was waking at 12 am and 4:30 am. WHen I took away the 12 am, I had to let him cry it out. It took 3 days, and he cried about 30 minutes the first night, 20 the next, 10 the next, and maybe wimpered another night, can't really remember. It was hard. So I waited about a month before I tried taking away the bedtime feeding, because I dreaded the crying...and I found that if I just walked him around the room with the lights out, sang to him, and put him in his bed with his special blanket and his teddy bear, he just went to sleep! So after that had been working about a week, I decided to stop nursing all together--which meant to get rid of the 4 am feeding. Last night was the first time I tried to eliminate the 4:30 am feeding, and like you, I dreaded this--I was terrified that he would just stay up, and I would have to get up to. Who wants to start their day at 4:30 am?! SO, WHen he woke up to nurse, I got up and gave him a sippy with cow's milk in it, walked him around, sang to him (all this took about 5 min) and put him back in bed...and he went back to sleep until 7! I know that you aren't supposed to put them to bed with milk in a cup, but I figure after a while, he won't be waking up then, so I am not worried about it. I hope this continues to work for us! I hope your son will be this easy, too. I was expecting it to be much more difficult. GOOD LUCK!
Hi A.,
Congratulations on nursing your son for a year! I had a very similar experience with my daughter. In the mornings she would wake in her crib at 6am, then snuggle in with me and nurse/snooze for another hour or so before we would get up for the day. I was very nervous about loosing this sweet snuggly time -- and the extra hour of sleep! But my daughter quickly came around to accepting a sippy cup with warm milk. After several weeks now of our new routine, she grabs the cup from me, lays down on her side and drinks it down. With a warm tummy, she goes back to sleep for a while longer. Our household now actually gets up about 45 minutes to an hour later than before! I miss our snuggle time, but I hope we can get that back when she is a little older. Good luck!! ~ K.
Hello. I'm going through this right now also. I did get the morning feedinng dropped but it wasn't taken lightly by my son. I just stopped the morning feeding. I would offer him a sippy cup of milk. For the first two days he would throw a temp-tantrum. I would bring him out in the living room so not to wake the rest of my household. I would give him his sippy. At first he would throw it down and just get mad. So I set him on the floor to let him know that I wouldn't tollerate the tantrum. After the two days he hasn't missed it. He will now come into bed with me and cuddle for a little while before we have to get up, so he still gets the mommy time with me even though I'm not nursing him. I still nurse at nighttime before bed, but I'm going to be breaking that one really soon. He is old enough and drinks enough fluid out of a sippy cup during the day. So I'm almost completely done.
From what I've heard, your trip may do the trick. Until that enjoy your time nursing him. You may miss it when it's all over :-).
My daycare baby was this way with his mommy too and they just weaned in Nov.! Morning was their hardest to quit. She just kept with a slighty warmed cup of whole milk every morning and put him in bed with her (where they nursed in the am). He didn't like it at first, but after a few days he finally took to it! Now he has to have his cup, but at least anyone can give that to him!
Good Luck!
My daughter was the same way - attached to her morning feeding more than any others.(She was 13-months old when she was totally weaned, so she was on whole milk from a sippy cup.) I got her down to nursing just before bed and in the morning. Then we cut out the bedtime feeding (replacing it with milk) and then after a few days of only the morning feeding, I just skipped it and replaced it with milk. She had this confused look on her face but I just told her that mommy didn't have much milk today and avoided sitting in our usually nursing place. The next day I was engorged and had to nurse her. Then we skipped two more days, had one last nursing session (again because of engorgment) and then that was it. She did act a little upset, especially if she saw the nursing pillow we used or got anywhere near our nursing places, but I just explained Mommy didn't have any more milk. After a couple of days, she just let it go and stopped asking to nurse (she would do that by patting my chest or her chest).
Since your son is waking up to nurse and then going back to bed, you might just give him a cup of milk/formula and see how that goes. Good luck!
I never had to think of this because both of my children gave it up on their own before they were a year. Actually I wish we could have done it longer. I guess we always want what we can't have--LOL!
Do you give him a good snack before bed? I always did this, and my children gave up the morning feeding very young. Just a thought.
GL:)
You may want to consider before weaning that the American Medical Association as well as the World Health Orginisation reccomends breastfeeding for a minimum of 2 years.
A. --
I was able to continue breastfeeding my son just once a day (that early morning session) for about a month. It actually worked pretty well, and it gave him time to get used to drinking from his cup or his bottle (he was 13 mos, and we had supplemented with formula for a while, so he was used to the bottle, too).
When he used to get up to nurse, it was at approx. 6:30/7. Now that he doesn't do that anymore, he sleeps in until 8/8:30. It's WONDERFUL! lol. You might find that the change of routine doesn't mean he gets up and stays up that early. Also, once I was done breastfeeding him, it became much easier to ignore his little fussing early in the morning. (That sounds worse than I mean it, but I'm sure we all have done that "maybe he'll go back to sleep" lol)
Good luck! Be patient! I found that I didn't really get engorged when I stopped weaning. And my son didn't seem to miss it at all. He was 13 mos.
A. M
(nice name btw)
