WTH Is Goig On.

Hello E.-

Today I am Parent Coach, but I use to be a Nanny and have had a lot of experiences with nursing issues from the Mom’s I’ve worked with.

First, nursing at 16 months is not only OK, but recommended if Mom still can. Breast milk provides a lot of benefits, and experts recommend nursing if you can up to 2 years of age.

He is definitely using nursing when he feels nervous or overwhelmed. I suggest while you’re out & about, keep a sippy cup of water or if you want breast milk for him to drink from when he needs it. Or provide him with a lovey to snuggle, stuffed toy or blanket. You’ll want to teach him coping methods other than the breast. Explain to him nursing is for home, not the store.

As for your period issues, breast-feeding is a natural method of birth control. Many women who breast-feed won’t have a period. When you’re nursing, your body is telling your hormones you have a child to care for and cannot have another, so an egg won’t be released. I suspect, (I am not a doctor so don’t take this a medical advise), your normal period is trying to reestablish it’s self but is being stopped by the hormones being released by breast feeding, explaining period cramping but not bleeding.

You may want to take a pregnancy test to be sure.

I wish you the best of luck!

R. Magby

I am going through the SAME thing. I have a 17 month old who is the same way. The cramps you are having, from my experience is most likely your period is coming but is having trouble starting. Your docotr can proscribe something to get it started... you are probably VERY bloated as well. I just got my first period and it was painful. But all I want to say is the above is all very normal.Your boob is probably just your son's pacifier and ultimately your boob is much better for him than a real pacifier.

For me, it is just ANNOYING. But ultimately, you will just have to make a decision to force him off your boob just like many people do a pacifier. It will be hard for a few days/nights... and he may still try to get it a month from now... but EVERY parent deals with this on some level, whether their child cant get off the bottle, the pacifier or the boob or something else.

Good Luck! (My 17 mo. old daughter is on my boob RIGHT NOW as I write. So, I will have to come back to this site and see your other answers!

the American Academy of Pediatricians (or whatever their major mainstream group is) started recommending right around 2002 that if feasible families should breastfeed exclusively until 6 months and then aim for 2 years before weaning. The World Health Organization sometime in the late 1990s made a statement that the average age for weaning worldwide was 4.25(!). (I am still not sure I trust that; I have no idea how they decided "average," but it is an interesting comment on our culture anyhow.)

So, don't worry too much about the still nursing thing. There are moms in America still nursing for comfort at ages 5 and 6. Mine each weaned before 24 months even though I am a long-nursing advocate ... the best advice I've heard is that the mom and child should nurse as long as they are (both of them) comfortable with it.

As for the shirt thing, you're gonna have to lay down some consequences. No nursing is one, but you're going to have to be willing to let him make a crying scene in public a couple of times for him to understand that he won't get ANY support from you if he insists on doing something that is, frankly, mean to Mommy ... at least at 16 months he's HOPEFULLY not verbal enough to make the scene REALLY embarrassing by yelling specific descriptions ... and at home, start setting times and places, so when he is out, you can say, "remember, we will nurse again just before naptime, but right now isn't a nursing time" ... and talk to him ahead of time about other ways of comfort (and practice them at home): snuggles with humming a favorite song or something like that. He has to know what to expect (both good and bad), and you have to do what you say you are going to.

Good luck.

(I stayed at home mostly during the awkwardest periods--like when a kid was experimenting with the open-mommy's-shirt method of getting what they want. It's a short investment of time in making later time much easier ... )

Hi E.,
I nursed my kids until they were about 2, especially one that was allergic to any form of milk that we tried causing asthma. I am all for it. There is only one time in your life that you have that bonding experience with your child why give it up before you want to.

As far as the period part of your question, I too had my tubes tied after my second one after being advised not to have anymore due to a health condition. I went about as long as you have but suffered severe cramps every month when I should have started. I went to the doctor and was tested ( a naturopath) and she did a saliva test, hair test and bloodwork along with vaginal smear reports from my gynecologist. What she found and recommended was that I get on a good iron..didn't need anymore than a 15mg dose a day and she recommended Slow-Fe (it does not cause constipation) and then she added Vitamin C, Vit B-Complex 3x's a day being sure it has a good daily dose of B-6, Vitamin E...400mgs a day, along with Magnesium/Calcium/Zinc combination 3X's a day one tablet.....7-10 days before I was to start my period she had me take Niacin for the cramping...starting out with a 25mg dose (to see how it effected me as far as for flushing)working up to a 200 mg
dose if you can take that much. If you can't definitely
be sure to try to get up to at least 100mgs.
Niacin strengthens and relaxes the blood vessels in the lining of the uterus along with the mag/cal/zinc that relaxes the muscles.
This combination really helped and I started within about 6 weeks...the Niacin really took away the cramps but one thing that you need to know and remember is that you start the Niacin 7-10 days before your period and the day you START your period you STOP it until next the next month.
This worked good and it was putting back in what I was depleated of from having the kids. Not only did I feel better but nursing was not draining me and I had more energy.
These help you to get your hormones balanced back to where they need to be also.
Hope this helps.
L.

You'd mentioned that your son is still nursing frequently...that is most likely the reason you have not begun menstruating again.