Hi All,
I desperately want to wean my nearly 16 month old. She is currently having one feed in the mid morning to go to sleep and then one before bed. Both are to put her to sleep.
How do I break this comfort? I have started giving her cows milk in a bottle. She has one before both sleeps but still wants boob to go to sleep.
She is most nights sleeping through, but on occasion will wake and only a feed will settle her back to sleep.
I get married in 6 months so would love for her to stop feeding by then.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I do understand that she might not be 'ready' but I am, I think 16 months of breast feeding is a fair effort and Id like for her to be able to go to sleep for her dad too. A night off would be wonderful... just one night!
4 Replies
You usually need to build up a new sleep association. This where people often use dummies, but it could be a special blanket or toy. Consistently give the new comfort item. Unfortunately it takes persistence, it will probably take a bit longer to get her off to sleep than normal for a little while.
It might even be easier for you and hubby to do the sleep routine together so she starts to associate sleep with him as well as you.
Wow 16 months good job!
When I weaned my son instead of feeding him to go to sleep I cuddled him and sang to him. Not sure if that is helpful advice as alot of people don't like to cuddle to sleep but it's what worked for me ?
Fist of all good job at getting to 16 months im at 5 months and struggling! My daughter was exactly like this she always had to have the boob it got to the point that when she was asleep and i took her off she would wake up and scream i ended up having to have her in bed with me sucking on me ALL night! I just recently went to QE2 in Canberra and they got her out of the habit. It takes a lot of persistence, but you need to do sleep association. What i do now is have a bed time routine, i put her in the bath at 5 get her in her Pjs and have some down time reading or playing then i feed her then i put her in her sleeping bag she knows now once she is in that it is sleep time. I use a dummy now for comfort sucking (no more nipple :)) then i hug her close and sing to her once she is dozey i pop her into bed and keep singing to she is out to it, but you cant stop even if you are up all night it will work she will soon learn that she cant have your boob all the time because it is exhausting. Good luck mumma and congratulations on your up coming marriage x
You have done so well getting this far, I completely understand you being ready for it to finish, mine were the same age when weaned. I found giving a small breast feed first then finishing with the bottled milk worked, my supply reduced and they were getting more and more from the bottle until no more boob, I just gradually reduced it over a couple of days.