My daughter is 15 months old and I’m ready to wean her from breastfeeding, however I have no idea how to do it. My older daughter weaned herself at 17 months but she had a dummy and a comfort blanket to help her settle when she was upset and for sleep times etc. My 15 month old has never taken a dummy and no matter how hard I’ve tried, she has never taken to a comfort blanket. Her comfort things are breastfeeding and playing with my hair while feeding or snuggling. She still feeds during the night, however it’s more just a comfort suck and snuggle type of a feed. I know she doesn’t need to feed during the night, but I don’t know how to stop this. If she had a dummy this process would be so much easier. I’m not going to try and introduce a dummy now so I need to find a different solution.
Does anyone have any tips on weaning a very attached breastfeeding little girl?
And before anyone says anything about the benefits of prolonged breastfeeding or just keep going until she is ready to wean, I know all of the benefits. I’m ready to stop. I’m fine if she still has a feed in the morning when she walks up or at night bedore she goes to bed, I just really want to stop the all day feeding and the 2-3 she has during the night. I’m exhausted and need her to sleep through the night.
4 Replies
Can Dad go into her at night to settle her? I found out by chance my daughter didn’t need night feeds at 11 months. I had hurt my back and said to my husband can you get her a bottle tonight as I just can’t manage to bend over the cot etc he got up to her and cuddle her back to sleep without a feed. He did this 3 nights and she never woke up for a feed again. I think sometimes cause they can smell our milk they will demand it from us then to settle. I could be totally wrong. Maybe try starting with nights.
Thru the day offer some cows milk in a soppy cup or bottle and maybe being so full won’t need to feed from you.
Unfortunately there is likely to be some tears initially.
Good luck mumma! You have done an amazing job!!
If you want to stop completely you could try telling her when she asks for boob that its broken/doesnt work now but you can give her a cuddle instead. Each time she asks tell her broken/doesnt work. I've also heard some people put bandaids over their nipples and say the same thing so the kids can physically see broken.
If you want to stop completely you could try telling her when she asks for boob that its broken/doesnt work now but you can give her a cuddle instead. Each time she asks tell her broken/doesnt work. I've also heard some people put bandaids over their nipples and say the same thing so the kids can physically see broken.
When I weaned my daughter, I used a countdown, and also a distraction method (depending on the time of day). Also took a cue from the book "Nursies when the sun shines" for night times (basically telling bub that she could have "boo-ah" - her name for milk - when the sun came up).
Counting down was telling her she could have 10 boo-ah, so I gave her a slow countdown from 10 when she started feeding, then popped her down. Or if she would ask for boo-ah, or "boo-ah seep" - meaning she wanted a nap - I would either say "Yup, you can have boo-ah after we do XYZ" and keep putting it off till she forgot or needed a sleep. For sleep we'd do 10 boo-ah then cuddles (she would play with my elbow skin while snuggled up to me), then over a few weeks reduced 10 to 5, then 2, then just suggest cuddle instead, until she was just asking for cuddle when she needed it.
I hope this helps. Mine was a boobie monster too, and it was important to me to wean her gently and respectfully.