20 month old addicted to nursing. Help me please!!

amother

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 1:00 pm

Hello,

My 20 month old is addicted to Nursing. Still nurses on demand, at night as well.
I know.
Its my fault. I get it. But how do I stop?
DC doesn't take a paci, or a bottle....that's my job.

How do I do this without traumatizing baby or myself?

People are starting to make fun of me. That doesn't bother me. Neither does the day time nursing.
But I would love to sleep through the night again, but I do not want to hurt my baby.

Suggestions??

gp2.0

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 4:14 pm

At that age (even before, I probably start around 15 months) I start stopping gradually, looking for the reasons why they are asking to nurse. I offer drink, food, a cuddle, an interesting toy, etc.

Nursing at night - my DDs gradually wean themselves off the night nursing. DD1 was done at age 2. DD2 is getting there at age 2, some nights she sttn but others she wakes up once or twice to nurse. By the time they are 2, though, I'm putting them down for a nap and often to sleep at night without nursing, I try to skip the morning nursing session if I can - basically try to encourage her to do other things whenever possible, and cut it down gradually, go from 6 times a day to 4 times a day to twice a day to once in 24 hours, to once every couple of days and then they're done, there's no more milk. I let DD1 try nursing again once she was weaned. A week after she was weaned she asked again to nurse, I said sure, she sucked for a minute, there was no milk, and that was that. The next time she asked I reminded her there was no milk, don't think she asked again.

BTW this way of gradual weaning is most comfortable for moms too as you won't get engorged.

mommy3b2c

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 4:18 pm

I cant say I have great advice, but I do feel for you. When my son was 18 months, he would literally wake up 6-8 timrs a night to nurse. I was going crazy. I ended up just stpping cold turkey.

amother

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 4:26 pm

Let dc cry it out for 3 nights and he/she will get used to it.

I have a dd the same age who nursed pretty much full time until 3 weeks ago. I tried going cold turkey but it was too hard. Instead I started only doing the first nursing of the day and the last one and I tell dd that I can only nurse her when she's wearing pajamas. She still tries pulling off my shirt throughout the day but slowly she's doing it less. Today she was really funny. She took out her pjs bec she wanted me to nurse her LOL

But seriously about the nighttime you have to stop those feelings. Your kid will feel better when he/she is able to get a full nights sleep. I've bought about 5 different shape bottles and she only really likes one and she only tolerates a second one. The one she likes had a straw in the bottle. You have to find a shape that your kid will want to use.

amother

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 4:47 pm

I wish I could help. Trying to wean my 21 month old. I went away for a week without him and came back - guess what? He still wanted to nurse and is still going strong. We are down to 3 times a day - when he wakes up and before naps/bedtime. Going to try and cut down, but the problem is he won't fall asleep without it. We tried cio which worked at getting him to sleep through the night but NOT at falling asleep on his own. Crying

amother

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 5:41 pm

My son is 2 years old and I'm working on weaning him as well. When he wants to nurse, I offer him an ice cream sandwich which he loves and sometimes he will take that instead of nursing. I don't allow him to nurse during the night anymore. I just refuse and I tell him it's dark, the b**bs (whatever he calls them) are sleeping and he needs to go back to sleep. He is down to nursing about 2 times per day now.

smss

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 6:08 pm

amother wrote:

you use the word "boobs" with your 2 year old son?! shock

amother

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 6:28 pm

It's very hard to set limits at that age cause they are so insistent. I tried doing only before bedtime and early morning but it didn't work, he just insisted whenever he wanted and just wouldn't give up. So then I decided only full stop will work with this age so I told him I can't cause mommy has a boo boo. And I just did not let. The first night he cried a lot (me too! It was hard) but I let him stay next to me and we cuddled. The second night he didn't cry! He understood it was over cause I didn't budge. He was sad, and we cuddled but that's it! The next few days he spoke about it and we repeated that we can't cause of mommys boo boo, I kept offering him bottles and hugs and we slowly passed through the week BH.

amother

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 8:30 pm

smss wrote:

you use the word "boobs" with your 2 year old son?! shock

No way! I don't use the word boobs with my son. I wrote that so that readers would know what I'm talking about. If I wrote what my son calls it, nobody would know what I was saying :-D

doublemama

Thu, Mar 19 2015, 9:27 pm

amother wrote:

He made up his own word for it. I wouldn't want him walking around saying the word boob.

Well naturally I just wondered why the shock

face and all that. My kids made up their own word too that was coincidentally very close to the word boobs. But to each their own!

yitel

Fri, Mar 20 2015, 12:35 am

Upon the advice of my mother, who nursed "11" kids, I squeezed some lemon juice on my nipples and told him there is no more avail cause he ate it all up! I let him suckle and he absolutely hated the taste. After trying it 2-3 times, he just made peace with it!

tee312

Fri, Mar 20 2015, 12:05 pm

I just went through this when my son was 18 months hes now 20 months. I started by cutting out daytime feedings and giving him a sippy cup a lot more. Once he was only nursing at night I unfortunately just had to let him cry it out which lasted 3 nights but then it was over