DD, 12 months, is a boob addict. She's nursing about twice as much as I would like at this point. I have no desire to wean, I want her to self-wean, but I'd really like to encourage her to cut back. I still nurse on demand, and sometimes that's 10+ times a day, not counting the 4-6 times at night. She's currently trying to cut her top teeth, so I'll wait until they are through before trying to cut back. I want to let her nurse as much as she needs while teething, but even when she's not teething, she nurses a ton. And she eats plenty of solid food every day.
I think part of the problem stems from her having reflux when she was real little. I had to nurse her more frequently for shorter periods of time to keep her from spitting up excessively.
I'd greatly appreciate any advice on gently encouraging her to cut back without weaning.
*ETA: I worked on redirection today and offering water and food and it worked really well. She has nursed HALF of what she normally does in a day. I am SO happy!
So DH and I have decided to start night weaning tonight. What better day than Friday, right? I have read Dr. Gordon's plan, and it sounds great, but I'm a little unsure about where to start. For the first three nights, you're supposed to nurse baby when she wakes up, but not let her fall asleep and put her back down awake. We have her crib in our room and DH usually picks her up and I nurse her, then he takes her back to bed and she is almost always slightly awake when he puts her down. So...should I skip ahead to the next step? Or is she supposed be WIDE awake when she goes back to bed? If that's the case, I won't be able to nurse her anyway because she falls back to sleep within just a couple minutes of nursing....So I guess I answered my own question...But is it really okay to go from nursing every time she wakes up to not nursing at all for 7 hours??
After ds cuts his tooth I am thinking of having dh give a bottle of pumped milk or water at bed time and see how that works.
With my 3rd, I kinda felt like a moron when I realized why he still ate so little solids and nursed a ton when he was going on 2! It was because he'd just ask to nurse whenever he was hungry or thirsty. So once I started offering food & drink when he asked to nurse, he usually took that over nursing.
Quoting larissalarie:
I would try to offer her solids and/or a cup of water sometimes when she wants to nurse to see if she'll take that instead.
With my 3rd, I kinda felt like a moron when I realized why he still ate so little solids and nursed a ton when he was going on 2! It was because he'd just ask to nurse whenever he was hungry or thirsty. So once I started offering food & drink when he asked to nurse, he usually took that over nursing.
I was never good at night weaning. Not that I don't think it's a good idea, it is but I would try distraction.
I personally quit nursing my DS during the night when he was a similar age. So DH took over night duties and would give him a bottle of expressed BM when he needed to eat. (Neither of us would refuse food to a hungry baby!) Gradually night feedings ended--probably about 15 months.
Lice at school: Need natural tips
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- mjrex87
on Mar. 14, 2013 at 3:44 PM