How do I stop breast feeding?

[yumbsgt]

I have had a wonderful breast feeding experience with my 13 month old son but now I feel ready to stop. My main reasons for wanting to stop is that it has now become uncomfortable as he figits the whole time and pinches me throughout the feed. Sometimes he is clearly not feeding but just playing and messing about but then asks for more when I stop. He is usually fed to sleep and wakes up several times overnight for a feed. I love co-sleeping with him but even that has become difficult now as he is always grabbing me and trying to get milk. I know I could just say "no" but it feels so wrong - he has always been fed on demand and it seems unfair just to take it away when he is too young to understand. His appetite for solids is up and down, he doesn't really drink cows milk but loves water although he will not have water in the middle of the night. Any ideas?

[OneLittleToddleTerror]

It's my opinion only, but if you withdrawl bf at night, I would not replace it with water or bottles. Because then you are just switching one sleep prop with another. (Like switching from bf to sleep to rock to sleep). I used Dr Jay Gordon's method to night weaning my DD. I think she's about 15mo at the time. Basically I continue with cosleeping. When she woke, I gave her cuddles instead of bf. Once she's used to this, I moved her to the cot, continue with the same cuddle/hand on tummy or back to reassure her when she woke. In short, it's basically getting rid of night feeds, then cosleeping in two steps.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

How would you feel if the night feeds were reduced or stopped and his day feeds improved? Would you be willing to continue? Both of mine moved into their own rooms at about this age and both fed much less at night.

Have you read bfing your toddler on kellymom? The nursing manners bit might be worth reading [busmile]

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

And if you do want to stop completely, give one of the bfing helplines a call. A BFC should be able to talk you through stopping in a way that reduces your risk of mastitis [busmile]