Breastfeeding past 1 year

[Tiredmamahelp]

If you fed your child past 1 year, how long did you continue for, what was a typical day like and how did it end? Thanks x

I breast fed until about 16months. I introduced oat milk so he started to dual feed. I'd breastfeed once before his nap and once in the evening before bed. Then I just did evening and then stopped completely as I wanted to get pregnant and it was affecting ovulation. I'd have kept on going otherwise.

20 months and 22 months. I was working full time for the final year each time so was only really doing 3 feeds a day during that time.

But he still drinks his oat milk before his nap and bed. Or if he's teething and refusing to eat!

I breastfed until just after his 3rd birthday. From age 2 it was just when he woke in the morning, at bedtime and nap time. Although if he hurt himself he occasionally wanted a short feed for comfort. I told him one side had “all gone” for a week or so, then said the other side had “all gone” as well. He argued a little bit saying it hadn’t all gone but only for a couple of days and wasn’t upset about it. I think I was lucky.

Mine was 3 1/2. Can't really remember a lot as he's nearly 16 but feeds got fewer and fewer and really only when he was tired or poorly.

Still feeding at 26 months though usually just once at night and maybe once in the day. I tapered off gradually, never bothered about replacing it with anything although she does have the odd glass of cold milk now as she likes it.

Still feeding (a bit) at 2.9.

we might weaned at about 1, and for a while she fed mornings and when I was back from work. Now it’s just for comfort when she’s ill or unhappy.

She was hospitalised with a gastric bug a few months ago and refused all food and water for ages - but she did still feed (a lot!) which I was very greatfil for

Till they were both 2 ish.
By the end it was nap time and bed.

Easy enough to transition to hand holding to get them to sleep.

Thanks for the responses. Once they get older how do they ask to feed? At the moment my daughter does a tug at my top or I offer at sleep bed or times of upset.

3.4 years.

Stopped feeding outside the house around 15 months, other than after bumps and when she was 17 month and our 5 hour train journey was delayed by 5 hours (not sure what I would have done without my boobs that day).

Then 2.1 on the first day of lockdown I stopped feeding during the day time, as at home she was a nightmare for not leaving me alone if I sat down even for a moment, and I knew I'd crack up during lockdown if that carried on.

2.6 dropped to bedtime and first thing in the morning. I was totally done at this point, but DD had other ideas.

Then some time between then and 3.4 dropped the morning feed, and at 3.4 after several failed attempts managed to get her to swap feeding to sleep for a song and that was her done.

Still breastfeeding my 3 year old. Weird really as he has been down to two feeds a day, morning and night since he was 10 months or so but he really doesn't want to drop them entirely.

My DH puts him to bed every other night without breastfeeding (obvs) and has taken him away twice for long weekends which was fine as well but when he is with me, he still wants breast milk twice a day.

I don't know when to stop or how. It doesn't really bother me to continue so maybe I will wait and see.

I fed my daughter until she was just 4. Certainly didn't intend to do that (fed her siblings until they were 13months and 9 months) but she didn't want to stop and it was ok for me to continue.

She used to announce "boom!" and that was her way of asking for it.

Haha at 'boom'!

Stopped just before his 2nd birthday, it was the right time for both of us. By then he was feeding anything from twice a day to once every day and a half morning or night, never during the day. I just never offered and never refused.

Hahahaha at Boom!

Mine sings a song of his own invention "I want milk, I want milk, I want milky milk" followed by "please"

Went to about 22 months by which time it had reduced to mostly only bedtime feeds. As it was so routine milk was not being requested much. When he did ‘ask’ it was more a case of grab at my top. It started to feel a bit of an imposition and a habit rather than a closeness or necessary. So I started to say ‘none left’ or ‘all gone’ and he wasn’t bothered.

I fed mine beyond 4 (he called it 'mambo', for some reason - he made the word up out of the blue at 14 months). Until he was 3, he fed quite a lot during the day and a couple of times at night. At 3, I decided to stop feeding him outside the home, and it gradually fizzled out to just a tiny feed at bedtime, unless he was poorly or had hurt himself.

All 3 kids until around their 2nd birthdays... I mostly fed on demand right up to the end and then went cold turkey, which isn't recommended but it worked out well for us. Though with the first two I was pregnant so supply was dropping anyway... with the 3rd it was quite uncomfortable and I had to hand express a bit. They each had their own word for it and they would just ask!

I fed my oldest until 14 months, stopped quite abruptly because of allergies so just replaced feeds with a bottle one feed at a time with bedtime feed being the last one to change (nice thing about that was that I knew which feed was going to be the last ever feed so I could remember it properly)

My youngest I fed until just shy of 3. I had planned on carrying on until he self-weaned but about a few months before he turned 3 I developed a pretty strong aversion to breastfeeding (just started to absolutely dread and hate it, for no apparent reason) so worked on weaning him slowly by dropping feeds altogether without anything replacing them. I had already disconnected breastfeeding from bedtime long before which made it easier as there wasn't any sleep problems associated with weaning. At that point he'd usually breastfeed in the morning once we were downstairs while I drank a cup of tea, then would sometimes have a feed in the afternoon, especially if he had napped, and then he would breastfeed in the evening before we went upstairs to get ready for bed. I told him that he was getting to be a big boy and "booby" (what he called breastfeeding. Absolute cringe.) would have to stop soon, then eventually I told him "booby was broken" because I couldn't stand the thought of even one more breastfeed. He cried a couple of times asking after that but mostly accepted it. He still occasionally asks if booby is still broken now (he's nearly 5) so he hasn't forgotten yet!

I fed DS until 16 months. By that point, he was just having a very quick feed before bed.

I went back to work when he was 9 months, so he would have 2 bottles of expressed milk while at nursery & then just feed whenever when with me.

By 13 months, we were down to about 3 feeds from me in a 24 hr period as well as the bottles.

I made the decision to stop, partly because he was just biting and partly because he didn’t seem as fussed by it.

I breastfed my firstborn until 18 months. I then was pregnant again and I think my milk changed taste and I moved him onto cosy cow's milk at bed time.

Between one year and 18 months was really a morning feed, a feed when he came home from nursery and then a feed to sleep at night and a feed or two through the night. He was at nursery through the day so no opportunity to feed! I think that helped us gradually reduce.
Then I wanted to stop feeding in the morning so my husband got son ready and took him to nursery straight away so he couldn't get to me for a feed.
Then to reduce night feeds I gave him cosy Weetabix at night before bed.

We breastfed until just after age 3. We stopped because I was ready to end things. I started placing limits on frequency a few months ahead of that. When I was ready to stop completely, there were some small servings of chocolate milk involved in getting us through that first week.