Stopping breastfeeding?

[JoInScotland]

My son will turn 1 in a few weeks' time, and he now has 3 tiny feeds a day.. just before his morning and afternoon naps, and just before bed. Each of these lasts 5-10 minutes.. usually like 5 minutes when he is really tired. I just wondered, when do you stop? How? Do you become engorged, even if you are not really producing much milk anymore? He will take a bottle at these times from my partner (instead of me) but doesn't like to take a bottle from me, he isn't stupid and would rather have the real thing.

I just wondered what people do in this situation as we are planning on trying for another child in the spring, and I would like to have him weaned before I have another or am heavily pregnant.. I had SPD pretty bad with him and expect it again, probably earlier in the next pregnancy so would like him to be fairly independent! (He is already walking if I hold the shoulders of his coat, but not completely on his own yet).

Hi JoInScotland. You may be producing more than you think, even if the feeds are 'short'.
If you want to stop try the route of 'don't offer, don't refuse' Do like it says on the tin.
You may get engorged, so don't stop completely overnight. Drop one feed at a time.
go easy on yourself. Well done you.

I stopped one feed at a time, when my dss were about 13 months. It didn't cause any problems with engorgement either time. I was 3 months pregnant when I stopped feeding ds1.

We gradually dropped feeds in the day and gave bottles if he wanted milk. Kept breast for final night feed for a week ish. Dh took over to help me.

I felt the need to express a little bit for a few days but other than that was fine.Thihnk because d2 had kind of self weaned anyway and was eating more and drinking lots of water, juice and cows milk by then.
Good luck.

Just want to agree with other posts - dropping one feed at a time has worked well for us. DS was on same feeds as yours when he turned one, dropped afternoon one first and replaced with cup of milk. Then about a month or so later dropped the morning feed, again replacing with a cup of milk. Took longer to drop night feed, mostly because of my attachment to it if I'm honest! Felt very emotional about it all, which took me by surprise as I was desperate to have my boobs back! DS now 15 months and we successfully dropped last feed just before Xmas. Again introduced cup of milk and found over just a few nights that he 'asked' for me less and less and now doesn't point to my boobs at all. Don't think I was producing much at the end because he seemed relieved to be given a cup of milk to drink! No engorgement problems at all thankfully, which I'm sure is down to cutting the feeds gradually.
Good luck and well done for getting to one year!
Xx

a bit of encouragement if you want to hang on to breastfeeding a bit longer: DD was BF till 2.5 years old. despite BF I got pregnant again. I tried to wean her off before but she was having none of it. in the end we just started slowly reducing the feeds after I was pregnant (I have 2 other close friend who also became pregnant without trouble while still BF. In the end we stopped when I was about 30 weeks. had an easy pregnancy and DC2 was born weighing 8lb9oz... I would not stress about it and just go with the flow. also, many children wean themselves once mum is pregnant again (pregnancy seems to change the taste of the mild).