Breastfed babies post 12 months - what's to expect?

[worrierandwine]

My Dd2 is 14 months and has never taken to either bottle or dummy but loves boob. I'm happy to continue BF but I just wondered if anyone had any advice or experience with

1. How to get them sleeping through the night but maintain BF
2. Is there a way to stop them grabbing at your boobs/ trying to pull your top down whenever they fancy a feed/ comfort.
3. Is there an ideal point to stop or (as I suspect) dependant on each baby?

Any advice would be appreciated.

1. I still had sone night waking but it did reducecwhen they went into their own room. Have you tried the No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers?. If you want to completely night wean, check out the MN archive. There are lots of old threads on night Weaning .

2 have a read of this on nursing manners.

3 My personal opinion is when one of you no longer wishes to continue. As I'm sure yiu know, it's recommended fir a minimum of 2 years.

1- DD didn't sleep through until I night weened, think it was around 20months, now she sleeps through fairly consistently.

2- Although DD was a milk fiend at home, as she got older she wasn't interested in nursing when we were out, she seemed to be more interested in watching/exploring the world beyond my boobs when we were out and about. I guess I'm saying distraction is what worked for us!

3- I night weened at about 20 months and fully weened at about 21months, it felt right and since then DD's eating and sleeping has improved massively.

Have you read this on Bfing a toddler too @worrierandwine?

Thanks popmusic and cobs 👍🏼 the links are really helpful and will have a proper read in a sec. I agree that when we're out she knows it's not as available as when we're at home. If I sit on the sofa (where we always nurse) and she's tired, hungry or teething she's straight on me trying to get to them. If we're out she knows they're not as readily available but has started putting her hand down my top, grabbing hold of my nipple and trying to pull it out. I don't think anyone notices or cares...apart from me. It's not a huge problem, I just don't want it to get worse and the older she gets the more able she will become.
I feed her more when it's my day off but when I'm at work she goes first thing in a morning until bedtime without a feed unless boobs are really full or she's being really fussy while dinner is in - she still eats well at dinner time though despite a feed just before.

All of mine fed until they were over 2yo.
With dd1 I had no problems with nights (slept through at 8 weeks) but the other two it just gradually decreased.
Around 14 months I started not really feeding much when out. I'd start by saying "not yet, wait a bit" and gradually increasing how long they waited unless I thought they were hungry. By 18 months they didn't feed when out unless they had had a bump or were ill or something.

By 18 months (unless ill) it was generally down to first thing in the morning (except dd2 who still doesn't like breakfast), before sleep and bedtime. So they didn't expect it other times.

For giving up entirely, by the time they were 2yo it was really just night time feed, so I started offering them feed or story. They start by always choosing feed, but then you have them beginning to choose story. Dd2 (who's still a bookworm) moved very quickly onto story, ds (who suffered from ear infections regularly and feeding helped relieve the pain) took much longer.

Thanks witchend , I want to continue until she's 2 ideally but don't want her to be the boss of my boobs. If we can reach an understanding that would be great 😄 I want to make sure she's knows it's available but not whenever she decides. Sounds a bit harsh but I think it's all part and parcel of them learning to wait and not having whatever they want when they want it. Obviously if she's poorly this will not apply so much.