Stopping breastfeeding

[summerinthecity22]

Hi - my DD is now turned. She is breastfed from birth and I'm hoping to stop soon but have no idea where to start or how!

She doesn't wake in the night for feeds and hasn't done since 16/18 months.

She has a breastfeed in the morning and before bedtime. If she is teething she will ask for boobie a lot more in the day.

I'm not sure how to stop. Do I just say no more and never give her any. I feel like I don't know where to start or what will happen to my boobs! It's been so long 2 years. I'm really proud of our breastfeeding journey together as it was so difficult in the early days.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry that should be turned 2 !

Wow what an achievement!

I bought a lovely book called Loving Comfort from Amazon, about a little boy’s breastfeeding journey and how he gradually stopped. I read it to my son quite frequently for several weeks and stopped feeding him somewhere around 16 months - I like that I can’t remember our last feed, it was just a natural end. My milk was dwindling though and he was beginning to lose interest already, and I was ready to stop. We still read the book now and he’s nearly two. I did struggle to read the ending without crying for quite a while though, damn hormones!

I'd love to hear suggestions for how to stop as well. I have a nearly 2.5yr old who is really resistant to my attempts to cut down feeding her. I've completely had enough but nearly every time I refuse a feed it ends in a tantrum or screaming, full on tears, red faced crying. I get asked to feed DD multiple times a day but especially early evening and early morning (4am to 8am) and I would really like to stop but it seems that DD is nowhere near ready to give up. My eldest stopped very easily just after turning 2 so I wasn't expecting there to still be such a strong need to continue in my youngest.

@Peelspeelspeels thank you. I feel like it's been one of the hardest things I've done but also one I'm most proud of. I'll have to look up that book and see what my DD makes of it 😊

@hemhem I feel your pain! Is she wanting lots of morning feeds every morning or is just when she's teething?

Hopefully some other mums who have been through this experience might see this post and help....

And then there's potty training to come!

It seems to be all the time, especially when she's tired but also if she's bored I think. Just had a screaming match for an hour this afternoon as I refused to feed her. Its emotionally draining

With my eldest we night weaned her at about 18 months by getting DH to do night wakes for about a week and she just accepted it and after that dropped to 1 feed a day on waking and then about 6 months later just stopped of her own accord. Unfortunately this child is a completely different personality, really demanding and very highly strung and she just won't accept my DH at all at night unless i am not in the house. So for the last 6 months I've done every single night wake and fed her every morning. I've had enough but she is so resistant to me saying no and gets so worked up about it!

Oh @hemhem I feel for you. Sending you

Does the tantrum go for the total hour or is it off and on mood? My DD sounds like your first born - easy going but just really likes boob...

I don't know wether to try just going cold turkey and not do any feeds from morning until bed.

Shall see

Thanks! Today was much better actually, although maybe because yesterday evening we had to endure 30mins straight of ear splitting screaming just before dinner when I refused to breastfeed (as dinner was on the table!) but DD2 was tired and hungry and just couldn't keep it together. Sometimes I manage to distract from an early evening feed by dancing, playing music or other games and sometimes I can get away with offering a snack or a drink but it doesn't always work. For the morning feed you could try getting up a few mins earlier than normal and making a warm cup of milk or something like hot chocolate and offer that instead of a feed? Or maybe try some distraction by offering a new toy or puzzle or book first thing and swiftly move to breakfast without feeding. I find there are certain places in the house that DD asociates with feeding, so you could also try rearranging furniture for a couple of weeks to break the link e.g. if you always sit in one certain chair to feed. There's no one answer, just try a few ideas for a week and see what works for you