Anyone still BF child age 2+?

[shalaa]

DD is 26mths and i'm still breastfeeding. She would happily be attached 24/7 if I let her, at the moment I try and just keep it to 3-4 feeds a day but she feeds every 3-4hrs through the night. I've tried refusing her a feed at night but she screams for ages waking herself and most of the house (and neighbours .

Should I just go cold turkey and refuse her a feed after she's gone to bed? I'm a bit of a pushover when it comes to DD and combined with the fact i've only averaged 5hrs broken sleep each night for 2 years I tend to just give in. How long would it take if I just stopped night feeding her?

Well DD is still waking in the night for a bf and when I refuse she screams and tantrums for up to 3hrs . I'm so tired I fell asleep at 2pm on the sofa while the kids watched a dvd. Can't think straight, just want more than 6hrs broken sleep a night!!

OP, you have done great going so long. I had phases like that too- my DS didnt start dropping 'in the night' feeds until he was 3+2.

When I felt he was less bothered about bf in general I started bf for shorter periods, then saying 'enough now' and cuddling him to sleep. I didnt go cold turkey refusal.

He only dropped middle of night feeds when I started saying 'No, no milk now, you can have water and a cuddle instead' and he accepted it pretty much without too many complaints. But at that point I could somehow tell that he would! Basically I didnt start stopping in the night until I knew he would accept it- it was v important to him for a long time.

HTH. And well done you. Make sure you are getting enough iron too!

Shalaa can't better excellent advice given here but if you have a really stubborn case (as I have) here's a ray of hope for you.

dd cannot sleep without bfing, never has been able to. At 26 months she was waking me up every 2-3 hours throughout the night (I kid you not). She is now 29 months and while she still feeds to sleep she quite often only wakes me once.

I tried night-weaning her and while I did manage to resign her to rocking and cuddling instead I got less sleep than before as it took so long for her to go to sleep, and sometimes she would end up in tears from trying and trying and not getting anywhere, so I soon went back to just feeding her again. It wasn't worth the loss of sleep and distress for both of us!

I thought I would go mad, but now as long as she is co-sleeping we both get enough sleep and for now we're happy. She gained the ability to go back to sleep after minor arousals off her own bat, just a bit later than usual, and I'm sure it will be the same with going to sleep on her own.

She is really obsessed with bfing though. I have cut her feeds down, but she doesn't seem to give up trying to get more...

anyway, hope it won't come to that for you and you can speed things up using the techniques other people have mentioned, but if it doesn't work...hang in there, it will get better at some point!

Hello everyone, how wonderful to find you all. Have just stumbled across this website whilst searching the net for something that may help me and my exhaustion!! I was beginning to think I was the only mum in the world still breastfeeding and getting quite depressed of late as being made to feel that this is abbnormal!

Reading the above has cheered me up no end.

I am mum to 3 boys, ages 15, 12 and youngest 31 months. Still feeding youngest going to bed and often overnight which is exhausting me now. I want to carry on giving his bedtime feed as long as he wants it but would love to sleep at night as running on a broken 4 hours sleep is now taking its toll.

Will try some of the advise offered by you all, thankyou so much and Shalaa I am with you on the grumpy DP front!! I will be doing most of it myself too I think. Keep in touch everyone please, I need you all! xx