How do you do it???

[spilla]

My dd is now 9 months old and still prefers bf to solids. I have decided that I need to stop bf as I need some of my life back. She still wakes me in the night every 2 hours and will absolutely scream the place down unless I give in and feed her. Tried letting dh see to her but she gets so angry that I have to give in or she'd wake the whole house. Left her with my mum for 2 hours last week and she screamed that much that my mum was in tears by the time I returned. PLEASE HELP - I feel so down - I don't know what to do. How do you begin to wean her off the breast - will NOT take bottle or milk from a cup!!!!!!!!!!

could you reduce the amount of time she feeds?

I totally sympathise, my babies were and one still is, boob monsters! Myfirst one was just the same and my second baby who is suddenley 7 months is following that pattern too!

I vaguely remember not letting DS1 feed for as long as he had been, as through the night it was more a comfort suckle anyhow! It got less and less with me unlatching more and more and eventually he stopped feeding.

Somneone will prob. have a better suggestion, but this is what I did.

Good Luck!

In the night she feeds for about 5- 10 mins then falls asleep at the boob so I unlatch her and put her back to bed only to be woken 2 hours later for more.

definately a comfort thing then!

ds's are the same, I wake up with them rolled off, me and my boob still exposed and babytuks sometimes has a dribble of milk on his cheek!

Sorry nI can't offer more advice, all I can say if if its for ten mions cut down to nine, then eight etc.

Hopefully somebody else will come up with better advice soon!

I really think you need to bite the bullet amd reduce the night feeds. You can do it a couple of ways depending on your views on childrearing etc.

1 do controlled crying at night

2 More gently - decide that you will only feed her at say 3am or something like that and not before then. If she wakes before then, dh or someone else she loves and trusts has to go in and comfort her. This may take a while and will be hard on dh and probably you. After a couple of rough nights though if you stick to it you will probably find she does reduce her night feeds. I can't promise success but it is worth a try for a week to see how it goes.

Once she feeds less at night she is likely to take more solids and you will find that if you still want to wean her then it may be easier. Also start introducing a cup of water or milk at each meal time - It took my ds 2-3 months to get the hang of it but he did eventually.

Whichever way you do it there will be some crying though if someone (dh) is there I really don't think this is the same as her crying on her own.