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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

"Extended" breastfeeders - when did you stop and why?

31 replies

beansprout · 15/07/2006 20:25

Am still feeding 20mo ds and have been asked AGAIN today when I am thinking of stopping. I don't have any plans but just wondered why other people had stopped? Did you just wait for ds/dd to want to stop or did you stop for some other reason?

OP posts:
misdee · 15/07/2006 20:26

havent stopped yet. dd3 is 17months. i will stop when she does.

lucy5 · 15/07/2006 20:27

I got to about 17 months and dd was on one morning feed a day. One morning we missed the feed I can't remember why and dd never looked for milk again. I was heartbroken.

WigWamBam · 15/07/2006 20:28

I fed for 2 years. I would have been perfectly happy to continue, but dd had other ideas and weaned herself off.

ja9 · 15/07/2006 20:28

i stopped at about 20mo. by then i was down to one feed a day (mornings), and i just felt that i was ready. think ds would have happily carried on for a while longer.

Hayls · 15/07/2006 20:29

I Stopped when dd was 18 mo. She had gradually cut down to one a day by that point and when we went on holiday she wasn't interested in the bedtime feed any more as there was so much else going on. I realised after she had missed a few feeds that I wasn't engorged or sore so she couldn't have been taking much milk anyway so decided to stop it then. She asked a coupl eof times after that but wasn't too bothered. If she was still keen I would have continued for as long as she wanted. Ignore the others- I still get comments now when I talk about it!

Yorkiegirl · 15/07/2006 20:30

Message withdrawn

pedilia · 15/07/2006 20:53

I stopped at 18 months, DS just lost interest

Pidge · 15/07/2006 20:58

I'm like misdee - hope to stop when dd does (she's also 17 months). I fed dd1 till she was 2, was down to a morning feed by then (she lost interest in the evenings around 20 months) and one day I offered milk and she preferred to play with her toys, the next day the same. I was pregnant with dd2 by then and I wonder if the milk was vanishing, or tasted different. I was pretty happy as it was all I could do no to throw up in the morning without having to feed her as well!

niceglasses · 15/07/2006 21:00

My dd was 2 last week and we have just stopped in the last couple of weeks, although she does still grab me! I think she would have gone on but was having just one feed a day and we seemed to be passing thrush btwn each other, otherwise I would maybe have gone on. I never told my mum I was still feeding her, I would have got lots of comments like you are hearing, so I just kept stum. If you are happy and your ds is happy, who cares??

whatamess · 15/07/2006 21:05

stopped at 21 months - lots of reasons.

  1. DD was very demanding and wanted to be on all the time

  2. she was very clingy with me and dh though it might make thins better

  3. I was going to be away a couple of months later and was doing a lot of training so I felt it would be sensible to finish before that

I have to say I can't believe how easy it was, dd was no problem at all so maybe the timing wasn't bad. Also because of all the training it was nice to get my body back in the sense that i'd been getting a lot of niggling injuries possibly because of the relaxin. BUT I was gutted to stop

Adorabelle · 15/07/2006 21:35

My dd turned 2 over 2 wks ago & we are still
very happy to be b.feeding

Didn't intend to feed her for this long, but she
gets alot from it as do I. Still feeding means can get her to sleep in minutes when she's overtired & also a God send when she's had a fall

Have always enjoyed feeding her & will stop when
dd decides she's ready, or when i'm not happy to
carry on anymore.

FrannyandZooey · 15/07/2006 21:43

I haven't stopped yet. 3.3 and counting. I would imagine now we have got this far I will just wait for him to grow out of it. With maybe a little push from me at the end

LadyTamba · 15/07/2006 21:48

I dont know if 14 months is considered extended?

But anyhow, I was already pregnant again and he decided to stop all on his own. I was gutted! I loved feeding him and it was a prefect way to get him to sleep. I think that maybe when you are pregnant the taste seems to change? Well i guess ds1 thought so...

Pollyanna · 15/07/2006 21:51

I just stopped with dd3, she is 18 months. She stopped of her own accord. I still feel guilty that I forced dd1 to stop when she was about the same, mostly due to my mother constantly going on about how weird it was. dd1 absolutely loved bfing.

Hattie05 · 15/07/2006 22:18

I weaned dd very gradually from about 18mths, finally stopping when she was two.

This was because her 'request' for feeds were becoming more and more and more frequent! and she could only fall asleep with a feed and fed frequently through the night. I felt i owed it to her to help her stop so she could at last learn to sleep all night.

Had things been different and if she weren't so attached, i'd have happily continued feeding her for longer.

NotQuiteCockney · 15/07/2006 22:23

I stopped feeding DS1 at 18 months, because another mum had said, "oh, if you feed until 2, they will want fed when you have another one". And somehow, the idea of tandem feeding was horrid to me, so I stopped at 18 months. We were only on one feed per day, anyway, and I just stopped taking him in my bed.

DS2 is nearly 22 months now, and is a bit of a boob monster. I don't think I'm in any rush to stop.

whatamess · 15/07/2006 22:26

hattie05 - makes it better to know it wasn't just me

maisiemog · 15/07/2006 23:21

I'm still feeding my twenty month old DS seven or eight times a day including night and morning, sometimes it's more if he's teething or upset. It is more frequent if he is teething and doesn't want to eat solid food, and more freqent again if we are at home and there is nothing else going on.
Reading some of the comments makes me feel so angry. It is so horrible that people act as if you are some kind of pervert or weirdo for breastfeeding. It's a sad state of affairs when you are doing the most natural thing and protecting your child's health.
I think it's all the fault of the multi-billion babyfood manufacturers, making a fortune from selling formula milk. It's just not in their interests for breastfeeding to be attractive or acceptable. But that's just me.
I plan to have a baby-led weaning. Just keep congratulating yourself that you have done your own thing and not followed the herd.

gothicmama · 15/07/2006 23:26

18mths because she was ready I wasn't to stop so harder for me

nearlythree · 15/07/2006 23:30

Stopped with dd2 at 22 mo as ds was well on the way and she was only really using bfeeding as a sleep aid. Also her hanging on to my nipple with her teeth when I tried to unlatch her may have had something to do with it! Poor ds has a tongue tie and for various reasons I haven't been able to see if I could sort out his latch so we have given up bf. As I won't be having any more I guess that's it for me and bf!

hunkermunker · 15/07/2006 23:37

DS1 self-weaned and has a thread from when he did

yajorome · 16/07/2006 00:22

Stopped around 2 years with my first two and around 18 months with my third. Had just had it with breastfeeding each time - no real other reason. None of them seemed to mind and it was easy to stop.

chubbleigh · 16/07/2006 00:41

I stopped at 17 months, had cut down to just night time feed and milk had all but gone. Ds wasn't too bothered and didn't ask, he had stopped taking it seriously anyway and spent the whole time thrashing about on my lap and grabbing for toys so just stopped. Was far more upset about it than him.

nikkie · 16/07/2006 00:45

Does 13 months count?DD1 stopped at 13 months(her choice) found out later I was preg with dd2
(think the milk changes?)

nikkie · 16/07/2006 00:47

Just noticed me on the other thread-must have been when I first joined!