How do you know when they're ready to wean off BF?

[MaMaPo]

I have a 13-month-old daughter who has been a delight to breastfeed (I count myself very lucky). She fed a huge amount (including to sleep and for most naps, and several times during the night) between the ages of 9-11 months as we were travelling and life was pretty hectic, but her feeding has naturally dropped away since we have become more settled. She quickly reduced to morning and evening BFs, with occasional nighttime feeds if she were teething, and now we're down to just bedtime feeds. She often feeds to sleep but can self-settle if not.

My question: how do you know if your baby has had enough and is ready to stop bfing? My baby has never been the kind to pull at my shirt or actively 'look' for milk, and I sometimes get the feeling that if I didn't offer a feed routinely at bedtime but treated it like nap time she would manage OK. But I have loved feeding her so much that I would hate to think I stopped when she was ready to continue. I will have to stop bfing for good in about 4 months as I will go away for a couple of weeks, and I'd prefer to end this part of babyhood in a relaxed way.

Any advice?

Bump - any experiences? Still wondering how your bf baby weaned themselves - gradual lack of interest, or outright refusal? Or something else?

Thanks.

Hi MaMaPo, I hope someone answers you as I would be interested too! Ds is 9months and on 3 day feeds and usually one at night but I have to offer milk in the day, he never asks for it. I dropped his mid morning feed around 8months when he was still accepting the offer of milk but seemed to be fairly uninterested and didn't have much. He wasn't bothered and just has a snack instead. So now I'm not sure whether to stop offering another feed, I want to follow his lead but it's tricky when he never requests milk himself. So sorry I can't help! I do have a friend who didn't enjoy bf and I think just gradually dropped feeds and gave her baby his last feed on his first birthday so it was very much her choosing the timing.

I think its up to you when you stop.
I did it gradually over a month or so dropping down to 1st morning 1 i think.
I wouldnt leave it to last minute as that combined with you going away could be distressing. Also could cause you problems with supply.
I think from another thread though it seems they dont often wean themselves if you keep offering.
If you are giving cows milk just gradually replace feeds.
It depends on the child how they react. Mine was fine. Never tried to get me to start again or ask for it

It was very obvious when my DD was ready for weaning. I would offer and she would refuse. Simple. Prior to that she had been down to just bedtime feeds really anyway, sometimes just every few days and had been reducing the length of those for quite a while. Just before she started refusing she would only nurse for maybe 10-20 seconds at a time. So txt was quite obvious it wasn't a nursing strike.

If you want to wean before then, offering extra drinks instead of breast feeds or 'don't offer, don't refuse' are very gentle ways of parent led weaning.

Just too add, you don't have to stop BF because you're going away if you don't want to either. Just make sure your DD is happy to be settled by someone else at bedtime and then she may or may not continue to nurse when you get back from being away. If feeds have really reduced by then you may not have to express for comfort. Roy at all while you're away either.