breastfeeding at 12 months - a bit of encouragement please!

[grainmum]

My DS will be one year old soon. He feeds about 3 times per day then overnight if his sleep is bad. He has a dairy allergy, and I'd quite like to carry on feeding him at least morning and night for as long as he wants to.

There are a couple of things that are annoying me. He now knows what he wants and how to get it, so he has a habit of putting his hand down my top and groping my nipples. Also, sometimes while latxhed on he is climbing all over me. Do you think this is a sign he doesn't really want to feed, or just the stage he's at? Thanks.

Have you taught him basic sign language? We taught dd the sign for "milk" and that stopped her tugging at my top, she'd just sign and I'd find somewhere comfy.

As he understands a bit more, you can try gentle coaching to say no milk if he climbs all over you - just gently take him off and explain stay still while you're nursing. It's the stage he's at, yes, he wouldn't nurse if he didn't want it. My dd had cut down to 2 feeds a day by 12mo but I know children who still fed 6x a day at 12mo.

Yep set some rules, if you mess about mummy puts you down on floor. Encourage him to sit still. I used baby sign too but had our own for my milk. Daughter fed until 16 months then lost interest. Good on you for keeping going.