weaning off bf

[BocaDeTrucha]

DS is 10 months old and is now eating 3 meals a day and enjoying his eating. However, I am still bfing, mainly in the afternoon, before bed and during the night. I am feeding him to sleep which I desperately want to get out of the habit of and I´m pretty sure his waking in the night is not from hunger, but habit/comfort. He tends to lie in the bed with me from about 5am and just wants to be on the boob all the time which gives me horrendous back ache.

Although l love bfing, I need to stop for health reasons (mine) and I generally feel he is continuing the bfing for comfort more than anything else.

Do I just stop suddenly, or do I generally cut it down slowly? How on earth am I going to get out of the habit of feeding to sleep if we stop the bfing?

Definitely wouldn't stop suddenly as you could risk blocked ducts/mastitis.

There are some good tips on weaning off feeding to sleep in Elizabeth Pantley's book The No Cry Sleep Solution - I read it too long ago to summarize properly but I think the basic gist involves popping them off the boob when they're nearly asleep and gradually getting them used to getting to sleep without a nipple in their mouth. You might find (unless you need to stop for other reasons) that you can keep up the day feeds once you're actually getting some proper sleep - that much broken sleep is brutal.

I would also point out that feeding a few times a day for a 10 month old is actually perfectly normal and is definitely fulfilling a nutritional need (and comfort, yes, but there's nothing wrong with that!), if you do stop completely you'll need to replace those day feeds with formula. Babies shouldn't be getting all their nutrition from solids before at least a year.

Thanks Leedy , I have that book but only just started so far. How much milk should he be taking each day if I go over to formula? He takes a bottle happily as we used to give one bottle a day before bed but changed back to bf a couple of months ago.

To be honest I don't know as DS1 weaned later so didn't have formula, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along later.

Good luck!

I just want to say, Boca, that I could be reading my own post! Exactly the same situation (including needing to stop for health reasons) - so after tips too! My LO is nearly 8 months, but otherwise we are in the same boat. Good luck too!