Help in reducing toddler's marathon milk sessions

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Hello,
I have a 27 month old toddler who still bfs regularly throughout the day. He has stepped this up during the summer as I am off in the achool holidays. The longest session is in the morning, he has moved into a bed now and gets himself up at some point in the early morning and comes through to me. I don't mind this, and I don't mind giving him a feed and then both of us drifting back to sleep. But he doesn't stop! he can seriously feed for an hour, drifting from one side to another and pulling me about in the bed to get himself "in position".

It hit me this morning that in a week's time I'm starting a new job, working full-time an needing to get up at about 6 every day for the commute. I can't lose an hours sleep each night to this, and I don't know how he'll take it if I have to leave with him unfed, if he doesn't wake till 6.

So, this morning I tried what I'm sure my HV (and mother etc) would tell me to do and after a long session I just lay on my front so he couldn't get to me. He cried. And cried and shouted (he doesn't speak much yet) and pulled my hair and cried some more. Ds1 woke up and came through to see what was wrong. Even DH woke up. The cries got worse and worse instead of easing off so of course I eventually stopped. He had about 10 seconds of bm, stopped crying straight away and then toddled off with his brother.

If you've managed to read this far, thank you! Anyone been through similar or with tips on how to cope/reduce this morning feeding?
I'm not trying to stop bf until he's ready, just need to bring it down to levels I can live with!

Tried speaking to dh about it which turned (from him) into a convo about getting him to give up altogether - not what I want really

I had some success with counting up or down to end feeds. Let him feed for a bit, then tell him we'll count then he's to stop.

It's now a game of whether he can pop off and beat mummy counting...

But has cut down on endless feeding. He also can be persuaded at bedtime to go from feeding to holding my hand sometimes.

My boy is 27 months old too. :)

Just counting to five or ten BTW.

When I wanted to stop night feeding whilst co sleeping I did the lay on my front technique. It wad hard at first but he got the message after a couple of times. I had my hair pulled, face pinched and ribs kicked in the meantime though. Just stand your ground.

We went cold turkey with the night nursing ( although I did offer a bottle of cows milk instead, which she liked!). It's much easier flinging a bottle in their direction. I could never really sleep when nursing after they were over 1yo. Add message | Report | Message poster RiverTam Tue 29-Jul-14 12:43:23
I would report her to the company she works for then. That is a very unprofessional post.

And I would unfriend her as she sounds awful.

Hi OP - Same here, DS is 20 months old and showing zero inclination to give up the boob. I'm TTC and my periods haven't yet returned, so looking for tips on how to stop/cut down significantly.

Have you tried a distraction approach? (Along side hide the boobs!) Some really motivating books for eg? Let him feed for a bit and then exclaim excitedly ooh look at the digger!!!!can recommend usborne lift the flap books as they've lots of detail (currently using this technique with ds, 20 mo, don't want to stop bf but the occasional ultra boob session at night or early morning is getting a bit heavy going! He likes 'things that go'!)

Hello, thanks for the replies sorry I hadn't realised I had any! He was as bad again in the early hours again, I can see myself having to sneak out in the morning in order to get dressed for work! Today he has added several "playful" bites to his routine
I like the distraction idea (not at night though!) and will give counting down a try, though he doesn't talk yet so not sure if he will cooperate!
It's amazing how angry he can get at being denied his "right" to milk!

Just bought a book called Nurses when the Sunshines from Amazon. My HV recommended it to me to help night wean my17m, who still feeds every 1.5hrs or more. Might be better for your ds as he is older than mine, but won't help with the marathon morning feed.

I like the countdown until feed finishes though and will be trying this with my ds, who like yours, likes to literally feed for hrs in the morning.

Oh, will look up that book, thank you! Have noticed that I'm too tired in the morning to focus on reducing his feeding, I try so hard to cling on to the last dregs of sleep!
Back to work this week so will see what that leads to (argh)