Should I stop B/F after 9 months?

[Lou123]

DS now 9mo. Am toying with idea of giving up B/F (why do I feel SOO guilty?) but think will be making life difficult for myself as use boob as comfort tool, eg stick DS on boob in day if whingey and also in night to get back to sleep if he wakes and voila! it works every time. Am I spoiling him by feeding when not hungry? Don't want to stop B/F then milk supply dry up and regret it later. Perhaps should wait til he weans himself off? Don't know what to do for best. Would be very grateful for any comments/suggestions.

I don't think the word 'should' should appear in any decision making! If it works for you, keep it up. If you'd like a different way to make life easy, go for it!
You could try limiting bf to a wake-up and a good-nigt feed? And you may, in the future, want to work out an approach to encouraging him to get himself back to sleep in the night.
Personally, I don't believe it is 'spoiling'.

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What are your reasons for wanting to stop ? dd really reduced how much she fed at this age and self weaned at 13 months. I don't think it is a case of spoiling him but you might feel less pressure to comfort feed if he could settle himself back at night and was distracted during the day. That in turn might give you more space to enjoy the breast feeding. Whatever you decide you have done well to get so far.

You are definitely not spoiling him. YOu can't spoil a tiny baby with love and comfort. If you feel this guilty now I think giving up breastfeeding might only make you feel worse. You could cut down feeding now by getting into some kind of routine and distracting him more during the day to space out feeds. Of course you must make your own decision and feeding until 9months will mean you have given your ds a great start but I wondered why you wanted to give up now. If it's because you want your body back, you could restrict feeds, as Blu says, to morning and night. There's nothing wrong with comforting a baby though.

hi, just more of what everyone else has said, i B/F until 11 months slowy dropping one feed at a time, your DS will be getting to the stage where he will stop asking for feeds thats what my DD. when she missed a feed one day i didn't offer it the next. i felt guilty doing that but she was the one controlling the situation.

one thing i would say i if you do decide to stop don't do it overnight or express soem of the milk stopping one feed at a time!!!

I think you know in your heart what's right, and perhaps you should start to wean ds off gradually. You've done so well b/f for this long and given him a great start in life. I'm almost at end of b/f and dd only 4.5 months but i did not produce enough milk overall and she kept waking up in the night. It was heart wrenching, but was not working and at the end of the day, we all have to stop b/f one day. I think you have to take control a little as baby will prefer to be comforted by lovely warm cuddly b/f and prolonging this might make it more difficult to wean later. You have done so so well, don't feel guilty.

You are not spoiling him and believe me you will feel guilty no matter when you stop. If you want to give up then slowly wean him if not then carry on.

If you and he are happy breastfeeding still, then carry on, you are doing a great job to have fed him so long. Whether you give up at 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years, you will feel guilty

Hi Lou123,

Easy to say - but go with how you feel. If you feel fine about feeding & little one is happy then go with your instinct. It sounds like you have a good bf experience and your ds is getting so many benefits from this - don't feel preassured to stop. I fed my dds until they stopped - there was no guilt or regrets. Plus dds were happy. I'm feeding dd now on demand (nearly one yr) and I bf when she needs comfort as well. I feel that this is part of the role of bf as well as nutrition. I also find the convenience factor a big plus.

Hope you workout what you want to do
Best Wishes.

Girls, thanks for all your advice and comments; I really appreciate it.

Am ashamed to say that my reasons for thinking about giving up BF are purely selfish ones: I am desperate to lose this spare tyre than Mother Nature has so kindly bestowed on me (or perhaps it's got something to do with the amount of danish pastries consumed when I was preggers?) and I'm fed up of not being able to fit in to my pre-pregnancy clothes. The old excuse of "I'm fat because I've just had a baby" no longer washes now that DS is 9mo. On the positive side, I joined W.Watchers last night so am going to try and shift it that way, rather than throwing BF towel in (I am convinced that BF makes you hungry). I'm reluctant to stop because I enjoy it so much and it's worked so very well for us both. At the end of the day, it won't harm me to stay fat for a few months longer.