How to stop breastfeeding three year old?

[ShazinTheCar]

Dd is three and breastfeeds during the night. She has always woken frequently and cosleeping and breastfeeding has been my coping method and probably saved my sanity! I need to start taking a medication which is not advisable with breastfeeding, so I need to stop and fairly quickly.

I managed to wean her easily enough during the day, mostly by distraction, but night time is the issue. I can see a night time of full on screaming and crying if I don't feed her. Any tips /advice/ideas on how to make it a bit easier would be very much appreciated!

Discuss it with her in the daytime, see what she suggests. Explain about the medication.

Thank you, I will try it. I hadn't even thought of that! I think she will understand but not sure how much so when it comes to bedtime! She literally just turned three this Monday, I probably should have said, as maybe with an older three year old it would be a bit easier to explain.

Do you have a partner or someone else that can help? Could you explain that mummy has to sleep somewhere else for a few nights, and the night time milk is all gone. Then she sleeps without you, still getting cuddles, but maybe if you aren't available it will help?
Can you let her choose a reward for managing all night/ a week without milk? Maybe a small treat for first morning, then something for a longer period?
If you can't leave bed for a few nights can you wear layers/ difficult to undo clothing?

Have you checked with the breastfeeding and medication help line that the med8cation can't be taken while breastfeeding a toddler or that there isn't an alternative medication that can be used.
If you are happy to wean now then dont worry but if you'd like to continue nursing it's worth checking as often doctors air on side of caution especially if child is older and say you need to wean but it isn't always the case.

I can try and find a link to this

Google breastfeeding and medication and its breast feeding network site and on their page about drugs and breastfeeding they have the phone line number and a link to the Facebook page and email contact

As for stopping nursing I would try an explanation about being ill and needing special medication. Last yr I was ill with shingles and told not to nurse. We stopped few about a week while the spots dried up (honestly I don't now know if I needed to and wish I'd checked). We introduced a hot chocolate before going up to bed, explained to her, gave her a dummy to suck (used very little but liked to know it was there) and I stayed with her a cuddled. There were tears but also I think she understood too but she was still sad. She was almost 3 yrs old at the time.

"Google breastfeeding and medication and its breast feeding network site and on their page about drugs and breastfeeding they have the phone line number and a link to the Facebook page and email contact"

Personally I would ask your local pharmacist their opinion before asking google... They will have access to medical breastfeeding texts and be able to give informed and educated advice...

Thank you for all the advice. I will try the breastfeeding network and speak to the pharmacist about the medication. It was solpadol and another tablet - maybe naproxen? Can't remember for sure and don't have the prescription on me. I'd like to try cutting it down at least I think even if I can continue. It's starting to become a bit of a chore.

I have a dp so could try just him and dd going to bed without me this weekend. I like the hot chocolate idea too. I will talk to her about it today and try and get her ready.

@bf1000 had your dd used a dummy before? We tried giving our dd a dummy when she was a baby but she would never take on. I had been thinking of trying again to help her through the night but worried it would be silly to introduce it at her age.

Tried as a baby but never took to it. My husband wasn't keen but I thought she gets a lot of comfort ft on nursing suckling so to suddenly take that away and not offer anything in place seamed too harsh to me. She does sleep at grandma's and can go a few days without nursing now but if she's unwell or worried she will nurse more.

Thank you for sharing your experience, I have the same worries regarding comfort and think a dummy would be a good compromise. She slept once at her grandmother's house and apparently was fine and didn't ask for me but I don't think she actually slept well despite what they said, as she was like the walking dead the next day. I'd never seen her so tired!

Maybe explain the situation and offer cuddles and a cup of cow's milk or juice at the time you'd normally feed her?