Really need help weaning 11 month off boob!

[Ruby2029]

My baby is 10.5 months. He has always been combi fed - dad gives formula at night before bed, rest of the feeds have always been bf. He used to be hit and miss with that formula feed but recently has had it.

We co sleep so he also bfs a lot in the night, he won't settle without it even though that's not what he has before bed. It's got to the point where it's actually unbearable and last night he didn't even settle with my husband, just wanted to be latched on constantly!!!!

The last couple weeks I have tried weaning him and have changed his afternoon pre nap feed for a bottle..I'm not sure whether that's why he has become increasingly unsettled at night as he wants to get all the boob action.

I'm starting work soon and I really just want to be done with breastfeeding. I've had a nice journey but recently I have started to really get frustrated with it. I also don't have a period yet and we want to try for another baby from start of next year..

Please could you give me any tips how to stop quicker?

At the moment he has one bf at about 10 before nap and 2pm (which I have swapped for bottle but yday he had only like 1 ounce). Then before bed he has formula, only max 4ounces. Then at night he wakes umpteen times but only properly has milk couple of times.

Sorry for the long post!! Just desperate for some help now.

Bumping for you OP as I’m in the same position with DD who is 11.5 months. Hopefully someone will be along with some advice for us!

I found that they fed less and my periods returned after putting them in their own room.

If you want to stop feeding at night completely, I'd try some gentle night weaning

So this is about the age I weaned my eldest and like you I'd had a good journey but I was ready to stop, I was just done.

With any night feeds I set a time limit of five minutes and then just cut it down by I think 15 seconds each night and then just cuddled/patted back to sleep (he still had a dummy too) . I think there might be a proper name for it as a method but I don't remember, I was too sleep deprived 😂

Once it got down to 30 seconds he had mostly stopped looking for it and was happy with dummy and cuddles. He was in a cot right next to our bed and at about this point I switched side of the bed with DH so he couldn't smell the milk as much which helped I think, although I still got up to him a couple of times each night to settle him

The dummy was a lot harder to get rid of!! 😅

He still gets in bed most nights for cuddles at 4 🥰

DS just turned two when I started to try and wean him off, and I realised that the more I refused it, the more he wanted it. I was also pregnant when I started weaning but I developed serious aversion to breastfeeding as it became really painful and I really didn’t want to do it anymore.

He was finally 2y3m when he weaned off, but he was older so I could explain to him that he can’t have it as it’s sore and we need to save it for the baby, but what I did differently when finally successful was I would let him comfort with my boobs, so rest his head, hand down my top, etc, but he couldn’t drink. Breastfeeding very much becomes a comfort thing over time, so I kept the comfort element there.

The only issue is DS was older so I could talk to him, but not sure if that approach works with a 10/11 month old.