How do you wean an older toddler?

[thecatwiththesilveryfur]

DD is 2.5 and still breastfeeds first thing in the morning and last thing at night. She's always been a shocking sleeper so I just went with it and assumed she'd lose interest, but she's... not. It feels like time to call it a day, but I don't know how to do it without traumatising her!

Any wise advice? (TIA!)

Other than have another baby maybe cut down on the time allowed to nurse or go cold turkey
it wont traumatise her she may get cross about it tho

Sorry a bit confused but that's probably due to me being tired rather than your post...

Anyway, is she just feeding first thing and before bed or is she feeding throughout the night too?

She won’t be traumatised!
I weaned my kids at this age. They’re old enough to talk it through and understand.
just tell her that the milk will soon stop. Reduce the time, until she’s having less than a minute. Then stop. Do you have a partner who can help with bed time? I think I stopped mornings first - just started getting up rather than feeding in bed. Then evenings - we had a good routine - story etc. we spent a bit more time on these and less on feeding.
my kids often asked for cuddle with the boob for a while after. I didn’t mind that.
Good luck & well done for feeding her this long!

Talk about it, especially not while actually feeding. Eg "tonight we'll just have a short feed and an extra story instead ok?"
Cut feeds short. Distract with other things.

I was so worried it would be difficult because my dc1 was a total bf monster but suddenly it was easy and there were no tears, I just talked about it and distracted and it was fine. Nature does its thing, 2.5y is a good time to stop imo

Definitely not having another baby 😂

@RappersNeedChapstick Sorry, I wasn't clear: she doesn't feed overnight anymore, just before she goes to bed and in the morning when she gets up.

I think you're all right: I'll just have to bite the bullet and go cold turkey. I've tried to talk to her about it before but she just starts crying and gets really upset. No idea how I will get her to go to bed without it!

Thank you all for the advice!

We got around it by DH taking them down for breakfast instead of me giving them the first BF. After a couple of weeks of doing that I went out for a few evening so BFing was no longer part of the bedtime routine. Both were absolutely fine with us doing this and just accepted the new routine.