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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Unusual strategies to STOP breastfeeding

41 replies

tb73 · 06/02/2009 22:25

A friend who has been trying to wean her 18 month from the breast told me she has finally succeeded - by painting her nipples with varnish used to stop you from biting your nails (a natural varnish that doesn't contain anything harmful)!!! She said he hasn't tried to breastfeed for 2 days now.

My sister said that a friend of hers used a mild mustard with similar results.

What strategies have you used or heard of other's using? I'm picking the best one!

OP posts:

Lionstar · 06/02/2009 22:27

never imagined aversion therapy for getting them to give up the boob!

Feenie · 06/02/2009 22:33

That sounds really mean to me.

GreenMonkies · 06/02/2009 22:36

using bitter/nasty tasting stuff is quite a common way to wean babies/children.

GreenMonkies · 06/02/2009 22:36

(sounds mean to me too!)

mawbroon · 06/02/2009 22:42

I think it's mean too.

For many toddlers, breastfeeding is their world and they are not going to understand why it's now not the lovely thing that it once was.

Please don't do this to your dc.

LackaDAISYcal · 06/02/2009 22:46

that you would want to even consider it.

TheBurnsifiedEffect · 06/02/2009 23:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

bubbleymummy · 06/02/2009 23:08

I find that a bit horrific tbh! There are gentle ways to wean - why would you want to distress your child unnecessarily?!

Neney1 · 06/02/2009 23:19

Distraction and just saying no!!! My nips took enough of a beating for 14 months without painting something v nasty on them too!!

hellymelly · 06/02/2009 23:27

My friend used stop and grow too! But her ds was three and a half,she told him that at that age the milk suddenly starts to taste horrible,and he believed her and happily stopped!

callmeovercautious · 06/02/2009 23:47

I have no words

moondog · 06/02/2009 23:49

Fucking hell.

Nontoxic · 06/02/2009 23:57

I remember someone telling me 13 years ago when DS 1 was about 9 months that some 'tribeswomen' paint nasty stuff on their nipples - I was speechless.

Bu I'm rubbish at weaning; when DS2 was 2 and a half, he had a tummy bug, and, of course, wanted to bf loads more. I was able to use the excuse that ' milk makes you sick', and managed to wean him at that point.
Felt bad for taking advantage of his illness, though.

Original poster

tb73 · 06/02/2009 23:58

When said friend told me what she had done, I said 'oom, I'm putting that one on mumsnet tonight'!

TheBurnsifiedEffect - painting breasts black and saying they have died? I nearly choked on my tea when I read that!
Just saying no isn't hard? Perhaps but dealing with the aftermath is. Particularly as my DD considers herself at a serious risk of starvation unless she is nourished tri-hourly and I consider myself at serious risk of sleep deprivation unless I give in to her demands. She is persistent and insistant and has an astonishing ability to say 'mum, mimi, mum, mimi...' (mimi=breastmilk) over and over and over and over - (you get the picture?) until I can take it no more and give her the mimi. I may be weak or I may be the parent of a toddler in an adjoining bedroom with a paper-thin wall. I may be both.

OP posts:

Amapoleon · 07/02/2009 00:01

Will watch with interest ds is 2.3 and is showing no signs of giving up. Although I'm not desperate enough to put something horrible on my boobs. Dd self weaned at 17 months. I must admit the other day, I must have got deodorant on my boob and he told me it was disgusting.

Nontoxic · 07/02/2009 00:06

I just can't imagine a baby or toddler self- weaning. None of my three gave it up without a definite prod from me, or a long-drawn-out battle with tears on both sides.
Have heard it from enough people to believe it now - for a long time I just thought it was people glossing over the truth.

mawbroon · 07/02/2009 08:47

I would be inclined to think that if there is a huge fuss and upset that goes on for a while after weaning then there's a good chance that the child wasn't actually ready.

Or maybe I am just too lazy to deal with the aftermath of saying no, so have chosen to let ds self wean.

GreenMonkies · 07/02/2009 09:26

Nontoxic you weaned your DS when he was ill, as in, when he needed breastmilk more than ever?? I'm stunned!!

DD1 had chicken pox when she was three, she had the blisters inside her mouth and everything, she quite literally lived on breastmilk for those two or three days until she began to feel better.

Self weaning isn't just the easy option, it's the kindest and healthiest too. (they still need the immune support until thier own immune system is fully developed around the age of 5)

mileniwmffalcon · 07/02/2009 09:33

i bought a new sofa

well, not quite, but we did get a new one a week or so after i stopped our last bedtime feed (20mo). we'd always fed in a particular spot and she was still sometimes bringing me a pillow and asking for a feed at bedtime. as soon as there was a chair not a sofa where we used to sit and i sat in a different place in the room she never asked again

BabiesEverywhere · 07/02/2009 09:37

GreenMonkies, Do you have any interesting links on the immune levels in children ?

I am temporily engorged as we have been the house of lurgy recently, with both children being ill and hence nursing more than normal. I know they are getting better when I start to fill up with too much milk...ouch...I just need a couple of days for my supply to catch down.

OP, Surely there must be as easier way to wean your child than trying such an upsetting method. Imagine if someone took all the chocolate or wine in your house and made it taste horrible, until you decided to stop eating/drinking it

belgo · 07/02/2009 09:41

I wouldn't use the nipple varnish method, it sounds horrible. I want my children to have good memories of breastfeeding.

I would never stop when they were ill either, in fact with dd2 I stopped bfing when she had finally recovered from an illness and was showing an interest in other foods. She went to creche for a couple of days, and dh looked after her the rest of the time, so I barely saw her for two/three days, and after that, she had lost interest in bfing. I was very sad though to stop. I want to bf ds until he self weans.

chillybangbang · 07/02/2009 11:49

I had to wean my 3 year old very fast when I was ill and was losing weight at a colossal rate. I told him that my boobies weren't working very well and that there was no milk in them. I let him snuggle up against my chest and drink from a bottle. He'd stroke me and say - 'Are your boobies broken mummy'? And I'd say, 'yes, at the moment they're not working very well'. And he'd sit there and pat my chest.

Hate the thought of using bitter tastes to make a baby averse to breastfeeding.

dustbuster · 07/02/2009 11:55

Greenmonkies, think you are being horribly judgy of Nontoxic here. She fed her DS until 2.5 FFS! Through god knows how many childhood illnesses. As I'm sure you're aware, only a tiny percentage of children are bfed that long. Good for you for your committment to self-weaning, but there is no need to have a go at others.

ruty · 07/02/2009 12:07

we did something similar chilly. Ds was 3 and i was pregnant, and boobs very sore. We had a few very busy days out and he fell asleep without breastfeeding [we were down to just nightime feed] so the next day he asked for them i said 'I think I've run out, they thought you'd had enough' And he said 'We'll have to go to the shop to get new ones' and we laughed, and we had that joke for a bit and then it was forgotten. Wonderfully painless actually, but he was ready.

Gorionine · 07/02/2009 12:09

Belgo, I had to stop BF DD1 when she was 2 (medical reasons) "cold turkey". she is now 10, has 3 sibblings, one of them 26mts old and still BF. I was talking with her once ans said "I hope you are not too upset that I had to stop that for you in such a "traumatic" way?" Her answer was : "I do not even remember being Bfed so why would I be upset?" I think we do give them the best start by BF but it is whishfull thinking to think they will remember it!

DD4 still Bf and I would like to stop because she bites me a lot and I am definitely not enjoying it as much as her anymore. I have been told about method similar to OP's one(but with coffee granules or vinegar instead) I must admit I have been very tempted but still cant bring myself to do it, yet...

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