20mo showing no sign of stopping but I'd like to cut down... advice?

[NumptyMum]

DS is 20mo, & loves his breastfeeding. About 6-8 weeks ago he was happily on 2 feeds a day, morning and evening, and even showed signs of the evening feed getting shorter.

But after a bad bout of sickness and diarrohea he's got very fussy about food again, and has started signing for milk more often. I'm reluctant to increase feeds, and would really like to cut down for 2 reasons - one is that in the next couple of months I've a couple of weekends working from Fri eve to Sunday afternoon. Secondly, I'm trying to conceive... I know that bf doesn't necessarily stop this, but having tried for over a year I'd rather not risk the possibility that it IS interfering, as I'm (ulp) going to be 40 next year so can't hang about.

So - does anyone have suggestions about how to drop feeds without DS screaming blue murder? I've tried distraction, but he's not easily distracted from his milk...

Hoping someone can either give me ideas or tell me how it went for them.

Thanks!

Hi,

this takes me back and I really feel for you. Not sure if you'll want to hear this but my daughter breast fed until she was three and a half! She also went through quite erratic phases where she would sometimes want to feed more than others and eventually she decided to stop.

I guess the best way to stop is to try and keep busy and when your son demands to be fed try and distract him with something else. Hopefully he will break the habit in this way. Maybe it's not quite the right time to start if he is just getting over an illness as he is probably looking for the comfort of a routine at the moment.

With regards to trying for another baby I was always led to believe that unless you were breastfeeding constantly, as you do with a newborn including night feeds, that it would not affect your fertility.

Have you tried contacting a breast feeding counsellor for their advice?

Good luck, I really do know how you feel and it does come to an end eventually.

I do enjoy bf him, it's nice to still have him cuddled up to me (morning and evening at least). I think if I'd conceived by now, I'd be happy to let him self-wean. KellyMom, which I've trusted for other advice, does say there bf can affect the success of implantation; I had an early mc just before Christmas, so perhaps it is a problem with implantation.

I tried to phone a bf counsellor before, but got put off by the answering system which was really more geared to people newly feeding, rather than the ones lingering on...

I just told ds that we were going down to one a day and stuck with it. He still pesters me during the day (he's now 28 months old) but I think that's mostly to wind me up.

I haven't a hope of cutting down the last one though, he'd really melt down if I tried that. I'm happy enough one once a day though, so that's OK.