If you are breastfeeding a 20 month old (or can remember a time when you were) how often does s/he feed?

[MaMight]

I don't know how helpful it is to compare, but I really wish ds would start to slow down on the bfing a bit. He wants to bf all the time. Two or three big feeds and 6+ small feeds a day would be typical. Last night he woke to feed 6 times. He has a cold at the moment so maybe it's that. He wants to bf every time I walk in the room, and every time he sits on my knee. If I am not very careful he would happily breastfeed and then not want to eat food (though he happily eats food when hungry, and a good range of things)

Am wondering if I should start to set boundaries? Am wondering how I would do this. He rages furiously if I say no.

Am wondering if he will start to slow down of his own accord?

Am wondering if anyone is in the same boat?

I fed dd for quite a long time too, but with her it was a quick bit of sustenance or comfort and then hop off my lap to continue her bid to take over the world . Ds though just lurrrrrrrves his milkies so much - he sings songs about milkies , and carefully decides which boob he wants (and then swaps "uvver one mum") and I wish he'd get a hobby or something!

People have started to comment (twice in the last couple of weeks) that ds is such a happy, cheerful, friendly, contented little boy when I am not there, but so whingy and clingy when I am there and I know a huge part of it is that as soon as he sees me he wants milkies and mythers and whinges until I give in.

How often do (or did) your 20 month old breastfeed?

Have fed two 20m olds. Both completely different. DS1 was down to bedtime only at this age. He'd weaned down gradually over time from on demand, to mainly waking and going to sleep times, then dropping waking feeds.... I weaned him completely at 22m.

DS2 was still feeding 20 or so times a day (and night!) at this age. Sounds very much like your DS. Definitely demand bfing, and he was v.demanding. He never really decreased the frequency of his feeding (if I was there, he was fine if I wasn't though), and I stopped feeding cold turkey at 34m. I stopped night feeding using controlled crying at about 24m, and it was fairly painless. So was the final weaning, and retrospectively I wish I'd stopped completely at a much earlier age, but I was scared to as I thought it would be so traumatic for all concerned. DS2 is still a much more content and easy child if I am not around. Add me into the equation and he whines, cries, tantrums....

Hi! I am back at work FT, dd is 25mths now, but I'm pretty sure if I'd been at home she'd probably have been doing that too. Her night feeds are almost non existant now thank goodness but tbh she did that herself. There's an extended bf support thread on here, worth a look!

Funnily enough, since I posted he seems to have calmed down a bit. In fact today he didn't ask for milk from about 11.00 right through until 6.30ish. Unheard of! Perhaps he's not been well, or was unsettled by Christmas or something?

Will see how we go.

My dd (20mo) has started behaving the same as MamaGoblin's LO in the last week or two. She has a feed before bed - sometimes 10 minutes total, sometimes c.4 minutes total and will then say "finished" and ask for her dummy, snuggle up (to my boobs) and go to sleep. Same as MG I'd feed and rock her to sleep every night scared to move until she was fast off until now.

She always feeds more when she's not feeling well, is teething or when there are lots of people around and she wants to claim me back.

OMG monkeysmama your last sentence has been boinging around my head all day. It has been like a lightbulb switching on. I can't believe I have never noticed how directly his asking for milk is affected by the number of people around.

Yesterday, just me and him and dd at home, he didn't ask all day.

Today, playing at a friend's - 3 other adults and 2 other children - me chatting to the other mums, I fed him twice in the 2 hours we were there, and fobbed him off with grapes and tangerines on 3 other occasions.

And for 2 weeks at Christmas we were surrounded by crouds of family we rarely see, so he was asking ALL THE TIME which was what prompted my exhausted OP.

Do you think it is a "claiming mummy back" thing? Or his way of touching base?

MM I am so pleased! I tend to try and think of external factors when dd's feeding pattern changes.

Dd does it for both reasons. I think it is more a "she is mine" when we are actually in the moment but she'll often feed for longer post moment like she's touching base again.

Good luck.