Qu for those who have / are bf a toddler

[UpSinceCrapOClock]

Ds will soon be 2 and is bfed. He will also take a bottle and sometimes has bottle of cow's milk and will also sip milk out of an ordinary cup. He's still waking several times at night for a feed and recently, say the past couple of weeks, has been feeding like a newborn (always asking for my milk, often refusing a bottle of milk and not really interested in food).

Dd was also bfed but started drinking cow's milk from a cup at around 1 year, was eventually down to just one bedtime feed and night feed and slowly dropped those at around 14 / 15 months (to the extent that it was a few days I realised that she'd had her last bfeed). It was nice, no tears or trauma (I took the don't offer / don't refuse path) and I naively assumed ds would go the same way

I have to admit, I'm starting to get a bit fed up of bfeeding though I think if it were just one or two feeds a day, fine, but it's the constant asking for it. When I'm not around, he eats and drinks no problem (he goes to nursery 2 1/2 days a week) but when I am around he just wants my milk and pushes everything else away.

I just wondered what other people's experience of bfeeding a 2 year old is (although as learnt from dd, I know all babies are different).

Is this likely to be a phase? Should I try and work out some sort of routine or weaning? Is it even possible to do this in a non-stressful way? I can say no and distract to a certain extent and sometimes this works - is it worth trying to continue with this, say during the day, and just keep the bedtime / nighttime feeds or is that confusing?

I'm at a bit of a loss (I think I've confused myself - happens easily ) but I do know that I can't keep feeding him as much I am for a long time into the future.

That was long - sorry

bumping for you

No you're definitely not alone with getting fed up with it. We have these phases too and have to be really quite firm during the night in order to bring it back under control to 1 or 2 feeds a night) when it gets ridiculous. It is murder though - we basically lose a night's sleep and keep comforting/explaining that it's sleepy time not feeding time over and over and over and over and over - but it doesn improve things.

I night weaned DS at around 19 months and it made a lot of difference to me. I basically just took him into bed (wore a bra so he couldn't get at me) and cuddled him and kept telling him, like sasa, that it was time for sleep and not milk. It took about 3 nights for him to stop crying about it and a while for him to stop asking (he still tries occasionally but takes no for an answer pretty easily). He was already down to 1 feed generally so we just went for cutting out the whole night at once, and it was hard for those few nights but much easier than I thought it would be.

It made the daytime feeds more bearable, and then when I got pregnant and feeding got uncomfortable I had the motivation to try to distract him instead of giving a feed. I always offered food and drink first, then would tell him when he could have some milk ("when we get home", "after we've done this puzzle" etc) and he'd often forget. I also limited the length of his feeds. It took a good while, but he rarely asks for milk in the day now (down to just morning and bedtime) and doesn't tantrum about being told no, so I guess we're both happy enough

Thanks for your replies!

I'm glad I'm not alone in the fed up feeling - generally I don't mind, i think it's more when we go through these phases of constant feeding and constant asking for it. It honestly does feel like having a newborn at times! (Although he does make me laugh when he makes a cosy seat on the sofa, comes and gets me, leads me by the hand and then tells me to sit down - yup, no ulterior motive there )

I guess the key is to focus on the night and try to keep those feeds down. Last night he woke 4 times for milk (and when choosing between a battle or a sitting down and feeding in the while half asleep, I always go for the easy option!) he has gone through periods where he's only woken once though, so maybe we should try to get back to that more.

I think I'll try your suggestions of explaining it's time for sleeping not time for milk. Sounds quite hard, but worth if it gets me more sleep (haven't had an unbroken night in almost 4 years, so feel like I've done my duties!)