Is there an age past which it gets harder to wean?

[lukewarmcupoftea]

Just idly wondering. I'm actually quite happy with BF at the moment, having hated the year of BF DD1 and most of my time BF DD2. DD2 is 9 months, and can take or leave the morning feed, but lunges across the room at me for the bedtime feed. I'm wondering whether to drop the morning feed and then, at some point, start the process of dropping the bedtime feed. Having read a few posts of extended BF struggling to stop, I'm just wondering if it gets harder as they get older? And if so, whether there is an age I should be thinking about stopping before, before it gets too difficult?

Well, it depends a lot on your own feelings, but also on the individual child IMO. Some kids will go through clingy phases and will seek the comfort of BFing at that time, but when those phases occur will vary with the individual.

I BFed DS pretty much on demand until he was well over 2y. He self-weaned - I don't even remember the last feed because he used to come into our bed at night and help himself. I only realised he'd stopped when I looked at my boobs one day and they'd turned into fried eggs! So it isn't always fraught, even if they're quite a bit older.

lol @ fried eggs i know that feeling!! ds self weaned at just b4 3

DD weaned (with a little conversational encouragement from me) just after her third birthday and DS is cutting right back at 19 months. Actually I found it quite easy because I could have a conversation with DD about it and she was old enough to understand reasoning.

I suppose that, given that she only feeds now at those specific times (just out of bed/just before bed), then that would make it much easier to drop at a later date. I hope.

Definitely I think if you are down to 2 feeds a day at specific times it should be easier to wean. DS is 17 months and feeds maybe 6 or 7 times a day, including bedtime and morning, not including night feeds (as not every night) - I suspect if I wanted to wean him I would have difficulty because he is so attached to it. Luckily I am quite happy with feeding this much so it is not a problem

I bf until DD was about 2.5yrs but by then I wanted to stop, I think she would have carried on. I gently discouraged by distracting her with something, but we were down to about 1 feed a day - at bedtime so it wasn't too much of a wrench. Curiously she's now 3 and still very occasionally asks to feed - I did once a couple of months ago, and she fed very briefly but seemed very content to have done so.
Wear high necked tops for a while! I think seeing my breasts is what reminds DD..

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