I want to stop breastfeeding!

[Lulu2106]

Hi ladies, I really need some help! I have a 20 month old daughter who is currently breastfeeding at night only. I managed to get her off he day feeds about 7 months ago. But I'm really struggling to stop the nighttime ones! She eats really well and drinks plenty of water so the night feeds just seem to be habit. I've tried all sorts but she screams so hard and I also have a 3 year old son who shares a room with her so can't let it go on too long. I don't know what to do now!
Any advice??

Can your 3yr old ‘camp’ in the living room while you go cold turkey on the night feeds. If you stick to it, she might have 3 ish horrific nights, but you will get through. By cold turkey, I dont mean ignore her, but no BF no matter what.

I've heard about offering water in a cup instead. It's 'if you're thirsty have some water', if not 'back to sleep'.

I recently might weaned my daughter at 14 months, and the way I did it was by setting times that I wouldn't feed her, so started off I wouldn't feed her between 12am-4am, then It was 11pm-4am, then 11pm-5am, and then I stopped feeding her after 11pm and just got up in the morning and got her breakfast after 7. The evening ones I again just shortened the times so not after 10pm, etc, until it was just the bedtime feed left and then just 1 night didn't offer it. I find gradually reducing things with my DD works best! Good luck!

Thanks for getting back to me. I've heard it takes about 3 long hard nights and then it will be ok, but I haven't managed to make it through the first one yet! Seems like the best option though. I will give it a go with delaying the feeds first and see how that goes. Thank you again!

Its also better to do it sooner rather than later. The older they are the harder it gets. Good luck

I recently stopped breastfeeding my 20 month old son - he was on 1-2 feeds a day but also wanting to feed at night more and more.

What worked for us was that he was old enough to understand when I told him it was "broken", and/or "all gone". I offered a drink and cuddles and he's actually been fine. Still asks sometimes but doesn't get upset. He's now sleeping a bit better than he used to as well, don't know if this is just coincidence though.