How to stop bf toddler to sleep

[Rosachoc12]

Hi, I’m a mother to a toddler aged two years and a couple of months. We co sleep and he breast feeds to sleep and sometimes during sleep. I’m looking to transition him into his own room and also to stop breast feeding to sleep and at night. Am I right in thinking it’s best to transition him into his own bed first and then look to stop breast feeding to sleep once he’s comfortable sleeping there? Also, how do I stop him breast feeding to sleep? He is capable of falling asleep in day by himself, most often either in car or pram. But at night he has such a strong association with breast feeding I’m not sure how I go about stopping that. All advice welcome and appreciated!!!!

No advice but watching with extreme interest as I am in the EXACT same position with my same-age DD...

I’m relieved to hear that I’m not alone Zig :)

I was in exact same position just 2 weeks ago. My DD is gonna be 2y next week and she was bf addict. Honestly I thought I will have to bf for next couple of years by the look of how things were going. She would bf to sleep and stayed latched onto me whole night and if I moved she would wake up and the only way to settle her back to sleep was to bf her again. It got to that point when I would be woken by her every hour in the night. She was doing it more for comfort than anything else so I decided I would only bf her to sleep and then put her to her bed. I forgot to say I was co sleeping with her too at that point every night. So we did everything same but as soon as she fell asleep and I managed to unlatch her from me I would put her to her bed. She woke up after an hour or so as usual but at that point I told her milk is finished for tonight. She screamed for milk but I didn't give in as many times before and I cuddled her until she stopped crying and fell asleep again. I just kept repeating to her milk is finished you can have cuddles with mummy. That night she woke up 5 times and I repeated same as above. Next night same happened but she woke up only 4 times and every time she cried less and less. By third night she stopped asking for milk. She still woke up a few times that night and cried but she no longer tried to grab my boobs as she used to before and she basically just went back to sleep. Now 2 weeks later she's sleeping through the night without bf and she's not asking about milk through the day either. The only time when she get her milky is bed time and that is it. Slowly and gently I will stop even this last feed. I am actually amazed how quickly she adapted to this as she was really crazy about her milk before. She's definitely happier now as she gets better sleep and her appetite is better too. Sorry long post but hope it helps a bit. Good luck, I know it's not easy but you will get there too! ;)

That’s so reassuring to hear @Forgetmenut! @Rosachoc12 I felt as though I could have written your post word for word, it’s really nice to know there are others going through this too