Support for stopping breastfeeding please!

[Fivebyfive2]

Hi all, can I get some advice / support please?

My ds is 11.5 months and for the last 2 weeks, breastfeeding has been killing me. He'll only feed properly from one side and has started biting and also clasping my nipple between his teeth as he comes off. I've tried not reacting, I've tried taking him off each time, nothing seems to work.

He eats 3 meals a day and a snack, usually has 'pudding' at teatime and drinks OK from a sippy cup; he likes water and I've recently tried him on small amounts of cows milk which he seems OK with.

We need to crack the bf to sleep thing (it's getting less and less effective anyway) which we're gonna try from tomorrow as dh has the coming week off work.

Once that is done (crosses fingers and prays!) would I be OK to fully wean him, or would it be too much too soon? I honestly feel like going cold turkey, I was in that much pain last night, but I know that's not fair to him and wouldn't be good for me really.

Any tips would be appreciated!

Turtle necks and get your dh to take over night routine.
I think they suggest stopping mid day feeds first. Just try cutting them down, you'll need to substitute with formula or expressed breast milk until 12 mths and then cows milk is fine.
If you look on the breastfeeding support la leche league or whatever it's called it'll probably hace some tips on dropping feeds.

www.llli.org/breastfeeding-info/weaning-how-to/

I did cold turkey at 9.5 months fairly recently. Caveat on this is that he had formula feeds at his grandparents etc. However, he hasnt been bothered by it once. It took around 2 weeks for my boobs to calm down but the whole process was pretty painless.

I'd drop a feed every few days to allow your body time to adjust - at that age, drop a day feed and replace with a snack and then drop other feeds and onto cows milk by 12 months. I think I read they need a pint a day at that age but milk in cereal, cheese and yoghurt etc counts as part of that too. Cows milk can mess with their systems a bit though so increase it gradually just in case! You'd probably find that the biting is a phase that would pass (I did with DD) and a change in position so she's more upright has really helped us. Until this I was counting down the days until 12 months but now I'm ok carrying on a bit longer as it's much more comfortable. Obviously it's fine to stop if you want to though and it's a huge achievement to get so far, well done!