Gentle ways to stop breastfeeding and introduce routine in a 2 year old

[Ilovefruitytea]

I would like to hear your experiences and recommendations on gentle ways to stop breastfeeding my little girl, who is 2 years, 2 months.

I would like to stop breastfeeding over the next few months, most definitely by the time she is 3.

I am also currently co-sleeping and she also has a later bedtime than I would like. She goes to bed about 10-11pm, then wakes up several times a night, and likes to sleep in till about 9am. She tends to nap for 1-2 hours during the day, either in the buggy or the car or on me. She’s happy and active, and likes to be involved in activities and doesn’t like to go to sleep when there’s action going on elsewhere haha!

I am not a fan of CIO and prefer the more gentle approaches.

She will be starting nursery in two months for two days a week so I can gradually go back to work / study. That’s why I’d like to wean her and gradually transition to a 7-7 routine.

What are your experiences of this kind of thing? What approaches have worked? Do they just eventually wean themselves? Do they eventually leave the bed haha?

I would especially like to hear approaches that didn’t include controlled crying as I prefer gentle parenting approaches.

Thank you!

Following as I'm in a similar position.

No advice re breastfeeding or co-sleeping, but re routine I find the key is getting up at a set time each day (I do 6.30am in order to get daughter to sleep by 9pm 😭). If you want her to sleep longer at night you'll probably have to cap the nap or cut it out completely too.

I had great success starting with night weaning. I moved out of the shared bed for a week and my LO shared with dad and had cuddles from him when waking. The first night or two is tough but then they just accept it. They are not releasing much cortisol while crying if they are being cuddled. A gro clock helped (a visual aid to point at, strictly no boob until the sun shines again), along with offering water/cup of milk/banana for thsoe first few days on waking. Moving to own room a few months later was very easy after this.

I found day boob dropped right down after night weaning, and did 'don't offer don't refuse'. Now on 1 feed every couple of days at 2.5 y.o

Also sounds like you need ot shorten the nap to get an earlier bedtime. We now wake after 40 mins, easiest as thats when the sleep cycle ends.

In terms of bedtime, move both nap and bedtime back by 15minutes every 3 days.

How often are you breastfeeding? Is it through the night still? I did the by-the-book method - night weaned, then got him on set times for feeds so that I could drop them one by one.

Not many toddlers sleep 12 hours at night! 8pm until 6/7am is more realistic.
Mine only has 45 mins nap max and does 8-9pm bed until 7/8am. Definitely cut the nap down.
no advice on the breastfeeding as no idea how to make mine stop and she’s nearly 2, she’s getting slightly less interested though!

I stopped at 14 months and from what I remember I cut down to just feeding at bedtime and naptime from about 12 months as my ds still needed it to go to sleep but I was done. After cutting down so drastically my periods came back and my milk supply tapered off. Stopped completely at around 14 months when he could finally sleep without it.

Thank you everyone!

For those that cut out feeds, how gradually did you go? How did your little ones react? Did you develop mastitis?

Any tips on how to get children to sleep at night or fall asleep at night without BF?

thank you!

Night weaning is easier if you cosleep as you both actually sleep all night. When I did this with eldest and he started in his own room he still wanted to come in for years afterwards!

Second time I night weaned I just carried on cosleeping for a while till I fully weaned on 4th birthday (his decision). He was quite cross a few days later when reality set in but then all was fine. I would just lie next to him and he'd go to sleep.

In a few weeks he was happily going to sleep and sleeping on his own after stories and a cuddle, but he does find it easy to go to sleep. New mid sleeper helped which he loved as more room for toys beneath. School has sometimes upset the apple cart and now he sometimes listens to a cd.

In terms of resetting time she goes to bed I think I'd have to slowly wake her earlier and go be bed earlier. I think I'd do that before night weaning if I'm honest.

Google the Jay Gordon gentle weaning method. I used it with my DD's at about 22 months. Worked great both times.