How do I stop breastfeeding? I hate it

[MrNook]

My DD is 19 months and still breastfed, I absolutely hate it. I am so touched out I'm sick of her constantly feeding and touching me and pulling at my top, all day and all night. I just hate it. The whole time she's feeding I just want to get her off. I want my body back.

If I say no she screams and screams until she's nearly sick. She feeds almost hourly at night and if I try and rock her to sleep instead she totally loses it and she won't sleep until she's fed.

She doesn't eat much food at all, won't take expressed milk or any other milks no matter what bottle or cups I try so I've felt like I've had to keep feeding but I'm really resenting it now and I want to stop.

Please help me! How do I stop?

You just stop. The problem
is you do it so often you may get mastitis. So you should really reduce feeds then stop. Feeding on demand is for newborns. I would never feed an older baby constantly they really don’t need it! I fed all mine to 14months by then they had two feeds a day which I cut out with two weeks between. I avoided being seen naked during this time!! Made a new routine, up and cup of milk first thing no lying in bed with stories and breast milk. I’m not suprised your sick of it. My youngest is now 17 months and he gives the sweetest cuddles instead of mailing me for milk! I think you need to reduce feeds and possibly use some form of cry it out at night, your child would benefit from sleep more than milk at this point. It will be hard but it will be much better once your done!

Is horrible, but once you start, been firm is the kindest thing. If you give in after half an hour, then she will always cry for half an hour to see if you will give in again. Keep with it and it gets easier quite quickly.

Wish me luck, it's bedtime!

Usually I lie down and feed her to sleep, what should I do tonight? Stand up and rock her? Keep her led down and just cuddle her?

I sat in a chair with him facing away from me hugging and rocking him.

How did it go last night op? Ds is 7 months old and I want to stop bf at a year old so I'm interested what worked. As I to feed to sleep X

Any joy @MrNook ?

I co sleep so I let her read her books for a while and she stayed up and went to sleep about 2 hours late which isn't great but meant she was really tired and she just rolled around a lot, I stroked her tummy and she eventually fell asleep

That's great progress! Well done

Stay strong! I offered mine everything for a couple of weeks. We went to bed with milk, water and juice (😂 slightly embarrassed by the last one). He could have any of them but “no boob, boob is all gone”. We stopped feeding 9months ago and he still asks sometimes😅. Stay strong! You can do this!

telling the OP to let her cry it out is terrible, cruel advice. As you can see by the op’s recent update, she went to sleep fine without nursing whilst being comforted - which proves there is no need to ‘cry it out’ ie ignore them. You need to remember the OP has been the only source of milk her entire life aswell as feeding for comfort so to just ignore her cries is awful

well done OP, update sounds great. The late night won’t harm and much better than just leaving her.

If your infant is hungry, feed him or her what they enjoy. I treated my daughter in that manner.

I stopped when I went on holiday for a week. Perfect time, it was impossible otherwise. One of the reasons I think arsehole and roll my eyes when some daft bugger says it's more for the mother than the kid. 🙄

It's the only way I can think of. A few days away.

very very well planned out! at 6pm, you make a big song and dance about having to go out and you don't want to but you'll be back soon and daddy will give lots of hugs. And then go to the pub/restaurant/library somewhere and just stay there for 2 hours whilst dad tries to do the routine without you. Also, that whole day, dc must be doing normal but tiring activities. Not tiring to the point of tantrum-inducing. Tiring to the point of just general exhaustion. Also, lots of love and hugs and cuddles.

Also time out your milk.

I typically find the night milk the cosiest! and the hardest to give up. ONce the evening milk is giving up, though, that is when the child breaks the most of the comfort aspect of the milk

My dc2 is almost 3 and still tries to get some! I know she would gladly restart tomorrow given the chance (we stopped about 6 months ago.) to which my neighbour said, yes, girls take longer and hers stopped at 4 years old! (Her daugther is in her mid twenties now, btw.)

Breastfeeding is about both of you. It's a shared experience. It is okay to stop. I did know someone who did it cold turkey. Like over 2 or 3 days. I did mine gradually both times.

Hope it all works out for you.

All the best

When ds was a bit younger than yours
i felt exactly the same.

I told him the milk was asleep
as it was dark outside.

He was totally fine with it and I was …hmm
why didn’t I think of that before 🙈

Day times declined very quickly after by being out and about and offering alternatives at a key time and daddy distracting first thing in the morning, grandma doing a couple of bedtimes etc.

Does she go to nursery? My son stopped breastfeeding on his own not long after starting nursery at 12mo.

It's going really well, she's gone from hourly/every 1.5 hour wake ups for a feed to only two wake ups a night, it's been super easy surprisingly.

I think my milk had possibly dried up already as she wasn't having full nappies in the morning the week before I stopped and she's been so unbothered by us stopping which a few weeks ago would've caused hours of tears.

She is also oddly so much happier? I'm not sure if it's a coincidence but I've really noticed a difference in her in the day, she's much less angry and upset at everything, perhaps because she's sleeping better now?

Anyway thanks so much for all the advice on here, lots of cuddles and reading to sleep has been the answer as well as explaining boobies are all gone. I couldn't have asked for it to go any better!

That sounds great. I think sometimes it is just the right time and everything falls into place. Sleep is so important for them and us so getting more uninterrupted sleep is great.