How did you decide when to stop breastfeeding?

[coffeeandsleep]

I initially planned to stop when my 13 month went to nursery but then decided to keep doing the morning and evening feed. I’m not doing any pumping.

This is going well and now I’m wondering when I should stop…

Are there still health benefits to continued breastfeeding? I think WHO says it’s beneficial until 2 years old - is that mainly in cases where you don’t have access to good nutritional foods or are there good immunity benefits?

interested to hear others experiences in when they felt it was time to stop

My first I stopped at 23 months. I was down to one feed a day (to sleep), and I was 6 weeks pregnant with my second. What little milk there was left dried up, and it was like having my nipples rubbed with sandpaper when she suckled. Naturally an aversion resulted, so I stopped.

My second I stopped at about 18 months. He wouldn't stop biting me, and no amount of redirection, taking the boob away, sharp 'NO!'s or any other trick to encourage a baby to not bite was getting him to stop. I began to dread feeding him, so I knew it was time to stop.

Stopped DC1 at 14 months as I was pregnant again and wanted to be completely stopped so DC2 got the same experience as DC1. Then when DC2 got to 14 months I stopped again as it had worked well the first time.

Stopped at 14 months cos baby didn't want it anymore, she'd been refusing feeds/preferring solids but I was still feeding to sleep at bedtime, she was sleeping through. She gradually went from both sides, to one side and for shorter periods of time, she was still awake as well rather than feeding to sleep. She then started to take some encouragement to latch, was pushing away and wanting to suck her thumb instead, then was biting so after a few nights I stopped offering and she never went for it again! I can't have had much milk left as never felt any different/full

I breastfed my eldest until he was 3 and only stopped because he was starting playgroup and I thought it was a good time to draw a line. Well, if I'm honest, I was secretly worried he might say something in playgroup! And I'd had a fair bit of judgement for still breastfeeding, even when he was only one, so I suppose I was paranoid. I breastfed DS2 until he was about two and a half. He had started faffing about and biting, so I felt he wasn't getting anything out of it anymore. I think everyone's situation is different and it's just whatever works for you and your child. By about 2 both of mine were only feeding once a day, twice at most, and a bit more if they were ill. In fact it was a fantastic comfort for them when they were ill and really helped settle them.