Cold turkey wean a two year old from breastfeeding?

[brightmonitorx2]

Is it cruel? Has anyone done this? I can't face it anymore it has me on me knees he feeds in the night so much and wakes.

Has anyone just stopped breastfeeding without doing the gradual stopping?

I didn't simply because I didn't want to risk mastitis, which I'd had before and wasn't willing to risk again.

There's a very similar thread going at the moment in the behaviour section if you want to have a look.

And if you're feeding a lot in the night, would some gentle night weaning be a useful start in the weaning process?

My MIL took mine for 5 days at 2.5 years. She had her overnight before, so wasn't a complete novelty (and she wanted to be like the big girls!) But we knew we had to break the association... she wanted feeding several times a night and I was too tired to resist after 5 years of pregnancy and/or breastfeeding constantly (elder DD was 4yo).

I got a grow clock with an owl on it for night feeds. If the owl was red then it meant no milk. It was 1-3 nights of crying but somehow easier as I could cuddle and blame the owl - we both had a good bitch about the bastard owl being such a tosser

Mine both just suddenly stopped themselves, one at 18 months and the other 3yrs 2 months. So I'm no use to you in terms of the cold turkey but just wanted to say you've done a fucking amazing job getting this far. If mine had been feeding overnight at that age I'd have cold turkeyed them for sure. I only carried on because it was a one-before-bed situation we had.

I think most things are harder in the short term, better in the long term to cold turkey. It will be a few difficult nights and you have my sympathy, but it's not cruel. It's the owl. Blame the owl love this!!

Roughly how many feeds in a 24 hour period are you doing?

I was feeding my 16 month old 1-2 times a day and completely stopped 8 days ago, she actually hasn't been as bad as I expected but I'm still having to distract her, especially in the mornings when she usually had a feed

Thanks so much for the replies.

I love the idea of blaming the owl! 🤣

I will check out the thread thanks.

He is just sort of feeding constantly on and off I can't even tell which are proper feeds.
So he'll have none in the day, but in the night he has one before bed (fine not a problem) but then wakes at about 10/11 and has another then I bring him into bed with us then it's loads or a lot from about 4 onwards until we get up. If that makes sense. God I'm so tired and it's not fair on my older DC as pp said.

My mother in law would probably take them for a few nights but he's never been away from me so I'd feel
Too bad

Yes I did. Basically I had to be away from her. Husband slept with her in her room for a few nights to give her hugs water etc. I stayed away. After a few nights she realised that I wasn't going to come feed her and she started sleeping. After a few nights she was sleeping through. She was 18 months when I weaned her. Both of us weren't sleeping more than 30-60 mins at a time. It had to be done for both of us.

Forgot to say, I went cold turkey. She soon forgot

Are you co-sleeping then @brightmonitorx2? Night feeds dramatically reduced for us ones they were in their own rooms so if you've not moved them out already, I'd give that a try

We did like PP said and DH slept in with DS for a few nights when DS was about 20
Months or so we night weaned

Prior to this I just talked loads about how we all go to sleep when it's dark, including milky going to sleep aswell at night time so then when he did wake in the night he had kind of some preparation that we could refer back to! We didn't go cold Turkey my ds is the strongest willed child, DH would just try to settle him if he woke and then I went in to feed if he really wouldn't settle for DH and I just kind of stretched out how long I left it before going in. DS never got massively upset it was more whinging and being annoyed that daddy was there rather than me so it didn't feel that bad and was so worth it

He sleeps through now unless he's unwell etc

He's 2 and I'm kind of done with the morning feed so managed to distract him from that one so now we're left with the nap and final feed to sleep- I've no idea how to get rid of those ?! I think I'm feeling quite ready to finish really but my DS does still love feeding to sleep! I can only manage to feed him when he's sleepy now as otherwise he just messes about so much on the boob and I just find I can't stand it. Sorry gone off on tangent abit there about myself! Hope it goes well - you've done so well to carry on so far

I was exactly the same. The 4-7am open bar was killing me.

We moved her into her own room. We had switched to cows milk during the day anyway as she was at nursery, so we (DH at first to break the link) offered that instead. She would still have a feed in the night but we very gradually watered down the milk until it wasn't work waking up for.

I’m another one who got a gro clock here too and blamed it all on the owl! My dd was 3.5 and I was feeling like you did on and off by 2 so was absolutely at the end of my tether by the end of it!

Hi OP.
I got to 26m with DS and I'd just had enough. DD self weaned at 19m.
I was feeding him to sleep at bedtime and then feeding back to sleep throughout the night too.

One night when he was getting ready for bed I tried to eke out not having milk - we listen to a lullaby CD so I kept saying One more song then you can have some milk.
After three nights of that he didn't even ask for milk anymore.
Then within about a week or two of saying, throughout the night, oh my milk is running out, no more milk now, sleepy time etc he didn't ask again.

At bedtime he has a cup of warm milk which we said was a very grown up thing to have, and in the night we have water available if he is actually thirsty.

Managed to break the entire habit in around two weeks I'd say.

Thanks for the replies.

@milkieway I feel exactly the same with the messing about when nursing. He tried to hold my other nipple and it's got to the point where it's making my whole body tense up. I remove his hand everytime but he does not get the message!
Like yours he's very strong willed.

I think as PP advised I might do a bit more prep with him. I have been saying today that we all go to sleep in the night when it's dark and that milkies go to sleep abs he did listen but who knows.!

I have tried to cut down/wean in the past and I think I just am not good at the gradual thing or sole thing, I always give up from exhaustion maybe. That's why I have resorted to just thinking maybe cold turkey at least in the night is harder in the shorter term but maybe easier in the long term.

I'm just lying in bed waiting for the first wake up, have a bottle of water ready 😬

Yes @Frlrlrubert 4-7 open be sums it up 🤣 and is absolutely the hardest bit for me.

Watering down the milk is genius!

Did she then go through a stage of early waking or was it pretty ok with mornings?

It's a bit foggy to be honest. I don't think so, or if she did she'd have some cows milk and go back to sleep (she's not a morning person).

Also, hand express if you need to, mornings in the shower worked for me, cos mastitis is no fun!