Weaning

[legitsince86]

Ok, so I've decided I'm done. LO only nurses for a nap and bedtime.

LO only has one nap and it's about 50-70% success rate in nursing to sleep. She refuses to nap in the crib which is my fault. When DH is traveling, I want to nap so we bedshare. If she doesn't fall asleep, she doesn't nap or I try again in an hour.

She nurses to sleep for bedtime which has a 95% success rate. Although she'll open her eyes half the time when I set her in the crib. If she's awake when I set her down, she'll fuss when I leave but can settle herself to sleep.

Any advice or ideas?

[carli]

For me, the biggest thing that helped with weaning was changing our routine. More specifically, I avoided the usual nursing chair. I've always rocked and nursed DD in a rocking recliner in her room. To wean from the bedtime session I stopped sitting there in the evening for about a week. I would just stand and sway with her until she was relaxed and then put her in bed. It was amazingly easy for us. It probably doesn't go that smoothly normally. But I would at least start with that. if there's something that she associates with nursing, remove it from your routine.

I think maybe getting her to sleep in her crib along first, might make weaning more successful. But I don't know honestly. I know people wean and continue to bedshare so all I can say is good luck!

[lilqt3929]

I just recently went through this with DD, the only difference is we didn't bedshare. Every child is different so I dont know exactly what will work for your DD but I know for us the most important thing was to be consistent with a naptime and a night bedtime routine. It took a little while to figure out what worked best but once DD realized she didn't need to nurse to sleep, she was fine and actually would be reaching for her crib while I would be rocking her. I always read her a few books, put her in the crib awake with a book she can look at herself and shes usually asleep within 20 minutes. I am much happier now not having to nurse her to sleep everyday!

ETA: what carli said is a lot like what we initially did with the swaying. It went surprisingly well for us too, I attribute it to the fact that I believe DD was just ready for the transistion.

[redfraggle]

I used the Sleep Lady's suggestions from Good Night Sleep Tight. Basically, I moved nursing to mealtime instead of right before bed to break the nursing/sleeping association and let her self-soothe to sleep after putting her in her crib drowsy but awake. I recently revisited the book to help night wean and have been successful. I like how gentle her method is.

As far as weaning in general, I just stopped offering if DD didn't request a nurse. We're down to breakfast and supper nursing sessions with occasional mid-day nurses if necessary, like this past week when she's been sick. You may also find it helpful not to sit down wherever you typically nurse or even to be on-the-go a lot during the day to take LO's mind off BFing.

Best of luck! I think I'll push full weaning in March or April once we're through cold and flu season.

[Unknown]

You did fantastic, congratulations!

I don't have any advice, we weaned at a year and like redfraggle I stopped offering and she never requested it, so it was an easy transition.

Good Luck!

[smilingeyes]

Our biggest issue was nursing to sleep, I slowly reduced the amount of time I allowed her to nurse and eventually I would just rock her to sleep and she never rooted or "asked". She was weaned before one year. She was also on formula since 8mo.

[legitsince86]

Thanks everyone. I'll have to check out that book redfraggle

smilingeyes that's what I just started doing last night. Fingers crossed!

[salemkitty]

Good Luck!!

[nymama917]

Feb 10, 2015 9:33:58 GMT -5 Unknown said:

You did fantastic, congratulations!

I don't have any advice, we weaned at a year and like redfraggle I stopped offering and she never requested it, so it was an easy transition.

Good Luck!

This was us too. She actually started biting a little...not hard more playing and I would cut her off when she did that and she never really asked for it again.  She comfort nursed a lot at night and I broke that by allowing her to lay in our bed but then I had to break that later too so maybe that wasn't the best idea . I think a big part of our easy success was just that she was ready to stop.