How old was your child when you started weaning?
3 years
How long did it take to completely wean?
1 day
Was weaning decided by you or child-led? Explain...
Child-led. Her reason for stopping, as she explained it, was that "I'm a big girl now. I'm 3. I don't need to nurse any more." She had prefaced this by patting me on the shoulder and saying "Mommy, I want to stop nursing."
Is this the first child you've weaned?
Yes
The Best and Worst Parts of Weaning from Breastfeeding
It wasn't one of those things you hear about with older children who gradually space out their nursing sessions, she just stopped from one day to the next, and told me herself that she was stopping, and why. I've been tandem nursing, though, so it's nice to just be nursing one.
Here's How We Did It
We have replaced the before-bed nursing session (which is the only one left for more than the past year) with a before-bed cuddle session. The whole thing was kind of weird, because I was afraid she didn't really want to give it up and was just doing it because we made such a big deal about what a big girl she is now that she is 3. But I cannot imagine that a 3-year-old could force herself to give up something she really wants when temptation is there all the time (Her sibling is nursing all the time, of course, so she sees it happening; in fact, at last night's cuddle session, I was cuddling her and nursing her sibling -- if it had been a week ago, I would have been nursing both of them). So, I think she is really done.
If you had asked me 1 week ago about her weaning, I would have jokingly said, "Looks like she'll be weaning when she goes off to college." If I suggested that she not nurse on any given night, she often just burst into tears. So, like I said, I was completely blindsided by this. The only explanation I can think of is that she really wanted the cuddles, not the nursing, but since she is really a creature of habit, she kept on nursing, then realized that she doesn't really need to any more.
Tips and Tricks
- Let your child decide when he or she is ready to stop
- Replace breastfeeding with cuddle time
