HI everyone. I'm 6 weeks pregnant and still breastfeeding my 23 mth old ds. I want to wean him but it's difficult. He has extreme seperation anxiety and i think breastfeeding is part of that. He BFs alot and still through the night. Whenever he wakes up he has to feed or else he just screams and screams. I want to wean him but i don't know how, my other son was easy to wean and gave up when he was 16mths old. To be honest, it's not fun breastfeeding when i have morning sickness. Has anyone had experience with weaning a very clingy toddler??
It can be very difficult when, for us, "the time has come" but our child isn't ready yet. Also difficult when one child seems so different from another you have mothered. I have to say that I don't think that breastfeeding is "the cause" of his separation anxiety, but more likely something he uses to help him cope with his needs and the thought of separating from you. Do you find your sons have quite different personalities?
Stay calm, it's likely that he may wean anyway over the next few weeks, as your milk naturally diminishes. How many feeds is he having per day? distraction is the great friend of the weaning mother - have a box of "special things" - strawberries, yoghurt etc that when he starts to want a feed you can leap up (no fun when you are morning sick!) and say "how about a...." But a few gentle boudaries around how many sucks he can have (say 10 - I'm sure many children have learnt to count in the process of weaning) or how many times per day.
Some-times this is a battle we don't "win", but in learning to meet our child's needs, we learn something important about ourselves. It's very normal for a child to want to breastfeed at that age (also normal for you to be pregnant and a bit over it)
Hilary Flower's "Adventures in Tandem feeding" is a good read (should be available through Mothers Direct or your library)
Breastfeeding while pregnant
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