Weaning a 4 year old

[Jennifer13]

Hun, I am so hearing your frustration and thinking this will be me in a few months time! When people jokingly tell me I'll need to go to school to bf her, now I think they're probably right!

We are down to 2 bfs a day, but that's been for 2 years! And if she could have more, she would.

I went to an ABA meeting a few months ago with other mums who'd BTDT and they made me feel much better. I can go out in the evening and DP can put her to bed without a bf, so they suggested I do that more often. One Mum also went away for 3 weeks with her DH and the kids stayed with grandparents. Her 4 yr old DS had to wean while she was gone and had lost the correct suck in that time. Plus, her milk had all but disappeared. I'm keeping this in the back of my mind for a convenient excuse to take a holiday if I get desperate!

How many bfs is your DS having? You could try cutting back to just one (say the evening one) and miss that one here and there by being out. See how he goes and ramp it up from there.

can I just say I really hear you on this one and I don't want to provoke the tantrums that I know will come if I try to wean completely now!

[Astrid]

Oh wow! Congrats on getting that far with feeding. You might remember I had a tough time with my first, it involved a lot of tears in the end and offering a bottle of milk. As much as I did not want to go with the bottle, it seemed to help. So no real advice here, other than I know how it feels to be angry about them wanting to keep on feeding.

[Ozziehoffy]

Beck, firstly WOW! That's an effort for sure. You've done a great job. Lol @ the conversations, they are cute. I fed Oskar only til 19 months cos I was pg and it just hurt too much so I just said enough was enough and it was tough for us for about a month transitioning from one thing to another to get to sleep. We're now on a cup of milk and books before bed. He sometimes now asks for it!! He started asking about a month or so before Elijah was born - he'd say "Ogga want pa" which is what he calls boobies...lol. It's so hard to not give it to them when they ask but it's even harder in some respects to give it to them... does that make sense? I would definitely have a good chat with him and I like the suggestion of the "story" cos he could help write that. I hope that it's not too hard to do. I understand wanting your body and self back.

[Gigi]

i'm bf-ing at the 2yr 7month mark and have been wondering how i will deal with this too.

have you asked a lactation consultant about it? or a breastfeeding counsellor from ABA?

[~Saram~]

Well done on making it to 4yrs - that is fantastic!

I weaned DD at 2 1/2 much to her disgust. SHe still askes every couple of days for boobies and stickes her hand down my shirt all the time but it has been about 2 mths now since she had a feed I think???

I ended up telling her they were broken and offered her something else she likes to eat or drink. Yep I admit at times I offered jellybeans over booby. Early mornings is the worst so she often has some warm milk (we do soy as DS is on soy) in a cup

[Visitor8]

good job! I read somewhere of a mother who put bandaids on her nipples and told the child it was ouchies so no more.