thread: Self-Weaning- What Age?

  1. #1
    Registered User

    Jun 2007
    Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne.
    5,673

    Self-Weaning- What Age?

    Hi ladies
    I have always planned to let ds2 self-wean, but i have to say he is showing no signs of slowing down on the booby. i read somewhere today that babies rarely self-wean under 2yo. Is this really the case? At what age can i expect ds2 to start thinking about weaning if i don't intervene at all? I would be interested in your experiences of letting little ones self-wean..
    Thank you

  2. #2
    Life Subscriber

    Jul 2006
    Brisbane
    6,683

    Ginger, I am sure I have read that the average age of self-weaning is somewhere around the age of 3. However, both my boys self-weaned before they were 2 - DS1 at 14 months and DS2 at 21 months, so I guess my kids aren't so average!!

    Even if your DS doesn't wean by 2, I am sure he will have cut down on the number of feeds.

  3. #3
    Registered User

    Mar 2009
    QLD
    115

    I think the average is four.,,

  4. #4
    Registered User

    May 2008
    where the V8's roar
    1,855

    DS is 2 and still feeding... he normally doesn't feed that often unless he is teething or sick.

    TBH I thought I would be ready to wean and while I would love the night feeds to stop I can't help but think the benefits of feeding are still good for him, for instance he currently has a cold that he passed onto me... I am sicker then he is if it is the feeding but DP doesn't seem to be saying anything like he was a month or so ago (I think he has accepted that I am not going to force the issue )

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Apr 2010
    1,118

    Was 14 months for my last. She was having lots of solids by then, and a sippy cup with water. Having a cup of water in bed with her at night actually saved our sanity - it was only when I stopped breastfeeding that she started sleeping through the night.

    I did the typical "I'm returning to work so can't possibly breastfeed" with my first so weaned her onto formula (I was also very underweight at this point and probably would have withered to a skeletal husk if I kept feeding her) but I think she came off bottles around the same age. She's a talker so boobs and bottles cramped her style. Much easier to talk between forkfulls.

    Both sprouted teeth within about 2 weeks of my stopping feeding them.