I was wondering if anyones toddler "picked up" breastfeeding again after watching mummy and baby?
I have been hanging around a certain member a lot over the last few months and DD often sees her DD BF . A few times she has shown a bit of an interest and gone down as if to attach only to turn her head at the last minute OR she puts her mouth there but pulls off immediately.
I weaned her intentionally because I was no longer comfortable feeding her while I was pregnant.
So I was wondering if anyone else had experience with Toddlers suddenly wanting to feed again when a new baby comes.
** This is NOT a question of can I BF, or Can I re-establish BF with a Toddler , but more so did a toddler decide they wanted to BF again after weaning, when watching the new baby.
My DD wanted to 'feed' when DS1 was born. But she had no idea how to do it. I would let her try, have a snuggle, put her mouth on my nipple, like DS1 did. I even expressed a bit of milk for her to see if she would understand if she sucked yummy milk would come out, but she never really understood the concept and just licked it off. It had been about 8mths or so since she had bf, so she had totally forgotten what to do. But I let her have the comfort of it and never said no to her when she wanted to try.
DS1 started to breastfeed all his toys when DS2 was born. He had been weaned for exactly 40 weeks Then when DS2 was a little bigger, DS1 figured maybe it wasn't just a 'baby' thing and he asked a couple of times for 'a turn'. But as soon as he climbed on my lap he sort of decided that he didn't want to. He did this a number of times for about a month, then he moved on to other games.
I never said no, but to be honest i'd have been so bummed if he'd have wanted to bf all over again.
A counsellor in my ABA group FFd her first and then BFd her second child. The first one did join in for a while apparently.
My DD stopped BF at about 21 months when I was about 20 wks pregnant. After that she showed no interest in feeding (still liked to touch them) until after DS was born and occasionally when he is feeding she will say I am going to feed next, but all she ever does is give them a kiss - she likes the idea of copying him but isn't into actually feeding - like she likes copying all things he does (wants to go in his bouncer, in his cot, lays on his playmat etc). I never refuse her I just go with the flow (although she has only ever asked at home) - and is of interest for about 20 seconds.
Yep. All of mine have asked to start breastfeeding again, once the next baby has come along. My 2 year old at the moment is very curious and would love to try feeding again. When I express he wants to 'help' and he has tried to steal the EBM out of the fridge on a number of occaisions in the past 2 weeks. Since I don't want them to re-establish breastfeeding (one at a time is time consuming enough for me), I just tell them 'no, that milk is only for babies'.
yeah i reckon! DD1 who hadnt BF in almost 2 years bumped her knee or somethingorother just after DD2 was born and out of nowhere snuggled into my chest and put her hand down the top like she used to do back in the day when asking for a BF. i loved it and realised that it was more the comfort than the need to revive the act ITMS.
I weaned dd when ds was six weeks old due to severe thrush, and once I was feeling better dd did ask if she could have a try, but then decided not to at the last second. Even now I would let dd have a try but she toys with the idea and then decides it's for babies. I don't know of any toddlers who have seriously returned to the breast after weaning (oh maybe shanti's little girl) because they loose the ability to suck and then its sort of weird for them too to attach without actually drawing any milk itms?
I gave dd some ebm in a cup and she said it was yuck lol! All this within weeks of being weaned!
Dd has started putting her hand down my top again at times, but not searching for the nipple, just because 'it feels warm'.
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