I had thrush when ds was 8weeks old and told dd 2.5 yrs it was too painful to feed. I'm not sure how you feel about deceiving your child, but could you start saying it hurts to feed her? I found dd had so much empathy and weaned in two days. I would let her latch and then cry out in pain (real pain) so she came off and then stopped asking. A few weeks later she asked how the boobies were going and wanted to try feeding again, but then changed her mind, and that was it.
Does your DD like reading? You could make a book with photos or pics of her as a baby feeding and then growing bigger and stronger with mummys milk, and then all the cool things she can now do as a big kid, and all the things she can eat and drink and ..... and then end it with her not feeding - with the explanation that works best for you.
I have an almost 3 year old who is down to one feed a day, but i'm not sure how to drop the last one. i am also feeding her 13 month old brother. I have started to talk about one day she won't have mummy milk anymore but she just laughs at me. I'm not really sure what explanation i want to go with, big girls don't need milk doesn't really work for me, but i'm not sure what to go with instead. it has to be something i believe, or i won't be able to pull it off.
shes very empathetic, and sometimes has trouble latching, and will try again to not hurt me.
We talk about her being too big to nurse, (shes off to kindy in a year and Id love for her to be weaned by 3.5) and she just said "I wont go to school. Ill stay home and have Bees (boobies)"
I staggered the weaning until down to just the bedtime feed (for the older one) and tried my best at distraction and being out of the house (a lot of time in the park!) for all the other feeds. I think I made a big fuss of the older child being 'a big girl' and it coincided with getting them into a big bed, wearing undies not nappies and going to kinder. I tried to boost their self esteem about being ready for the next (independent) phase for them.
I tandem fed twice and with child #1 it was 3 days of struggle and I offered many other things instead, yoghurt covered sultanas worked as her treat! Keeping really busy for a week helped too. Second time round, i thought my booby addict girl would be tricky to stop and she surprised me by stopping on the day i set (she was nearly 3yrs) as she really loved the idea of being a 'big girl'.
Maybe work with her empathy, and let her know how much you have loved feeding her but how it also uses up lots of energy and makes you tired making milk for 2 people. If you had more energy then you could do other things with her like x,y,z
My DD will now accept if i am too tired to breastfeed her. I have to introduce an idea, and then talk about it a few times before she understands, or accepts it...but i know that she is thinkig through the idea herself in between us talking about it cos she will bring up a new thought on in the next conversation.
we've been talking about her being a big girl, and not nursing anymore, and its worked against us. She doesnt want to be a big girl, and has stopped using the toilet, because she wants to stay a baby!
Sometimes "not nursing anymore" is too definite. Can you try for "E's turn is after dinner" or something similar - so she still has her special time, but is not feeding frequently and is not feeding when she would otherwise be at kindy.
Registered User
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks