Weaning from breast and night weaning

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nicolemeiyee

New Member
My son just turned 1 recently.
I hope to return to work next year and want to wean my son off from breastfeeding ..
He is very dependent on my breast.. And sometimes he cries for no reason till I nurse him.. It's like my breast is the only thing that can comfort him..

Recently I started the amount of times I nurse him in the day... Which is working pretty smoothly as i gave him his favorite snack every time he feels like nursing ..

But I really don't know how to wean him at night! He is still waking up at night for milk! But he only suckle for 5 mins each time!

Anyone got the same problem? Any suggestions what I can do?
 
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Alisa

Active Member
i was still latching my son when i return to work on his 4th mth and this continues for another 2 mths. When i wean him off, i just give him bottle instead of my breast. When i latch on, he woke up every 3hrly during the night even after we give him bottle. Only when we started to train him by giving water then now, he either wake up around 1-2am then sleep thru to 5-6am or he will sleep thru and only wake up around 5-6 am. His sleeping time is 8.30pm the max, he cannot last till after that.
 
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lyra

Member
Same issues. Do u co-sleep? I do bed sharing with my son n night breastfeeding is so easy n painless. Even though I hope to wean him off night feeds, my hubby n I keep putting it off coz it's too much trouble to start on feeding water n hearing him cry. Although I do hear friends who say they supplement night feeds with warm water n is successful in weaning their babies off night feeds. I want to continue on the day feeds though, for as long as baby wants.
 
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Alisa

Active Member
i only co-sleep while i latch on but after that, he is sleeping on his cot. unless he is not feeling well and cranky then we will co-sleep again. i tell u, most of the time they are just so used to the timing to wake up for milk that they are actually not hungry! We tried that and his sleeping pattern changed but we still failed to last feed him b4 midnight cuz when we did, he get very cranky. so now we leave it to him, as long now he only wakes up once during the night, its a blessing to us le. Last night he wake up around 12+ and sleep thru till 6am. he is a early waker...
 
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nicolemeiyee

New Member
Hi! I sleep with my son .. It's so much easier to breastfeed him than to hear his cries at night .. We tried the cry it out method for a period of time. But it totally mess up his timings .. He begin to wake up every now and then without a pattern ... And then I decided to stop letting him cry at night .. Tried the water method .. It's either he refuse to take the water or he just drank a bit and start crying .. And then I will pat him back to sleep which he did but each time I put him back down .. He will wake up every now and then again ... And it's so tough for me because my husband doesn't help me with the night shift and I get So tired that I just latch him on again ... I'm sure he's not hungry because he only suckles for 5 mins and back to sleep ...
 
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lyra

Member
nicolemeiyee said:
Hi! I sleep with my son .. It's so much easier to breastfeed him than to hear his cries at night .. We tried the cry it out method for a period of time. But it totally mess up his timings .. He begin to wake up every now and then without a pattern ... And then I decided to stop letting him cry at night .. Tried the water method .. It's either he refuse to take the water or he just drank a bit and start crying .. And then I will pat him back to sleep which he did but each time I put him back down .. He will wake up every now and then again ... And it's so tough for me because my husband doesn't help me with the night shift and I get So tired that I just latch him on again ... I'm sure he's not hungry because he only suckles for 5 mins and back to sleep ...
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I understand what u mean bcoz the same happens for my son. Perhaps I'll have to wait for him to wean himself off milk. You don't have to worry abt day feeds when u r at work bcoz he can eat solids n drink supplements as he's one year old. I'm partially working so my baby is ok with no breastfeeding when I'm away, sometimes for 5-6 hr stretch. But at night, he cannot tahan. Must have milk.
 
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pmcheng

Member
I'm facing exactly the same issues and thoughts with all of u! (Phew! So I'm not the only one out there co-sleeping with a baby who wakes up several times for comfort suckling for not more than 5mins). Will they ever stop automatically? My colleague told me it'll be harder n harder to wean off as baby gets older. How?? My boy is coming to 10mths soon..
 
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lyra

Member
Not very sure, pmcheng but I'm sure as baby gets to toddlerhood, there'll be a point when they decide they don't want milk milk anymore or when u can actually reason with them abt having something else besides mommy's milk. I kind of enjoy co sleeping as I love the snuggling and cozy feeling like hugging a teddy bear to sleep.
Heres an article on a mom weaning off her toddler or rather, the toddler self weaned: http://kellymom.com/ages/weaning/considering-weaning/toddlers-do-wean/
 
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jammowifey

New Member
Hi nicole, just saw this thread after I posted a similar thread about weaning off my girl.
I'm in the exact same position as you, except my girl is turning 3 years old soon!!
I am still co sleeping with my girl and its so sweet to snuggle with her and fall asleep together after her night feed.
We enjoy a very close bond cos of the breastfeeding, but because of her age, I feel like she should stop.

I read the link given by lyra, about the girl who naturally weaned herself at 24 months, but my girl is many months past 24 too!
So I'm in a dilemma as to how to wean her off..
 
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nicolemeiyee

New Member
jammowifey said:
Hi nicole, just saw this thread after I posted a similar thread about weaning off my girl.
I'm in the exact same position as you, except my girl is turning 3 years old soon!!
I am still co sleeping with my girl and its so sweet to snuggle with her and fall asleep together after her night feed.
We enjoy a very close bond cos of the breastfeeding, but because of her age, I feel like she should stop.

I read the link given by lyra, about the girl who naturally weaned herself at 24 months, but my girl is many months past 24 too!
So I'm in a dilemma as to how to wean her off..
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Hi. Ok. I have been on my weaning mission since I open this thread. And boy were things hard in the beginning. Like I mentioned earlier... waking up at odd timings. Things did turn better each day. He seems to slowly understand that there is no milk milk at night and will fall asleep after I pat him. He is still waking up but I can really feel the changes each day. Hope everyone is doing well!
 
dinida

dinida

New Member
mommies, i have the same problem too! my son is turning 1 yr this month but he wake up so frequently to latch on! we tried feeding hime bottle as we thot he will feel fuller with FM. but he totally refuse it..he cry his lungs out until i latch him on, then he suckle for 5 mins then sleep!!
now in the morning i find myself tired and sleepy always. btw, my bm supply is now very low too :((
 
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pmcheng

Member
Really hope my baby will wean off the boobs on his own.. It's a bit of a love hate relationship with night latches now - it helps maintain my already-low supply, so that I can still provide some BM and supplement with FM (I aim to provide as long as there is still that little bit). But I also yearn to be sleeping the ought the night and not having baby squeeze with us on the bed.
 
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lyra

Member
nicolemeiyee said:
Hi. Ok. I have been on my weaning mission since I open this thread. And boy were things hard in the beginning. Like I mentioned earlier... waking up at odd timings. Things did turn better each day. He seems to slowly understand that there is no milk milk at night and will fall asleep after I pat him. He is still waking up but I can really feel the changes each day. Hope everyone is doing well!
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My baby is the kind who will scream his head off crying if he doesn't get his milk milk at night. I tried to pat pat him n not feed him but he cried n screamed and in the end, when I relented and bf him, he got his nose stuck with mucous from the crying and he cried even louder. I have to hold him to walk around and let him sleep. So I give up. Just bf him. Sigh!
 
ahjoyz

ahjoyz

New Member
Hi, my daughter is going to be 16 mths old soon and im thinking of weaning off her frm my breast but everytime unsuccessful. as a sahm, its very easy to feed her on demand except when we are out. during the day she is ok without my milk but once its pass 7pm she will get cranky and cannot tahan, must latch on.

tried giving her all brands of formula milk via bottle teat, spoon, syringe, straw, cup but she just keep rejecting. end up wasting almost 1 whole tin of fm!

tried mixing formula milk with cereal, end up she even reject cereal till now! she was initally fine with nestlé cereals alone.

she is ok with whole milk but only drinks a little then refuse to drink anymore for the day. the only liquid she can drink other than my milk is plain water.

should ii invest in the above bottle to replace my night feeds or when im not ard her?
do wish to hear frm any other kind/encouraging advice frm mommies. TIA!
 
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lyra

Member
ahjoyz said:
Hi, my daughter is going to be 16 mths old soon and im thinking of weaning off her frm my breast but everytime unsuccessful. as a stay at home mum, its very easy to feed her on demand except when we are out. during the day she is ok without my milk but once its pass 7pm she will get cranky and cannot tahan, must latch on.

tried giving her all brands of formula milk via bottle teat, spoon, syringe, straw, cup but she just keep rejecting. end up wasting almost 1 whole tin of fm!

tried mixing formula milk with cereal, end up she even reject cereal till now! she was initally fine with nestlé cereals alone.

she is ok with whole milk but only drinks a little then refuse to drink anymore for the day. the only liquid she can drink other than my milk is plain water.

should ii invest in the above bottle to replace my night feeds or when im not around her?
do wish to hear frm any other kind/encouraging advice frm mommies. TIA!
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hi mummy, I have successfully weaned my 20 month old off Breastmilk n night feeds. He's still in the process of getting used to it but its slowly getting better. My hubby sleeps in the same room with him now (diff beds) instead of me so that he won't smell the milk n got up crying for it.

as for formula, he rejected it too. I added a scoop of milo powder to the formula n tell him this is "milo" n not "milk". He takes to it n drinks a lot. He don't like to drink "milk" from bottles bcoz to him milk shd be from mummy's boobs. I reduce the milo amount gradually until its mostly formula n very small amount of milo.

Hope this helps :)
 
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