Breastfeeding advice????

Question

Did you find it sad when you had to stop breastfeeding?

my daughter is 2 1/2 and iv decided enough is enough and i must stop,but i feel like crying every time, because she is my baby girl and it has created the most loving bond between us.

I looked at old recordings of her when she was very young and i miss that part of her life.

i know I'm clinging on but it breaks my heart,

how long did it take you to quit the breast feeding and how long before you got over it?

Answer 1

It sounds more like you feel you should stop. There's absolutely no reason why you can't just feed her once a day, at bedtime maybe.

Is breast milk all she's having or does she eat 3 meals a day as well?

Bear in mind the fact that you're not going to be able to feed her when she goes to a nursery or a preschool as well. Obviously you can express but it seems like it's the closeness you want to preserve as opposed to the fact you're still feeding her. The bond will still be there if you stop breastfeeding.

Because my daughter was in an incubator from 3 days to 7 days old, I couldn't breastfeed her, even though I'd started off doing so, and when she came out of hospital, she was on a combination of breast/bottle milk, so it wasn't so hard to give up for me.

Answer 2

you have to stop or you will have a teenager breastfeeding

Answer 3

BABY ask ur doctor... if u don't have one .. ask for a nurse...  

Answer 4

It's not actually true that you must stop. It sounds like you think you should, but don't feel ready. If you and your daughter really do want to continue, then do so. If you are getting tired of it, try cutting down a bit, or limiting to the morning, before bed, after her nap or something. Demand feeding is probably a bit tough at this age, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't feed her at all.

I don't really like breastfeeding much, and started to cut down once she was able to drink water from her cup. Now it looks like my body will wean her, since pregnancy hormones have cut my milk production to about one feed a day. I usually save that for after her nap when she's typically out of sorts. For all I know, she'll pick the habit back up when I have this baby, and I'm fine with that. Breastfeeding is our business and we have to negotiate a system that suits us both. It's no one else's business what we do, and I wouldn't listen to anyone else. I had always thought I'd want to give it up once she was old enough to ask in words, but I found a book in the library on parenting nursing toddlers (and older kids.) That changed my outlook quite a bit and made me be a bit more open minded about it.

There is nothing wrong with you not wanting to wean. Luckily, there is no law that says you have to :)

Answer 5

Hey, don't beat yourself up!! Youve achieved more than many selfish mom's have. I don't mean the mothers who couldn't breastfeed for various reasons, I mean the ones that didn't even try to give their babies the best start possible.

You have given your little girl the very best start, and given yourself protection from breast, and ovarian cancer, and also osteoperosis, and you should be patting yourself on the back for doing such a good job. She's a toddler now, and is probably a lot less bothered about the whole business than you are.

I fed my daughters till they were a year old, and capable of eating for themselves, and yes, I enjoyed the closeness, but I also had a sense of relief that they were no longer so dependant on me, and I could get on with being me.

Go out and buy yourself some new clothes, have your hair done, and start living your life again, safe in the knowlege that you are a good mum, and have given your little girl a great start. Have fun!!!

Answer 6

There are lots of women and children who wish to continue breastfeeding past 2 years of age. This is called extended breastfeeding and can be beneficial to both the child and mother in multiple ways, including physical and psychological health and development. Lots of women continue breastfeeding until the CHILD decides to wean. Even psychologists say that extended breastfeeding is emotionally healthy when both mother and child are mutually interested in continuing that bond.

Personally, I haven't had children or breastfed yet, but I do plan to continue breastfeeding until my future children decide to wean themselves.

It might not be right for you, but I'm putting the option out there since you seem like an interested candidate.