How to stop breastfeeding naturally

Question

Skipping a feeding every so often is not an option. He wants to nurse more during the night and if he is not latched on he screams and screams until I give it back to him. He is already 13 months old and I know the older they get, the harder it is for him to want to stop. I feel like I have given him a great start but I am ready to be done. We are not sleeping well at all. Does anyone know of anything natural? Like an herb ar anything? Thanks alot for your help!!

Answer 1

Breastfeeding at his age isn't bad or anything. My sister in law is breastfeeding her son who will be 2 at the end of this month. But breastfeeding is probably being hard on you. Try feeding him table foods more often and try nursing him less frequently. I know it took my niece till she was 14 months to even get off formula.

I hope this link helps.

http://www.parents.com/baby/breastfeedin...

Answer 2

hes still young. I dont believe the longer you wait the harder it is.  Thats true for most things, but not this.  My cousin started weaning herself around 14 months, she was only doing nighttime feedings, then after that, she slowly started falling asleep without them.  If you can i would hang in there alittle longer. Start introducing him to more and more (age appropriate) foods during the day and he wont be so hungry at night. Will he take a bottle? It sounds like getting him to sleep through the night is more of a problem.

Best of luck hon, and congrats on making it this far, alot of women give up after a couple months, if they even make it that far. I think if youve made it this far, why not go another month or two to see if he will self wean.  Remember the benifits of breast feeding dont stop just because hes a year old.

Answer 3

He is still young, but my DIL decided it was time to wean at 17 months. My son got involved. They did the morning and night but did away with the day time. When she would want to nurse, my son would pack her up and either take her for a ride in the car or stroller. They gave her a sippy cup, which she didn't like, but she did like the cups with straws. She wouldn't drink milk at all so they put just a tiny bit of chocolate in it and eventually did away with chocolate and she drinks milk like a pro. It only took her 5 days to be completely weaned.

Yopu don't skip a feeding,you substitute.

Answer 4

I'm not sure what you are asking.  An herb for him, or an herb for you?  Taking something to dry up your milk isn't going to solve the sleep issue.

Weaning naturally, would be to reduce breastfeeding as he's ready for you to.

That said, it sounds as though you have more of a sleep issue than a nursing issue going on.  Redirection sometimes helps - have someone else get up with him, or introduce some nighttime "friends" for him.  Nurse for shorter durations.  He may be getting hunger cues from the frequent night nursings and it might take some time to get him used to not expecting it anymore.  He might be teething and the nursing gives him relief. If he's napping poorly, he'll sleep poorly.  Make sure he's not overtired or hungry going to bed.  Or sometimes just giving in for a short time rather than fight it actually resolves the issue.

Good luck.