re: Breastfeeding (the toddler years)

My toddler is 27 months and he is still bf usually 3 times a day in the morning, before nap, and before bed, I plan on letting him self winnee, I am pregnant with baby 2 now only 5 weeks along.

Quoting ElisaC:" My toddler is 27 months and he is still bf usually 3 times a day in the morning, before nap, and before bed, I plan on letting him self winnee, I am pregnant with baby 2 now only 5 weeks along."

Welcome & hello! I am nursing my almost 3 yr old currently & nursed my older one through my pregnancy (my 1st was almost 3 at the time of delivery) and he continued sporadically until about 3 1/2 yrs old before weaning on his own. Nursing while pregnant can have many challenges & some have more troubles than others. Feel free to post questions or concerns & get support. We have lots of mommas who have nursed while pregnant. Also - if you haven't yet, you should try to get hold of a copy of Adventures in Tandem Nursing. I thought it was so helpful.

Lovely to see so many toddlers nursing  

<blockquote><b>Quoting ElisaC:</b>" My toddler is 27 months and he is still bf usually 3 times a day in the morning, before nap, and before bed, I plan on letting him self winnee, I am pregnant with baby 2 now only 5 weeks along."</blockquote>




Welcome   I am currently nursing my 16 month old & an 14 weeks pregnanyt!

<blockquote><b>Quoting ElisaC:</b>" My toddler is 27 months and he is still bf usually 3 times a day in the morning, before nap, and before bed, I plan on letting him self winnee, I am pregnant with baby 2 now only 5 weeks along."</blockquote>




Welcome and congrats! My nurser just turned two on the 4th and I am currently 25 weeks pregnant with her little brother.

Quoting Mama*AtoZ:" Lovely to see so many toddlers nursing  "

It is lovely. It's good to have the support too!  

Quoting Mama*AtoZ:" I mean that age might've been the same age it happens with training (for lack of a better word, in ... [snip!] ... you don't need to do anything and it happens in the same time frame, for all sorts of things. That was much simpler eh lol"

oh ok. yes, I see what you mean.

I wasn't sure if I would post this at first, but I decided to go ahead since it's nice to get some other perspective (besides DH) as well. My older son will be 3 on Feb 23rd. For a couple reasons, many months ago, I promised DH that I would wean him by his 3rd birthday.

I am also nursing my younger son who is 8.5 months old. The older one still nurses quite a bit, but I decided to go ahead and "give it a try" and see how he does with an attempt at weaning. (I was originally going to let him self-wean whenever he decided to .. or whenever I felt I'd "had enough" .. whichever came first.) If I'm perfectly honest, I AM at that point, where I am ready for him to be weaned too.

So I have started telling him that he will be 3 soon and when he has his "happy birthday" (he always likes to call it "happy birthday" and not just "birthday"), then the "Finn milky goes bye bye" and there will just be "baby milky for Leo" (the younger one, of course).

We talk about this every day and so far, he seems to understand it and he'll repeat it to me. He's also very excited about his birthday as this is the first year he can really understand a little more what a birthday is and this is the first year we are doing a "real" party as well.

My idea is to continue to talk about it and then "test" it out for the week following his party and see how he takes it. If he's really not ready and doesn't adjust well, then I will continue nursing. If he goes for it, then great!

In the meantime, he seems to be doubling his normal nursing time like he's trying to get all the "milky time" in that he can before it's gone. lol

So anyway, that's where I'm at right now. I'll keep you guys posted and see how it goes. If we DO keep nursing, I will definitely need support as DH has been anti-nursing since his 2nd birthday and I've really had to fight to get him off my back (and stop saying things to Finn) for this last year.

Quoting dream:" I wasn't sure if I would post this at first, but I decided to go ahead since it's nice to get some other ... [snip!] ... since his 2nd birthday and I've really had to fight to get him off my back (and stop saying things to Finn) for this last year."

I am sorry you have gotten pressure to wean from Dh. It is hard enough without outside pressures, but harder when that pressure is also there at home. Perhaps Dh was no tso worried (mine I mean) about it since he'd heard lots of funny stories about my great gramma trying to wean my grandfather by doing things like putting honey & chicken feathers all over her breasts at night to prevent him from sneaking in & having a midnight snack...at age SIX. LOL And he knows my grampa was independent, built a few homes for gramma over the years, fought in WWII, etc, etc & it never did him a bit of harm...so it helps for him to see that & know it won't mean our kids will be babies forever & unable to cope without the boobies.

Anyway - at this age my older one nursed all.the.time. I was just getting ready to have #2 & was starting to question my whole theory on "give him as much as he wants since soon enough he'll have to stand in line". I fully anticipated that i may have to set up rules & guidelines & all of that & as soon as the baby came he all but weaned. RIGHT before that he was asking to nursed about 15 times a day & I was saying yes whenever I could, so it was averaging about 10 times a day or so. My younger one is the same age as Finn, as you know, and he is right now nursing all the time too where he had been getting down to 1-2 times some days. I had half started to believe he might be weaning. It is hard to say. The only thing you can do is see how it goes. He might do just fine with it. I am sure the two of you will work through this in the way that works best for your situation. My only concern would be if it is flu season there. I am thinking that is passed for you? Not sure how that works...but here it is in full swing & so I would tend to finish out the season with the most illness & then wean...but that is me. SO if I were contemplating weaning LO right now, I'd wait until we hit warm weather & then do it...but I think that IS where you are now.

Quoting justanothamotha:" I am sorry you have gotten pressure to wean from Dh. It is hard enough without outside pressures, but ... [snip!] ... weaning LO right now, I'd wait until we hit warm weather & then do it...but I think that IS where you are now."

well both boys are currently recovering from a cough, which we think is like a 6-week virus (it was on that news at my aunt's house, where we stayed for 2.5 months). My main reason (besides that I am fine with him weaning), is that I did promise DH I'd do it by his 3rd birthday and this also gives Finn a set time in the future that he understands as well. This way I can say "well, i tried and he wasn't ready yet".

We actually tried this once before. When the baby was six weeks old, I got super sick and had to be hospitalized for a few days. We took Leo with me and he was cared for in a nurses station and they would bring him to me for feedings. I lost a bunch of weight because I was unable to keep ANYTHING down, even water and Finn didn't nurse at during that time because I needed to save every drop for the baby.

Amazingly, I didn't lose my supply and Leo didn't have to be supplemented either. He didn't gain weight during that time (2 weeks), but he didn't lose weight either. But anyway .. what I was getting at, was that Finn didn't nurse at all for 2 weeks, so we thought we'd just keep it going and wean him, but as I got better and wasn't confined to bed 24/7, he became a terror to try and get to take his nap (whereas when I am not in the house, he will go down fine for whoever is there).

So I knew he would go down real easy if I could just nurse him down for his naps and that's when we started nursing again. So we'll see how it goes this time.

So I had my first prenatal appointment today and all they said about me still nursing was that when they new baby arrives I have to make sure the new baby gets what he/she needs first! They seemed like it was no big deal that I am still nursing my 23 month old and don't plan on weaning yet. That was very nice and reassuring!  

Quoting Ivana, expecting #3!:" So I had my first prenatal appointment today and all they said about me still nursing was that when they ... [snip!] ... it was no big deal that I am still nursing my 23 month old and don't plan on weaning yet. That was very nice and reassuring!  "

that's nice that they are supportive. however, the only time you need to make sure the baby eats first, is the first few days when you have colostrum.

Quoting Ivana, expecting #3!:" So I had my first prenatal appointment today and all they said about me still nursing was that when they ... [snip!] ... it was no big deal that I am still nursing my 23 month old and don't plan on weaning yet. That was very nice and reassuring!  "

The other thing I want to warn you is just keep in mind that many start off seeming very supportive & slowly change their tune during the pregnancy because I think most think you'll wean on your own during that time & if you show no signs of that, their support does not always remain constant. I just dealt with recurring thrush (apparently that happens for me when I am pregnant) and my Dr went from being supportive to recommending weaning, even going so far as to say he was worried the yeast infection could go systemic for me & cause pregnancy complications.   I never had a single vaginal yeast infection so why he'd ever think that I can't say. In fact every vaginal yeast culture came back clean. And other than being owie - nipple yeast is not a threat to the unborn under any stretch of the imagination. He wasn't pushy or anything, but he made his stance clear. BTW - what actually finally kicked it was an all natural treatment - grapefruit seed extract. Good stuff for thrush.

Quoting justanothamotha:" The other thing I want to warn you is just keep in mind that many start off seeming very supportive & ... [snip!] ... clear. BTW - what actually finally kicked it was an all natural treatment - grapefruit seed extract. Good stuff for thrush."

hmm well I hope that isn't the case here, hopefully no issues come up and they don't even ask about it anymore.

Well, I'm about to be nursing 3 toddlers... the twins turn 1 on the 16th and Calista is almost 2.5 and still nursing. My husband wants to wean her because the older twins weaned at 2.5 so I'm just not mentioning the fact she'll be 2.5 on Feb 10th. We'll see how long that will last. She's definitely not ready...