Stopping breast feeding?

Question

Our son is 20 months. He is still breast feeding as culturally it is normal for Vietnamese to feed their baby until two or more and this is consistant with the WHO guidelines (even though in the UK the trend is to stop a lot earlier).
However, breast feeding is exhausting and she is now 16 weeks pregnant with our second child. She really wants to stop but it is of course all the harder given the age of our son and the fact that he associates feeding with comfort. What efforts have parents who want to cease breastfeeding a child in the 15-24 month age range deployed?
Please do not comment on the issues of breastfeeding until 20 months, we are aware many people have a negative view of this but it is not the question.
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi there I was in the same situation as you, I breastfed my daughter until she was 20 months and found out I was expecting so I made the decision to stop. I know this sounds strange but I discourage her by putting a little bit of marmite on my breast during the day but still feeding at night. This was not a problem so once weaned off the breast during the day I tried it at night, but she was not happy. I tried lots of things but in the end the only thing that worked was to stop cold turkey. I went in to her in the night with a bottle of warm cows milk when she woke up, she was not happy at first but it only took about 5 or 6 tries and two nights until she got the picture, you just have to be strong and not give in, I appreciate it is hard and a bit upsetting but its the only thing that worked for me. Good luck be strong and don't give in, he will be fine in a couple of days I am sure of it.

Answer 2

I replaced breast feeding with the bottle, making sure I held my baby close and gave him lots of cuddles. It will be tough for a few days but you will get there in the end. You need to do it now rather than later otherwise your son may resent the new baby when he sees it being breast fed. Good luck and ignore any negative views.

Answer 3

When I stopped feeding my toddler, I picked a stop date 2 weeks ahead.
I was feeding her 3 times a day so first I stopped the least favourite feed and replaced with juice and a cuddle. Of course she was not happy about this but then I don't blame her.
Then a week later I stopped the second favourite feeding as before. Then a week after that I stopped the final feeding.
She was not happy about this and protested but after about a week she forgot all about it and was happy again.
Good luck!

Answer 4

We are in the same situation.

Our youngest is 18 months old and still on the breast and my wife is 10 weeks preggers with our fourth, yes FOURTH child.

We have been through this all before as our eldest was breastfed untill she was 2 and the next one was 22 months when she finally quit.

All I can say is good luck because you are going to need it.

Answer 5

it's very healthy for him but it's going to be exhausting if she's pregnant again so you have to ween him onto a sippy cup before the baby comes
do one less breast feeding session per week til he is off although you may want to keep the bedtime session for a little while even after the baby come so he is not jealous of the new baby

Answer 6

Jesus, am i Glad we bottle fed ,I don't know much about this subject but it doesn't sound easy on you and your wife, id say something as severe as weening your 20 month old should happen. I think your wife will need some space as she's due another and it will make it much easier on her when the new baby is born. In my opinion your 20 month old son will have to fall into the role of "older brother" and make way for his sister or brother and take some pressure of his mother and you. Best of luck, it ain't going to be easy.!

Answer 7

cannot stop all at a sudden and hence reduce gradually.Good luck