r/weaningsupport

Baby is 8 months old, my supply took a major hit a few months ago when my baby started Sleeping through and I have had my period + major hair loss since 5 months pp. I’ve gradually dropped all of my feeds over the last 3 weeks and I have experienced zero side effects.

Do the side effects normally show up after the last feed has been dropped or during? I have more energy, feeling happier… the only thing is that I do feel a bit more tired at night (which isn’t a bad thing), and my last period during all of this was about heavier.

Anyone with a similar experience?

My son is 2 and I’m READY to be done nursing. He only nurses at night before sleeping. What is one way I can get him off the boob for good?

my daughter is 16 months and I’m ready to fully wean. she only breast feeds in the middle of the night once if she has a wake up and in the morning first thing. so basically 1 - 2 times a day. she occasionally asks for milk (signs milk) when she wakes up from her nap but that’s become rare. I want to wean her fully but it’s the summer and we are away at our in laws down the shore most weekends. she has a tougher time sleeping there. should I wait until summer is over or can I wean her now with all the location changes? just looking for some advice if this isn’t a good idea or maybe we can do it. I love breast feeding but I’m definitely getting to the point where I’m ready to be done.

I just want to know how it works. My 14 month old son is currently latching on primarily for comfort, but he latches on A LOT. I counted one day and it was 19 times! I never offer. He just puts himself in position and looks at me lol. So, I can't understand how this particular method even leads to weaning. Please break it down to me like I am 5 years old. I would love to hear success stories so I can wrap my brain around it.

Hi Moms, my baby is 7.5 month old. He was and EBF baby till 5.5 months after which I introduced solids. So he eats now however comes back for feeding before every nap. He definitely needs the boob to sleep at night and wakes up multiple times. My work from home ends when he is 10 months old and I want to wean him off before that. Please don’t shame me! I don’t want to give him formula , bottle and cow milk. Could you guide me if

1. It’s ok to wean off at 10 months
2. Not swap the boob with alternate milk options and rely on solids alone
3. Should I go for just day time weaning off but it will impact my supply and will necessitate pumping which I don’t want to do.
4. Will this decision impact his health and nutrition.

Thank you!

Has anyone stopped bf/pumping for their mental health? I’m a month pp and have had great supply but damn it’s been hard. Mastitis, I pump constantly, leak everywhere, and always feel overwhelmed. My therapist suggested I stop for my mental health. That makes me sad but it also sounds great? I already have a freezer full of frozen milk. Has anyone else done this or considered it? Looking for pros and cons. It just feels so early and I feel like a failure for considering to stop. She’s still so little but I am struggling. I cannot go without pumping right now because I get painful let down, soak through things, and clog up. So trying to drop a pump doesn’t work. Open to advice, thanks in advance!!

Since my period came back at 7mo PP, my cycles have been a little wonky but mostly within the same variation of time. Well, at the tail end of my fertile window, I stopped nursing cold turkey (we were only down to one nursing session a day so it wasn’t a huge deal), and within 5 days, my period arrived. My luteal phase is usually like 12-15 days, but this one was only 8 before I started spotting?? That’s never happened! Is this a result of the weaning? I know a lot goes on with hormones after weaning, so I am not concerned, I’m just perplexed. Any thoughts on a scientific/biological explanation? 😁

I’m currently attempting to wean my 2.5 yr old cold turkey who is only nursing to sleep/throughout the night for comfort. I weaned my eldest the same way who also only nursed at night at 2 yrs and some change and it was difficult the first few nights but she adjusted well within a week or 2. My youngest is farrrr more strong willed and unyielding lol…. Right now I’m just snuggling her and comforting her while she screams and thrashes around (worked w my first) hoping she will eventually tire out. The problem is that time doesn’t seem to come. It has been so hard and I’ll admit I have given in many times. Especially so when she’s waking during the night screaming endlessly…. Did I mention my eldest (4 yo) is also in the bed with us, having another child in the bed is something I didn’t have to deal with weaning my first and makes the middle of the night screaming sessions feel more frantic as I’m worrying about my eldest’s sleep quality while weaning. She just screams and screams for hours with no end in sight. I feel like I’ve failed her making her so reliant on nursing to sleep. Should I be more concerned with getting my eldest in her own bed first? I’m not bothered by the cosleeping and don’t want to move her out of the bed, but maybe weaning is hopeless until I tackle that first. I’m struggling w nursing through the night so much, as well as the guilt that comes with weaning and possibly moving my eldest into her own room. Feeling all around awful about the whole situation!! :( please give me any tips or advice you have!!

We have been cosleeping since birth and it is so sweet! Baby is 12 months old!

My husband puts him to bed at the beginning of the night most nights, and that goes really well. (I do breastfeed after getting him ready for bed and then my husband takes him).

Lately, baby has been waking up pretty much hourly throughout the night crying only for boob. At 3:30 my husband and I talked and I ended up going to sleep on the couch because it seemed like baby was not going to sleep with me being there and sensing the boob! I would try to snuggle him and comfort him in other ways and he was not having it. At all! My husband ended up rocking him to sleep from 3:30-7:30 when he woke up for the day, and he said he’d wake up every hour or two and need comforting again.

I should also note he’s getting 4 new teeth right now, but I feel like we have gotten to a good place with pain management for that and he doesn’t seem to be in pain.

Basically, we don’t know what to do. I have wanted to night wean him because when he nurses at night he ends up biting me a lot and also wants to play with the other boob, which makes me unable to sleep while nursing like I used to. He also eats a lot of food and gets milk during the day, and with the combo of feeling like I am the reason that he is waking up a ton, it feels like the right time. But how do we do it? I see other peoples posts about how the first nights were rough but I need more information about how rough they were because we don’t know what to expect.

Most nights my husband can put him to sleep in like 10 min, and if he wakes up he can get him back to sleep by just snuggling him for a couple of minutes, however as the night goes on baby gets less and less consolable.

If you night weaned and coslept, how did you do it? What worked well for you and what didn’t?

Thank you, fellow cosleepers, in advance. It was helpful even just typing this knowing that there are people out there who will be able to relate.

Any advice or similar experiences welcome.

My baby is 6 months old and has been combi-fed since birth, more breast at the beginning but in recent weeks is now only being breastfed during the night/morning. This works for us and has been a natural transition. I do enjoy this and I would be happy to continue this way (although I imagine my supply will reduce given this infrequency?)

So, I got a period around 4.5 months, then another this week. A 41 day cycle, which is irregular but I understand that’s normal given the above.

I feel like I am struggling a lot with hormonal shifts - mood swings, low mood, anxiety. In a way I haven’t before.

And finally, we would ideally like to be able to conceive again before the end of the year.

SO my question is - will stopping breastfeeding help to balance my hormones, improve my mood, and help to make my ovulation/cycle more regular?

hi folks!

my little one is turning 1-year old in a couple months and I want to start weaning starting at 11 months - already approved by his pediatrician. I was wondering if doing a ”by the clock” weaning would be appropriate? basically I would stop offering nursing after a certain hour of the day and keep increasing the time without nursing until weaned. so for example, week 1 stop offering after 6pm week 2 stop offering after 4 pm and so forth. is this a valid strategy? my baby and i just kinda feed based off vibes so it’s hard to do a “cut this specific feed then this one” which is what I see a lot of online.

I need some reassurance… I think!
My LO is now 7.5months and our weaning ‘ journey’ has been slow. I want to know how others have gone about it. Success stories, hiccups, anything really!

My mum keeps pushing it, asking constantly what he’s been having, what our ‘food routine’ is, saying baby wakes in the night because he’s hungry…

The problem is (beyond the annoying comments) I have an almost paralysing fear of choking. I honestly don’t know how to get past it. I look up how to serve every kind of food and even if I do it perfectly I start to panic sweat as soon as it even goes near his mouth.

I see other parents just handing their babies food whenever wherever and I’m still making sure he’s in his highchair properly and everything is all prepared like some sort of military check list… just today at baby group one of the other mums just handed her baby, who is ten days younger than mine, one of those corn snack things and just let him get on with it.

Now I’m worried he’s behind and I’ve messed everything up.

My 15 mo old wakes every hour to comfort nurse. She is not nursing during the day, only at night. She’s refused a bottle and a pacifier her entire life. She’s co slept and nursed the entire night up until now. Her latch has become very poor and she has injured me now with her poor latch and I need stitches now, and I’m at my breaking point so I need to wean her.

This past week we got her a flood bed and my husband has been sleeping in there with her, she goes about 2-3 hours and wakes up and wants to nurse. She becomes inconsolable when I do not let her nurse and she screams till her voice is raw, she will throw up from screaming and stop breathing and I’ve caved and nursed her so we can all finally sleep…

I tried vinegar last night to deter her from nursing and she wasn’t even phased and nursed through it. I’m trying bandaids today and showing her “they’re all gone” and she tries to latch and gets frustrated when she can’t.

Tonight I’m planning on sleeping with her in her room and handling every wake up and just trying to let her latch and saying “all gone” and rocking her, singing to her etc anything to soothe her.

What else can I try because I know tonight’s going to go horribly?

She eats wonderfully during the day, has a daily multi vitamin, we do a bath, and a banana before bed ( she’s allergic to avocado so I can’t give her those). I understand night wake ups are normal and I don’t mind those, I just want her to wean so I can heal my breast and we can get better sleep because she’s waking just to nurse…

I weaned completely about 3 weeks ago after gradually stepping down. I nursed for 2.5 yrs. I seem to be extremely sensitive to any hormonal changes at all points in my life. We weaned to conceive this cycle but now i have failed 3 ovulation attempts. Im on day 23 of my cycle with no more ovulation symptoms, not pregnant, only super anxious, extremely nauseated, and fatigued.

I just wanted to know if this was caused by weaning or stress or something else (I’ve had unrelated stressful event a month ago). I don’t have a doctor here since we moved recently so I can try to get in for bloodwork but It will take a while to get an appointment.

Im sure eventually I will ovulate, but if its from weaning Id like to know how long it took for you to resolve and have normal cycles again if you experienced this yourself.
So far the advice i gathered for the other symptoms was 12 weeks ish but that feels so long.
Thanks!

I'm coming up almost a month since I fully weaned my now 1 year old. Week 3 with zero feeds seemed somewhat like I was starring to return to normal but another week on I'm having digestive issues (loose stools) anxiety and insomnia all over again. Is it meant to come in waves? When did you find your normal?

My 2 year old still loves to nurse. I pretty much don’t do it all all during the day anymore. If I put him to sleep I will nurse him, but it has not been going well. He crawls all over me and won’t sit still while nursing and it is putting me in a bad headspace. I am ready to be done nursing.

If I’m not in the house, my husband is able to put him to sleep. Once he is down, he wakes up a couple hours later looking for me and usually crying and getting upset if I’m not in the room.

I am leaving for a work trip and will be gone for a couple nights here soon. How can we help support my toddler when he wakes up without nursing? I’m anxious about it and want to be able to support him and love him without nursing at night.

Any advice is welcome ❤️

My 9 month old used to wakeup twice every night feed n go back to sleep .. it was fine when his 1st wakeup was 3-3.30 am. Then he started waking up at 12-1 am and started crying.. inly thing to sooth him was feeding. I intentionally don’t breastfeed at night and give bottle. Now he wakes up every two hours starting 12.30 am and wants milk (we give him 3 bottles of 2oz each as he doesn’t drink more at once these days).. sometimes if he wakes more i give him water n he sleeps. I feel gradually weaning ofc these feeds will give us longer stretches of sleep. Pediatrician also said it’s just habitual wakeup. If anyone has suggestions/ideas how to break this habit or anything else that can be done for longer stretches plss suggest. Were u able to get longer stretches after stopping these feeds?

I just nightweaned my third baby, at 2.5ish just like my older 2. And guess what….she still sleeps like crap. I was really hoping this would help her. 😭

My first child did sleep through basically immediately, but she was also the hardest one. The other two dropped feeds at night pretty naturally and it wasn’t that difficult to stretch it to the whole night. Those were the kids whose sleep didn’t change.

So sometimes night weaning does nothing. 🙃

Just wanted to share because I am sad.

Hi, I’m exactly 3 months pp and I exclusively pump since my baby has latching issues.

I was an under supplier and worked really hard to up my supply by pumping 8-9 times a day. I finally got to pumping around 900 ml per day.

It got too overwhelming & was affecting my mental and physical health, so I decided to reduce pumps and top off with formula if need. I reduced it to 7 pumps then after a few days 6, then 5 and now I’m finally at 4 ppd. Surprisingly I’m still producing 800-900 ml per day and I’ve been very happy.

I’ve been pumping 4ppd since the past 8 days at a 6 hours interval. Each pump session is 30 mins.

It’s been going great until 2 days ago where I got a clogged ducted on my right breast. I had ibuprofen and iced it and pumped and it went away. Today I got a clogged duct & engorgement on my slacker boob which is surprising since I don’t even get engorged on that boob.

Why am I suddenly getting clogged ducts?

In 1.5 months I will be travelling and I don’t want to deal with this on my trip.

I would like to reducing my pumps to 2-3 ppd. How do I do it without getting clogged ducts and mastics? Thank you 😊