r/weaningsupport

I had my first baby almost 2 months ago. I had been vaping for about 6 years before becoming pregnant, but I quit while I was pregnant. Unfortunately, shortly after giving birth I started vaping again.

I currently breastfeed and recently started reading more about nicotine/vaping and breastfeeding. I honestly had no idea how much I should be concerned about it, and I’ve been feeling extremely guilty. I’m trying really hard to quit because I want to do what’s best for my baby.

My baby has been pretty congested and sometimes makes noises that sound like gasping or a squeaky chair. I brought it up with his pediatrician, and I was told that this can be normal newborn behavior. Since this is my first baby, though, I still find myself worrying about every little noise, and searching online has honestly made my anxiety so much worse.

I currently use 5% flavored nicotine vapes. My goal is to completely quit. I’m wondering if anyone who has been in a similar situation found it helpful to gradually lower their nicotine intake before quitting completely. For example, switching to a lower-nicotine vape and slowly tapering down.

I really want to continue breastfeeding, and I’m also working toward quitting vaping completely. Quitting cold turkey has been difficult for me, especially because I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress since having my baby.

I’m not looking for anyone to diagnose my baby or tell me what medication/treatment to use. I’m mainly hoping to hear from other breastfeeding parents who have dealt with nicotine use and quitting postpartum. What helped you quit, and did gradually cutting down make it easier?

Please be kind. I already feel incredibly guilty and am genuinely trying my hardest to make a change. Thank you. ❤️

My toddler is 2yrs and 8mos and is still very much into nursing. I successfully night weaned about two months ago. It was rough at first but then he adjusted. Although now he is way more into nursing during the day. I want to be done. I’ve been telling him that when he’s three there won’t be any more nursing. He still nurses to sleep at nap and night, and he does during day too. So….. should I cut everything out except nurse to sleep? Or should I work on that first….? I’d like to go in stages for the next 4 mos until we’re don’t in December. Any advice would be really helpful!!! Thank you

I have stopped producing for weeks, but my soon 12 month still requires boob at night for soothing. Usually once, sometimes twice. He doesn't take bottle or pacifier

We were gonna do a 4 night "intervention" since husband has a few days extra off.

Tonight I've we were awake for 3 hours straight. He wouldn't settle without the boob and we tried everything. Offering water, rocking, hushing and singing, white noise, nothing worked. He would fall asleep and wake up without me even attempting to put him down.

The last 10 minutes I tried to just lay down with him on my chest and stroke his back but he cried so hard he started hyperventilating and dry coughing.

Thats when I caved in and offered the boob.

He is too young to just cry it out with me holding him, right? He can't regulate himself yet? I need confirmation

I'm lucky enough to live with my patents, which allows me to not have to work right now. My baby is about to turn 1 year old, and we are together- all of the time!! Breastfeeding for slowly waking up in the mornings has become a thing over the past several months. And I nurse to put the baby to sleep. Bottles have never worked, we don't do pacifiers.

Everything I read online says to give the baby to dad or to someone else when trying to wean.. but that isn't an option for me. So, how do I stop Breastfeeding?? Anyone else gone through a similar situation? How did you stop (similar sitch or not) ?

My baby used to take bottles back when she was younger but alas… for months now she has exclusively nursed. She literally throws cups of my pumped milk 😳

She takes water in a straw cup very well! She has never had an ounce of formula. She has had dairy products (cheese, yogurt etc) but no cow’s milk.

I guess it’s time to start introducing cow’s milk but frankly I’m nervous she won’t take it! And also, I’m not sure how much to even give her because I know they say to start slow because of constipation but I literally don’t know how… what do I even mix it with? Do I just mix it with water if she won’t take pumped milk & has never even had formula either?

I know she doesn’t *have to have cow’s milk* but I do think it would be helpful for some moments in my life to leave her with grandma, babysitter, or dad. As of now, she nurses in the morning, before naps & bedtime. Her birthday is this week 🥺

Tried posting in the breastfeeding sub with no luck.

I went away for a bachelorette trip last wknd and decided it would be a good time to wean from the breast. I had tried weaning around 6 months and she would not take a bottle or straw cup. Mastered straw cups over the last few months and even replaced 2 regular “snacky” nursing sessions with expressed milk in a cup. Before this trip she was having a big nursing sesh morning and night (both sides) and like 3 minutes before both naps.

My husband could only get her to take 10-14 oz/day each of the 3 days I was gone. She was completely content but just not interested in guzzling milk the way my bottle fed babies did.

Same thing when I got home- content, only whined for the breast once the night I got home. Wet diapers. Poops.

I did call the pediatrician to ask if this was okay and she said she wants her getting at least 20 oz. I didn’t have enough time to get into details but this baby eats A LOT. I have 4 kids and she took to food the earliest and the most. 3 meals a day since 7 months and 3 meals & 2 snacks since 9 months. Every meal has meat, fruit, veggies and carbs. She also usually has 3oz water with each meal and I did try subbing the water for milk and she didn’t want it.

My mother’s intuition after having 4 kids tells me she’s fine and has an extremely balanced diet but of course I do still worry and am concerned so just seeing if any other parents have experienced an early weaning situation like this?

To add- I’m still pumping twice a day and have only been getting 3oz total per pump… leads me to believe I wasn’t making much anymore.

My son is 19 months old and I decided it was time to night wean as I was barely sleeping. I just wanna know if anybody has done it where they still nursed to sleep and then nurse in the mornings, or is that confusing? So far what I’ve done is a nurse him for bedtime, then wakings past 4:30 AM to keep him asleep. He’s been waking up once or twice before then and it’s been a bit of a fight! I’m also wondering if I put him to bed and he wakes up before I go to bed if nursing him back to sleep could work.

I guess to sum it up I could ask anybody else just decided they will not nurse between certain hours overnight?

Baby is 13months old and has breastfed since birth. There were times I was unable to feed her due to medications and she would drink formula out of a baby bottle but she started refusing the bottle at 3 months of age and since then I've just been breastfeeding her directly. It is impacting my health however. I am getting recurrent UTIs and my Dr thinks it's related to breastfeeding hormones suppressing my estrogen and I'm on a topical estrogen cream and antibiotics that are safe for breastfeeding. But additionally I need to return to work. I don't want to quit. Breastfeeding works for me and works for my baby. I'm concerned because she refuses to drink other milk in a cup or straw cup and spits it out. The only way she consumes it is through foods like scrambled eggs with milk in them, oatmeal, pancakes made with milk etc. What do I do? She breastfeeds for comfort, for fun while playing, to nap and to sleep at night and we cosleep. I'm a single mum and my mother, her grandmother lives with us (I should say we live with my parents) and she's the only one who can help me with my baby but I'm having a difficult time communicating with her as she blames me for breastfeeding my baby and that's why she is refusing the milk. Can someone help? A part of me knows I should stop but as I type this I'm breastfeeding and I don't really want to stop. I have no emotional support at all. Seeking emotional support and advice please.

Is it possible to continue day feeds and wean only at night? I have an above average sized 9 month old who eats really well during the day. We have like 3-4 regular day feeds (maybe a few other one offs for comfort). He’s getting a lot of daytime calories. I don’t want to wean yet — I breastfeed my kids for 2 years — but I’m starting to get tired of the night wakes. Has anyone done this? Is it possible? With my first the night feeds were the last feeds we dropped.

My baby will be 6 months old next week. I have always nursed her to sleep. Our pediatrician told us we should start doing the Ferber Method, which just sounds like a variation of Cry it Out to me. I don’t like that. I’m wondering if anyone else exclusively nursed to sleep, for how long, and how did you transition them to falling asleep on their own? The doctor made it seem like if we don’t do it between 6-9 months of age, it will be very difficult to do it later.

Hi! my baby turns 1 in a couple of weeks and I recently completely stopped breastfeeding, and honestly, it’s been a lot harder emotionally than I expected.

I had already gotten him off breastfeeding during the day and was just nursing at night. I recently stopped the nighttime feeds too, and other than him having a little trouble getting to sleep now, he’s been doing pretty well with the transition.

I’ve just been feeling really sad and depressed since stopping. I knew that breastfeeding releases hormones and endorphins, but I honestly didn’t expect to feel this way once I stopped.

Has anyone else experienced feeling depressed or really emotional after weaning? How long did it last, and what helped you get through it?

I am a primary school teacher and I go back to work in September. My 9 month old is exclusively breastfed and I haven’t left him no longer than an hour with anyone. He will be with my mum when I go back to work. I have tried to get him used to drinking from a bottle (have tried multiple bottles and teats) but he refuses. He has started solids but is very fussy and refuses to eat most things. I will be pumping whilst at work and leaving him bottles of milk so my mum can feed him and hoping he takes it. I have so much anxiety about leaving him since I’ve been with him pretty much every single day since he was born. I’m worried he won’t drink milk from the bottle and I just don’t know how he’ll adjust with being away from me. He has already started becoming quite fussy when being with other people. Has anyone else been in this situation where their child was only breastfed and had to go to work? How will he cope? Will he adjust? Some advice would be really appreciated! Thank you!

my 10 month old has started biting during breastfeeding while simultaneously refusing the bottle. he only wants to nurse and bites while doing it. i want to end this journey for us so badly because i can’t mentally take the biting anymore. i have tried it all to get him to stop but he thinks it’s funny. he will no longer take a bottle either. just swats it away when it comes anywhere near him. we have also tried pumped milk in a sippy cup but he refuses that as well. he drinks water out of a sippy perfectly but when there is milk in it, he won’t even look at it. Any advice or tips welcome!! i am scared every time he latches and feel so stuck having to continue breastfeeding when it is so mentally draining & painful for me right now with the biting/bottle refusal.

Looking for any and all advice on how to effectively wean. LO is coming up in 18m and I’m finally ready and I think they are too. I’ve loved this journey despite the hiccups and hurdles we had, but I’m feeling like it’s time.

Added info, we cosleep and I’m hoping to ultimately end our breastfeeding and cosleeping journey, so bonus points if you’ve got advice for both!

13 month old little one is obsessed with the boob - I can’t sit down around him without him crying and trying to climb up me and he’d happily be on and off the boob having little 30 second feeds every few minutes all day.

It’s been on my mind to start gradually weaning - he’s off to nursery 2 days a week in a couple of weeks, I’d like to get longer stretches of sleep through the night and I’d like him eating more solids through the day.

He’s also started biting - bad! This morning I’ve been brought to tears twice over it. I hoped it was just a phase I could train him out of but it’s been happening for a couple of weeks now.

I’d planned to wean down gently but after this morning I think I might just be done. I’m starting to hate feeding him.

I’ve relied on breastfeeding to get little one to sleep for over a year now. I’ve used it to fix every upset. Would it be a very very bad idea to quit cold turkey? Anyone done it know how bad it’s going to be?

Hi everyone!

My 18 month old refuses to wean or take milk from me, regardless what bottle / sippy cup / cup I offer it in.
I tried also mixing a little honey, chocolate and strawberry milk but no. He won’t have it. I have no milk and no boobs left and I worry he’s starving himself / getting dehydrated. We are up nursing most night too. Any ideas and suggestions are more than welcome!!

My baby turned 1 earlier this month and, for many reasons, we want to night wean. His weight gain is excellent but he is still just not super interested in solids despite our best efforts. We initially wanted to wait until we felt confident that he was actually getting enough food during the day to night wean, but the doctor suspects that he is making up for a lot of the calories that he would be hungry for during the day by nursing at night. The dentist is strongly encouraging night weaning now that he has molars too. But, more than anything, I am just tired. I’m a working mom and I had terrible pregnancy insomnia so we are talking about nearly 2 years of not getting more than 5 hours straight of sleep.

We started trying to night wean about a month ago. I started by trying to nurse him for shorter amounts of time… it results in massive meltdowns as soon as I pull him off the breast (sometimes worse than if I’d never fed him in the first place). We pivoted to my husband being the one to get up for all wakings but my son will scream “mama” for upwards of 20 minutes before falling asleep again despite my husband’s best efforts to soothe him… and then he just wakes up again an hour later to do it all over again. If I go into soothe him and don’t offer the boob, he screams and arches and tries with all his might to push away from me so he can get my shirt up (to the point that I have to very actively make sure he doesn’t just yeet himself out of my arms). We try offering water but it just seems to make him madder and, often, wakes him up entirely.

He falls asleep independently at bedtime and for naps. He’s such a chill, happy baby during the day but at night it’s like he’s been replace by a milk hungry gremlin. We offer 3 meals and 2 snacks but, as mentioned, intake is very hit or miss. We offer a wide variety of food (usually what we are eating with minor tweaks) but it’s rare he shows interest in anything that isn’t fruit, pasta, or cheese. I stopped pumping at work right after he turned 1 and he takes cows milk just find during the day on top of nursing 2-3 times morning and evening when I’m home.

At this point I just feel so defeated. I don’t know if this is true hunger or just a comfort thing and I really don’t know what else to try. Is my husband just supposed to let him scream himself to sleep in his arms until he finally learns milk isn’t coming? It’s so freaking heartbreaking but I don’t know how much longer we can keep going through this cycle.

TLDR; how the heck do I night wean my 1 year old?

Hello.everyone ive been breastfeeding going on years. My son is level three autistic and ive tried so many times to ween him off but this is it comfort for everything . And i mean everything. He breastfeeds regularly throughout the day. Ive been breastfeeding all these years without taking any vitamins my vitamin d is severly low. Its bees so hard to keep it up. My body feels like its failing me . Literally body aches, headaches, heart palpatations, i feel horrible . Ive got so many test done thinking something is seriously wrong with me. But everything is normal besides that damn vitamin d levels. How can i ween him and could all these years has caused my body to fail.

Basically the title. Starting the process of weaning by actively dropping a feed & not pumping to replace. We of course gave her milk in a cup, but just didn’t pressure and let her drink at her pace and kept offering. It took her 2 hours to finish all 4oz.

I’m struggling mentally with that leap of going from “this is vital to keep her alive” to “it’s just a beverage, she’ll be ok” and relying on solids even though she eats incredibly well and loves food.

I think because I had some milk supply issues early on that really messed with me I’m like traumatized and always worried about her not getting enough (even though she is huge and 95% now lol)

What helped you with the mental leap and the anxiety?

Night four- success!

After our usual routine (jammies, book with warm milk, brush teeth) My toddler went down without a fuss, and while she DID wake up around midnight (as with every other night) SHE DIDN'T SCREAM!
She did a little light crying while she got up from her bed (in my room) and moved to my bed, but then she plopped down and went to sleep next to me without asking for boobie. 🤯

She had a couple more "micro wakeups" (little whimpers but not really awake) but nothing related to wanting boobie, and I didn't have to do anything more than put my hand on her back.

Around 4:00am she did ask for boobie for the first time, and as I braced myself for the emotional onslaught, I told her boobie is still asleep.

And she started to scream...

...for all of one minute!😄

You guys, I think we've crossed a major milestone.

She slept until about 6:00 when we got up for "morning boobie".

I feel like we're on the downward slope! 🙌🏼

Good luck to all you out there getting ready to wean!🫡

You CAN do this!

Night three: https://www.reddit.com/r/weaningsupport/s/oChFCesuyB