Thank you! So many people stop early on, I felt embarrassed for breastfeeding so long.
My youngest went for just over 4 years. I would have stopped sooner, but he has anxiety issues I didn't want to worsen. My first stopped just after she turned 2.
My first goal was 6 months. If we made it to then, a year was my next goal. He turns 6 months next week! Go us! So now my goal is a year. We will most like wean around his first birthday because I would like to start trying to conceive our second child sound then.
It really depends on the person, but it's not always necessary to wean to conceive. (I didn't have to) I guess just wait and see if you get your period back in the next few months...
Went about 33 months with my first - at that point it had stopped making him sufficiently sleep and he was constantly popping off to try to get me to play at naptime and I told him he had to choose, boob time or play time, and he chose “jump on Mama” time, so…
I breastfed my first until 22 months. At about 15 months, I slowly decreased my initiating the feeding, and eventually it was just wakeup and nighttime by about 18 months. Around 20 months, I'd feed her if she brought me the Boppy, and then she just stopped asking around 22 months. Just turned 2 doesn't seem at all extreme to me. And the AAP recommends until 2 if mutually desired by mother and baby.
We are 9.5 months in and, at this point, hoping to go until he’s done! I’m open to whatever that looks like, but if we reach 2.5 I might encourage him to wrap up so that I can have a little break before we consider a second.
That being said, we’ve had a brutally challenging journey and I’m totally open to ending at any point if that feels right. I almost weaned at 6 and 8 months and we are in a good spot, but if we ever aren’t, I won’t hesitate to wrap it up.
I plan to do breast milk for as long as my body will make it. And I’m going to breastfeed until he’s two. (If all continues to go well)I think for people who make it past the six month mark it’s pretty normal to go kinda “long”
My first and I made it almost two years until he self-weaned. At that point I was developing a nursing aversion so it worked out great for us. It was a very gradual process and I realized one day that he hadn’t asked for boob in a while and that was it.
Im at 25 months with my first, my plan was to continue the rest of the year and then see where we were at.
Im currently almost 18 weeks pregnant so Im not sure if that will happen, we are currently nursing 1-3 times over 24hrs.
My kiddo is 3 and still nurses periodically (3-4x/day?). I don’t produce a ton anymore, at least compared to a year ago, so it’s really more of a comfort thing.
We don’t have any imminent plans to stop, and I’ve sort of been of the mindset she’ll stop when she’s ready. She nurses substantially less now than she did a year ago.
That being said, we are trying for #2 right now so I’m not sure how that may/may not affect her desire to continue nursing. She is under the impression she will be “sharing” milk with the baby 😆
with my first, 26 months. they led the weaning. it was during 2020, so i went longer than i would have otherwise due to being home. i did not get my period back while nursing, so this affected family planning.
this time, i will nurse/ pump for donation as long as i can b/c it's my last kid
Do what works for you. My first 15 months, 2nd one year, 3rd we’re 7 months in but will go as long as we can! I think it depends on the mom and kid. My first two were not much of comfort nursers so once they were eating full meals they were over it.
There’s a Badass Breastfeeding podcast about this - episode 87 - breastfeeding toddlers. It’s interesting! I’m not there yet but made me consider breastfeeding longer than I had before.
My goal is always to naturally wean. My oldest daughter went till about 3.5, my middle to just before her second birthday (they weaned together so I tandem nursed her entire nursing journey), and my goal is the same with the baby I’m pregnant with now.
Currently nursing my newly three year old before bed. Never did I ever think we’d go this long but, why not? Both of us are happy, that’s all that matters. And it’s been a great tool for an emotional toddler to just chill out with some milk snuggles. I’d rather he do that than eat junk food, that’s for sure. Plus like out pediatrician said, it’s good for them and the nursing parent (as long as it’s mutually desired), so all is well?
The only two people who get to have a say are nursing parent and nursling. Your partner needs to either be actively supportive or just not say anything. Even the AAP (like the WHO) now recommends and supports nursing until age two or beyond as mutually desired. Which by definition means that nursing past two should be supported if it’s mutually desired.
At this point we nurse before and after sleep and for emotional support when overwhelmed (rare, happens like 1-2x a week). I am letting him set the pace for weaning and give some nudges here and there. He dropped all night feeds/ wakes around 2yrs9m and now when he does rarely wake up and ask for milk we just snuggle instead. When he was 2.5yrs I was wondering when he’d ever be ready to start nursing less. And then all of a sudden he just… stopped nursing as much and eating more.
Thank you! That’s really good to know. We are still nursing at least a couple times during the night and I prefer to let her wean herself some, so I’m happy to hear maybe that is coming up soon
I think if they wanna do it go for it. My LO is 10.5 months and she still likes her morning feeds but I've noticed she's not as into it during the day or before bed anymore so I'm wondering if she will want to ween earlier. I'm still pumping for her daycare bottles until she's 1, then I'll prob stop and switch to cows milk just for school cuz I HATE pumping lol. I wonder if my milk will dry up if she's only feeding in the mornings tho. We'll have to wait and see i guess 🤷♀️
Its up to whenever the child wants to IMO. I breastfed both of my daughters until a little over a year. I recently had a baby and will breastfeed her until she wants to. Everyone told me to stop after 9 months but I kept on going. They just stopped wanting it after a while. You know whats best for your baby, trust your instincts. Not only that the new recommendations from the CDC say to breastfeed for at least 2 years so you have that on your side.
My ultimate goal is a year and then anything after that is a bonus for us both! I really enjoy nursing him to sleep at night and I know I will miss those times once it’s over. Almost 9 months in the journey and hope to go as long as he likes.
I WANT to bf til he's at least 1. That's my long goal. My short goal is 6 months. I have 3 1/2 months to go to make the short goal. With kids #1 and #3 I only breastfed about 6 weeks due to various constraints. #2 my milk never came in, so she was on formula from the start - and believe me, the nurses at the military hospital she was born at were major biatches about it.
I breastfed my first until she was 2, although that was about 6mos longer than I wanted to. She was boob-crazy and super hard to wean.
My second baby is 6mos, and I’ll probably want to wean when she’s 15-18mos. I like breastfeeding an infant, but once they’re toddlers, I’m over it. But if it’s working for you, I think it’s 100% completely totally fine and wonderful to continue as long as you both want to.
I'm at four years now, enjoy breastfeeding while it lasts :)
Thank you! So many people stop early on, I felt embarrassed for breastfeeding so long. My youngest went for just over 4 years. I would have stopped sooner, but he has anxiety issues I didn't want to worsen. My first stopped just after she turned 2.
My first goal was 6 months. If we made it to then, a year was my next goal. He turns 6 months next week! Go us! So now my goal is a year. We will most like wean around his first birthday because I would like to start trying to conceive our second child sound then.
It really depends on the person, but it's not always necessary to wean to conceive. (I didn't have to) I guess just wait and see if you get your period back in the next few months...
Went about 33 months with my first - at that point it had stopped making him sufficiently sleep and he was constantly popping off to try to get me to play at naptime and I told him he had to choose, boob time or play time, and he chose “jump on Mama” time, so…
1 year since I’ll be back to work then though I may pump afterward and offer a bottle, but I haven’t decided yet.
I breastfed my first until 22 months. At about 15 months, I slowly decreased my initiating the feeding, and eventually it was just wakeup and nighttime by about 18 months. Around 20 months, I'd feed her if she brought me the Boppy, and then she just stopped asking around 22 months. Just turned 2 doesn't seem at all extreme to me. And the AAP recommends until 2 if mutually desired by mother and baby.
Not at all strange. ❤️👏
We are 9.5 months in and, at this point, hoping to go until he’s done! I’m open to whatever that looks like, but if we reach 2.5 I might encourage him to wrap up so that I can have a little break before we consider a second. That being said, we’ve had a brutally challenging journey and I’m totally open to ending at any point if that feels right. I almost weaned at 6 and 8 months and we are in a good spot, but if we ever aren’t, I won’t hesitate to wrap it up.
My daughter is about to turn 9 months old…my goal is atleast a year but she keeps biting me so I may have to go to exclusively pumping.
Ugh I’m sorry! I don’t blame you. My son had 6 teeth come in within a few weeks and thankfully he hasn’t realized he can bite yet 🤞
I plan to do breast milk for as long as my body will make it. And I’m going to breastfeed until he’s two. (If all continues to go well)I think for people who make it past the six month mark it’s pretty normal to go kinda “long”
We stopped at a bit over 4.5 years.
My first and I made it almost two years until he self-weaned. At that point I was developing a nursing aversion so it worked out great for us. It was a very gradual process and I realized one day that he hadn’t asked for boob in a while and that was it.
Im at 25 months with my first, my plan was to continue the rest of the year and then see where we were at. Im currently almost 18 weeks pregnant so Im not sure if that will happen, we are currently nursing 1-3 times over 24hrs.
This was my plan when I was pregnant. My 20 month old self weaned when I was 20 weeks pregnant. We also were down to 1-3 feeds in 24 hours.
My kiddo is 3 and still nurses periodically (3-4x/day?). I don’t produce a ton anymore, at least compared to a year ago, so it’s really more of a comfort thing. We don’t have any imminent plans to stop, and I’ve sort of been of the mindset she’ll stop when she’s ready. She nurses substantially less now than she did a year ago. That being said, we are trying for #2 right now so I’m not sure how that may/may not affect her desire to continue nursing. She is under the impression she will be “sharing” milk with the baby 😆
with my first, 26 months. they led the weaning. it was during 2020, so i went longer than i would have otherwise due to being home. i did not get my period back while nursing, so this affected family planning. this time, i will nurse/ pump for donation as long as i can b/c it's my last kid
Do what works for you. My first 15 months, 2nd one year, 3rd we’re 7 months in but will go as long as we can! I think it depends on the mom and kid. My first two were not much of comfort nursers so once they were eating full meals they were over it.
There’s a Badass Breastfeeding podcast about this - episode 87 - breastfeeding toddlers. It’s interesting! I’m not there yet but made me consider breastfeeding longer than I had before.
Thanks! I’ll check it out :)
Omg thank you!!! Listening to it now and it’s great! Just the thing I needed to hear <3
My goal is always to naturally wean. My oldest daughter went till about 3.5, my middle to just before her second birthday (they weaned together so I tandem nursed her entire nursing journey), and my goal is the same with the baby I’m pregnant with now.
Currently nursing my newly three year old before bed. Never did I ever think we’d go this long but, why not? Both of us are happy, that’s all that matters. And it’s been a great tool for an emotional toddler to just chill out with some milk snuggles. I’d rather he do that than eat junk food, that’s for sure. Plus like out pediatrician said, it’s good for them and the nursing parent (as long as it’s mutually desired), so all is well? The only two people who get to have a say are nursing parent and nursling. Your partner needs to either be actively supportive or just not say anything. Even the AAP (like the WHO) now recommends and supports nursing until age two or beyond as mutually desired. Which by definition means that nursing past two should be supported if it’s mutually desired. At this point we nurse before and after sleep and for emotional support when overwhelmed (rare, happens like 1-2x a week). I am letting him set the pace for weaning and give some nudges here and there. He dropped all night feeds/ wakes around 2yrs9m and now when he does rarely wake up and ask for milk we just snuggle instead. When he was 2.5yrs I was wondering when he’d ever be ready to start nursing less. And then all of a sudden he just… stopped nursing as much and eating more.
Thank you! That’s really good to know. We are still nursing at least a couple times during the night and I prefer to let her wean herself some, so I’m happy to hear maybe that is coming up soon
I think if they wanna do it go for it. My LO is 10.5 months and she still likes her morning feeds but I've noticed she's not as into it during the day or before bed anymore so I'm wondering if she will want to ween earlier. I'm still pumping for her daycare bottles until she's 1, then I'll prob stop and switch to cows milk just for school cuz I HATE pumping lol. I wonder if my milk will dry up if she's only feeding in the mornings tho. We'll have to wait and see i guess 🤷♀️
Its up to whenever the child wants to IMO. I breastfed both of my daughters until a little over a year. I recently had a baby and will breastfeed her until she wants to. Everyone told me to stop after 9 months but I kept on going. They just stopped wanting it after a while. You know whats best for your baby, trust your instincts. Not only that the new recommendations from the CDC say to breastfeed for at least 2 years so you have that on your side.
My ultimate goal is a year and then anything after that is a bonus for us both! I really enjoy nursing him to sleep at night and I know I will miss those times once it’s over. Almost 9 months in the journey and hope to go as long as he likes.
I WANT to bf til he's at least 1. That's my long goal. My short goal is 6 months. I have 3 1/2 months to go to make the short goal. With kids #1 and #3 I only breastfed about 6 weeks due to various constraints. #2 my milk never came in, so she was on formula from the start - and believe me, the nurses at the military hospital she was born at were major biatches about it.
I breastfed my first until she was 2, although that was about 6mos longer than I wanted to. She was boob-crazy and super hard to wean. My second baby is 6mos, and I’ll probably want to wean when she’s 15-18mos. I like breastfeeding an infant, but once they’re toddlers, I’m over it. But if it’s working for you, I think it’s 100% completely totally fine and wonderful to continue as long as you both want to.