how to stop breastfeeding

For bedtime what I'm doing with my 10 month old is nursing, cuddling then putting her in her cot and sitting next to it (picking her up if she gets upset) she jumps around and plays for a while then eventually I manage to get her to lie down and I put my hand on her/pat/rub her off to sleep. My son had a dummy and was always super easy to put to bed (one of those put them in the cot, say goodnight and they close their eyes and fall asleep before you've even walked out of the room type babies) so I can't guarantee my current method but it seems to be working in that she now plays less and falls asleep faster than when I started and she is nursing less at night (we co-sleep once I go to bed and she seems to be checking I'm there and going back to sleep with a touch or a hand on her whereas before she would nurse every single time she woke. The no-cry sleep solution is in the files section on the facebook group page and as a last resort if you have no joy with the more gentle methods you could google "dr jay gordon- nightweaning. I think it will be easier if you wait a bit and your daughter is more verbal as you can explain that you are not going to nurse now and that you will cuddle instead (even at this stage if you are trying to night-wean I think its good to use the word "no" as your daughter will definitely already understand it, sometimes when my 10 month old asks in the night (like 20 min after she has already fed) I say "no-no-no" and she actually lies back down, something I wish I'd discovered sooner! One other thought is that because nursing is such an emotional comfort to an older child, you do need to have some cuddle/wind down time to fill the gap, I got way more cuddles after my son weaned, it might be tricky during the weaning process though, maybe your husband could make an effort to have some quiet cuddle time in the morning and before bed? <em>edited by kiwispiers on 15/08/2013</em>

I read your title and was going to suggest "get pregnant" as that was how I stopped breastfeeding, I was 4 months pregnant when my son weaned and I think basically my supply just dropped to the point he wasn't getting anything so couldn't be bothered. I was considering weaning to get pregnant but in the end I didn't have to, I just had to figure out when I was ovulating as the OPK sticks were not showing an LH surge and my cycles were irregular. It turned out I can "feel" ovulation (mild crampy feeling) and I got pregnant immediately once I figured that out. If you are not ovulating at this point, then night-weaning without day weaning may be enough get you ovulating again. Anyway my advice regarding stopping, whenever that may be is first-up you need to offer an alternative. A baby under the age of two is unlikely to self-wean without an alternative (cows milk or formula)so maybe introduce cows milk by cup if you haven't already. The approach I took with my son was the LLL "don't offer, don't refuse" where I basically never refused to nurse, but I would say yes and then try to distract him (offer food, drink, games etc) and only breastfeed if he continued to ask. I also wore tops that covered my cleavage more and avoiding sitting down at the times of day he usually asked to nurse. So it was a sort of "out of sight out of mind" approach. I also increased the gap between breastfeeds and naps, by feeding downstairs first then going upstairs for the nap rather than feeding in the bedroom directly before putting him in bed. My son nightweaned himself at 13 months so I don't have any tips on how to handle that part sorry. Anyway the whole process was quite slow for us, I stopped "offering" at around 15 months I guess and he fully weaned at 22 months. I did not get engorged at any point and he did not shed a single tear or get upset at any time although I definitely did myself when I realised that 3 days had passed without him asking to nurse and that we were done :( I have a beautiful photo of him nursing a week or so before he stopped for good that I will always treasure, (I posted it once on Breastfeediig Q&A so you may have seen it) don't forget to get one too!

labrador, you might consider reposting on the Breastfeeding Q & A Dubai UAE page on Facebook. You'll get a lot of first hand advice and experience and support from nursing mums on that group. Tremendous resource!