When you first get pregnant, you’re bombarded with information about feeding your newborn baby. In the beginning, you may have struggled with figuring out what latch feels right and which positions feel good and how milk production works. All the initial stress and worry and challenges of breastfeeding may have been there, but here you are about to start breast feeding through the NEXT year of your child’s life. Congratulations. To get to 12 months of breastfeeding is a huge milestone and you should be excited that you’ve got it this far.
You kept going and now you’re about to start nursing a toddler, which means that you’re a breastfeeding pro. While you may have been looking for ways to stop breastfeeding, and you still may be looking for ways to stop breastfeeding now, you’ll still need to continue feeding until you can figure out a way to wean your child off the breast and onto regular drinks. Here are some tips to help you to enjoy being the mother of a happily nursing toddler while you start planning for the big finish.
- Remember why you got this far. While you plan for the big finale, you need to think about why you’ve managed to get to 12 months of feeding. You know how important breastfeeding is for your toddlers health and development and that can get you through the rough patches. Your milk has consistently provided excellent and easily digested nutrition that is specially catered for your baby. It’s exciting that you’ve managed to help your baby to develop this far because of the milk that you have provided.
- Start addressing any pinching behaviors. During the second part of the first year of your child’s life, they may have started twiddling, pinching, or tugging at either your other breast or your hair while you’re feeding. This can be annoying and also one of the reasons might be looking to stop breastfeeding. However, once it’s become part of the nursing routine, it can be very hard to get your toddler to stop, which is why you have to catch it early. Even if you’ve been working on persistently removing their hand from your hair or from your other breast, you may be considering using necklaces with large beads or other toys for your toddler to hold while nursing. They may slowly stop nursing as they start to be more distracted by other things.
- Stay generous. If you do wish to continue giving your child your milk through their first and second year of life, be generous with it. You can pump if you’re able, and if you are able to produce milk, you can always give it to them in a cup as you teach them how to use cutlery, cups and crockery onto solid food. Knowing that they are still getting your nutrients and the milk that is catered just for them can make you feel better about withdrawing from the actual breastfeeding experience.
- Be aware of yourself. One of the biggest things that mothers struggle with when they’re breastfeeding, especially when beyond 12 months, is being touched out. It’s OK to feel touched out, and it’s OK to feel like you need to be more aware of yourself. You may find that your menstrual cycle has now returned since you had your baby, and if that’s the case, your hormones may make you feel different about breastfeeding. This is all part of the process of natural weaning, so it’s OK to continue on as you are, but know that you are lessening your feeds.
- Stay vigilant about sore nipples. You might be a nursing veteran, but that doesn’t mean that your breasts won’t hurt. Toddlers are often teething, and you may end up getting used as a human pacifier.If they’re dealing with stuffy noses or they’ve got new teeth coming through, you may be dealing with more biting and clamping down than you did at the beginning. That might not be comfortable for you. So now can actually be a very good time for you to start weaning.
- Going back to work. If you’re planning on going back to work now that they are one years old, then it may be time for you to start using a pump to transition them from a breast to a sippy cup.You can still give them your milk, you just give it to them in a different receptacle so that you gain your back some independence and so do they. You are absolutely free to continue nursing at bedtime, but you can lower how many feeds you do during the day from the breast and change over to the cup.
- Take advantage of their ability to wait. Toddlers are learning how to wait for their next feed because they understand now and next scenarios. If your toddler is starting to get upset because they can’t feed, distraction techniques can work.
- Don’t be afraid to nurse at night. Toddlers are actually not designed to sleep through the night, no matter what sleep training books tell you. Don’t forget that those sleep training books are money makers, so trying to train a human being to be without you isn’t the goal. You can still nurse to sleep and you can still nurse at night time. Because nursing isn’t just about the benefits of the milk, it’s about the benefits of the closeness you share. Research has shown that human milk alone does not ’cause cavities, so you need to consider that while they’re still 12 months old, nursing at night is just fine.
It’s so much fun to get to this point of your breastfeeding journey, but it’s OK to put your hands up and say you’re finished. If you’ve got to that point, start gradually reducing your feeds and transitioning to a cup, and you and your toddler will be able to get through it in one piece.
