GainesvilleMoms.com

My son just turned a year old on 7/25. My original plan had been to wean him around a year but I really don't feel like he's ready (or maybe I'm just not ready )... I was just wondering how long other mothers planned on nursing or when they stopped? And for those with older children, did your babies wean themselves? I hear that happens sometimes but I don't know how common it is.

Congrats on reaching your one year goal! I also planned to wean at a year and managed to scale it back to just evenings for a few more months and then stopped completely. It was a fairly easy process (in hindsight) scaling back vs. cold turkey-also more comfortable for you!

I was only able to bf'ed my son for the first 4 months and that was with supplementing. We had some complications at birth that made it difficult.

With my daughter, I breastfed her for over 3 yrs. Yes, I know, a long time, but it wasn't planned to be that long, and I had to wean her. I think should would have been happy nursing for at least another year or more! We had a series of life obstacles that got in our way of weaning earlier.

I breastfed all three of my girls. All of them weaned themselves. It was very tough for me all three times, especially this last one because she will most likley be the last one. My first I nursed until she was 11 and a half months old. By 9 months we were down to specific nursing times such as naptime, bedtime and in the morning. Then around 10 months she just began to casually lost interest. She was actually done with all feedings except for the nursing 1st thing in the morning just before she was 11 months old then she stopped that one too.
My second was totally different. She nursed alot more. I did not wean her till 15 months. She did not eat ANY foods or other liquids until she was 11 months old!! I thought I was going to go crazy trying to keep up with her appetite. We tried EVERYTHING to get her to eat or drink anything else but she refused. She also did not get her first tooth until she was almost 11 months old. She weaned herself much the same way as my first just at a later date.
My last daughter I had weaned herself completely just before she was 13 months old. So every child is different. I do think that if you insist on them nursing when they reach that 'window' where they begin to wean themselves,(they sort of just turn away like they have more interesting things to do and see),that it results in trouble weaning them later on. A friend of mine insisted on continueing to nurse even after her son began to wean himself at 11 months and then had alot of trouble with him whining and crying when she later tried to wean him at 20 months.

It's not really something you can plan on at a certain age if you are going to let them do it themselves. Although I think I would have stopped my girls if they continued to want to nurse much after 15 months. I remember with my middle daughter I was very close to trying to wean her with out waiting for her to lose interest. So you just have to be tuned in and use your mommy sonar...if you think it's time then it probably is....

I breastfed my first son until he was 11 months old, and my second son until he was 10 months. Both of them weaned themselves at that point. They were both mobile, and I think felt like there were more interesting things to do. If you feel like you and your child aren't ready, then I say keep going. It's a big change, so you should only do it if you both want to. Congrats on making it a year! That was my goal too, but I guess my boys had different plans. Good luck!

Nursing is such a special time, I feel like I'll be pretty sad when that stage is over. Like I said though, I don't think either of us are ready to wean just yet so we'll just wait & see. Thank you all for the responses! I was just curious what other moms & babies did!