Elizabeth writes;
>>I am working with a mother of an 18 month old baby boy. He has nursed to
sleep for every nap and every night since birth. He is still waking 6-8
times a night to BF. The mother is distressed.<<
Hi Elizabeth,
guess I am risking something by exposing my greatest breastfeeding mistake to
the masses, but here goes anyway; I went through this with all three of my
babies at very much this same age and it was the impetus, all three times,
for me to wean. I was never much good at letting my children cry at all,
always responded promptly (too promptly?_) to their cries in the night by
putting them to breast. While all of them had decreased their nighttime
nursings to twice a night by a year, very shortly after a year they all
started to up the nighttime feeds ie. cried and wouldn't settle w/o nursing
and by the time they were about 1.5 yrs. they would wake about every 1.5 hrs
and nurse. This was not good and drove me to the point with each where I had
my husband get up with them, bring them into another room-away from me with a
cup of juice and sooth til asleep. Of course at first it was loud and
difficult but they QUICKLY, within 2 nights, stopped waking at all.
Would I recommend this again? Yes , absolutely, I don't think there is any
other way to deal with a toddler other then continue with the nursings as is.
Knowing what I know now, I may have had some ideas on the etiology at the
time. All three had weaned from their day time nursings by this point and I
wonder if a part of the issue might have been that they were trying to make
up for what they had lost during the day...I don't know, it would be
interesting for me to know what this babe's day time nursing schedule is
like.
When families ask me for advice regarding nightime feeds etc., I let them
know that I am definitely NOT the person to ask!
Lynn Shea Rn,Bsn,Ibclc
Franklin,Massachusetts
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