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Subject:
From:
Gonneke van Veldhuizen <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 3 Jul 2001 16:28:21 EDT
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In einer eMail vom 3-7-01 19:33:00 West-Europa (zomertijd) schreibt
[log in to unmask]:


> Would any of the people on the list who had children who weaned "early" (for
> example, younger than 2.5 years) care to contribute some data on this?
>
Interesting question and I, too, would love to see many replies.
My breastfeeding history is divers. With my first child 20 years ago, I still
thought that the dr at the well-baby clininc would be knwoledgeable, so when
she recommended adding fruit- and vegetable juices from week 8, it didn't
bother me to do right so... by the time she was 6mo she ate the family meals
and had a nightcap at the breast, totally weaned by 8-9 m. She thumbsucked
way into childhood. Classical story, I'm afraid. Less classic perhaps her
interest in my breast when at her 22nd month het brother was born and
breastfed. She wanted to drink as he did and did so irregularly for some
months, then self-weaned. I did not offer her, just allowed her when she
asked. By that time I knew more about bf (got into contact with LLL) and this
second child almost exclusively bf untill 6 m. He accepted my suggestion to
stop nursing (had only wakeups and nightcaps then) halfway into my third
pregnancy, when he was around his 2nd birthday. My nipples were very very
sensitive and I couldn't stand anything touching them. He didn't suck his
fingers or thumbs and had no other selfsoothing tricks. We co-slept since he
was some months old (only ''invented'' it by then and had our first with us
as well, which she appreciated very well). He's always been a very active
little man (well, not so little any more, 18yo know and 1.95m tall). #3 is a
total different story. He was low-demand-baby (almost forgot him once when he
was just 6 weeks, bad mother), sucked his thumb untill he was about 10. He
never after the first months wanted to co sleep, so had his crib next to our
bed. He enjoyed the idea of other foods well before 6mo and decreased daytime
nursing rather quickly.When he was a year I kept offering him his goodmorning
breast, just to have him sleep untill 6 instead of 4.30, but he didn'twant it
anymore by the time he was 14mo. He still is the one that is different from
the other 4 (16y now) He's also the one that I could never manage to learn to
open his mouth wide and even later when eating with a spoon or fork he most
times closed his mouth before reaching the back of it. #4 attached the minute
she was born and never came off for the next two years (or just about), I
always said that the sling was for the reassurance of other people, because
she clung at me like a little monkey. She wasn't interested in other foods
untille well into the second half of the first year and nursed untille her
little brother was a couple of months and she almost 4. She then decided, in
dialogue with me :-) that going to Kindergarten was a nice marker to stop
breastfeeding. She never wanted to go far from me and paniced if I was a
minute late to get her from school, didn't want to sleep at friends' or go to
school camps without me. She's 14y next month and in the last year turned out
to be a very independant young woman-to-be. The last one breastfed untill he
was 2.5y; during summer camping vacation, 8y ago now, the two of us decided
that it was enough.
So five very different experiences, and no-one, but the middle one, *really*
self-weaned, but exept for my first all in a natural-feeling way to us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gonneke van Veldhuizen, IBCLC
MOM, LLLL, primary schoolteacher
Hiilensberg, Germany

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