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 *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html