Baby Quit Nursing Cold Turkey

[Spicygirl]

My baby just turned 14 months and suddenly stopped nursing. Has this happened to anyone else? I was planning to wean him soon, but this is still a little sad for me. I've been pumping about once a day for the two weeks since he quit, and am wondering how long I should do this.

[jillc]

This happened to a friend of mine when her DC was 11 months old. All of a sudden one day, he refused to nurse, and she offered a few times a day for a couple weeks to no avail. She did pump for a few months & give her DC the milk in a cup, which he accepted. I believe she quit pumping once peak flu season had passed (end of March in our area).

I can understand why you'd feel sad. Hang in there. I'd say keep offering as long as you want to keep offering, and keep pumping as long as you want to keep pumping.

Weaning, weather you're mentally prepared or not, is kinda sad. I got through it by asking for extra hugs and kisses from my DCs.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Mine went on a 24 hour nursing strike when he was 9mo. We chalked it up to antibiotics I was taking. The last day of my course was the day of his strike, also the day I came down with hives and was clearly allergic to the meds. It was really hard emotionally. I kept offering and he wound up coming back and going strong another 10 months. If you want to keep offering, then do so. But, if not, then know you did a fantastic job and he was ready. Some people really struggle trying to wean their los when the little one isn't ready so I looked at my ds self weaning when he was 19m as just getting lucky that it was ending so easily. Had to find some bright side since it was still sad.

Beth

[elephantmeg]

it happened to me. Ugh. DS went from 6x a day to not at all. Ouch. Benadryl at bedtime helped to dry me up

[chozen]

our dd quit nursing around that same age, all of a sudden she did not want to nurse, by that time i was only nursing her a couple of times day. i remember crying about it a few times.

[DrSally]

IT could be a nursing strike. Have there been any major changes recently? I might reoffer at a certain point just to be sure.

[Spicygirl]

Thanks for the input, everybody :-) I tried re-offering for about a week. DS still refused. I spoke to a lactation consultant about it. I explained to her that he had been acting impatient to be done during each nursing session in the last few weeks. She said he may have been giving me signals that he was ready to wean. So I guess this is it. I was actually ready, too, I just didn't think it would be so abrupt. :-(