Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I'm going to be talking about how the
stop breastfeeding a toddler or stop extended breastfeeding. If you're new to my channel
then hello, I'm Emily and I'm a mum of three and I would love for you to subscribe if you
like what you see. And I've also made so many breastfeeding videos in the past, they're
probably some of my most popular videos, so I'll link all of those down below. If you
have a younger baby and you're looking for tips or essentials or how to breastfeed in
public, I've made videos on all of those topics, so I'll link that down below, but today my
whole breastfeeding journey is coming to an end.
I have decided I'm finally ready to stop breastfeeding. It's something I've been thinking about for
so long, but every time I go to stop, there is something that comes up, whether it be
we're going on holiday and actually breastfeeding is the quickest thing to calm my son down
if there's any change in his life or he'll get ill, he'll have a tummy bug or a cold.
And in all of those scenarios I think, oh, breastfeeding would just be really handy because
if he's ever off his food, I just know that he's at least getting some nutrients from
me. But he is now fine and well and I finally feel ready.
So the first thing I wanted to say is that there is no judgment whether you breastfeed
or not on this channel. I just happened to have breastfed because it was the easiest
thing for me, but I fully appreciate that it is not an easy thing to do. And you know,
I've really done it for a long time, but like if you bottle feed, like who cares? Whatever
you choose to do, there is no judgment on this channel, this is just my experience.
The World Health Organization, they recommend if you can, to breastfeed for up to two years,
obviously alongside nutritious food. But in so many cultures around the world, the age
of four or five is a very normal time to breastfeed until, but for me, I finally feel ready and
that is my first tip.
Make sure you're ready to stop. With my first son Fraser, I breastfed him for one year and
I do feel like the only reason I really stopped was because so many people in my life we're
doing this, when are you going to stop? Oh, are you still breastfeeding? When are you
going to stop? Like it just felt like so many people thought that it was getting a bit weird
and I think being a younger first time mom, it kind of got to me and I just thought, well,
I need to stop then. So I did stop with him, but I don't think I was totally ready and
I did kind of regret it.
With my second son Caleb, I breastfed him for just over 18 months, and the only reason
I stopped breastfeeding him is because we were getting ready to get pregnant again.
We kind of knew we wanted a third son or a third child and I was like, okay, I'm going
to stop because I know I'm going to be trying to get pregnant soon when I said like, do
that. But with Jackson, he is my last baby and he's now over two, just carried on because
it's been so easy and so wonderful, but now I finally feel ready.
So make sure you're ready as the first thing and also be prepared for a very emotional
experience. When I think about stopping breastfeeding, in my head I'm like, yay, freedom, but then
I'm also at the same time like, no, it's my baby and it's like admitting that he is growing
up.
My next tip is to pick your timing. As I briefly mentioned earlier, try and choose a time when
your child is well, they're not teething and you haven't got any holidays coming up. Life
is pretty like normal and you can stop. For me it will also take a week or a couple of
weeks. If I was to stop instantly, I know that I would feel very sore, so give up the
feeds that they are least interested in. For us it was first like the mid morning feed
that went quite a long time ago, because I would just, instead of a feed I would be able
to give him a snack or yogurt, something like that and distract him with play. At that time
of the day it was very easy to do that.
The next feed that went was the afternoon feed. I used to feed him before his nap and
that would obviously comfort him. So to try and stop that, he would easily nod off if
we were driving home, either in the car or if I took him out in the buggy, I could walk
him and then transfer him to his bed. So that cut out that feeds. The morning feed was harder
to cut for me more because I used to love to get him up out of bed and then feed him
in my bed for a bit before we went down for breakfast. But one tip that we did is to get
dad involved.
So if you have a partner, like they can go in, get them and take them straight downstairs
and make them breakfast or play with them, that's a really good tip. Or if not, even
if it's you, you just have to pick him up and unfortunately like the cuddles in the
morning have gone from me in that way, but I know that they will come back once he's
adjusted to not breastfeeding first thing. But yeah, just pick them up, take them straight
downstairs, put on their favorite show.
Destruction is a really good tip when that you're stopping breastfeeding. Whichever feeds
you decide to cut first I would say a really big tip is to be consistent with it. Once
you've decided that that's one that you're going to cut, make sure you consistently don't
give it to them every single day. Because if you were to take it away one day, then
the next day you can't be bothered and you just let them have it, it will be harder on
them to stop. So if you can just start obviously when you're ready, and if you think, okay,
I'm going to cut out the morning feed first, just just do it, just consistently cut that
out.
So the night feed for me has definitely been the most difficult one to drop and we are
dropping it this week so I'm in the process, but I have made videos in the past about how
to go from the breast straight to the beaker in terms of milk. By the way I'm going to
drop it this week is I'm definitely gonna get my partner Matt involved so that he is
going to put him to bed, you know he doesn't associate breastfeeding with Matt and he does
put him to bed sometimes so that should work.
I'm also, if you're ever worried about how much milk they're getting, you can make more
meals with cheese and milk in them, offering them yogurt and stuff to supplement the milk
that you think they might be losing. But also what I've done in the past is gets beakers
with like the squishy lids. I have made a video on that so I'll put that down below.
Also warming the milk up. We give ours cow's milk but I know some people give them other
different types of milk but we use cow's milk. I warm it up and it, especially with Fraser
because he was that bit younger, I was worried about how much he was getting.
So sometimes I would actually make him a bit of a smoothie, so I would maybe put two strawberries
in the milk and wizard all up in my nutri-bullet thing or you can put some banana in it and
just whiz it all up. And because it's sweet and it's like a smoothie, they tend to drink
it. Fraser used to drink the whole beaker while watching his favorite show, and that
is how we've got around it. It's kind of like, I don't know if this is the best tips, but
that is what worked for me to just make sure he was getting enough and that he had a full
tummy.
If your a baby still wakes up in the night, obviously that is going to be tricky, you
can send that in or just offer them water until they realize that milk is not coming.
You could also give them loads of extra cuddles during the day just in case they're waking
up for comfort. But I have also made a whole video on how to get your baby to sleep through
the night, so I will link that down below. Jackson luckily is a really good sleeper so
it is just that feed at about 6:30 or 7:00, that is the last one to cut out.
My last tip is to be patient, you don't have to rush the process if you don't want to.
For me I started this process weeks and weeks ago but then carried on with the night feed
because of various illnesses and things going on in our life. So you can make it as quick
or as long as you want to. You can stop within a week or you can carry it on for longer like
I have.
Another tactic that I've had that really works for some people is the don't offer, don't
refuse tactic. So if you don't offer it and you can distract your baby, they probably
won't ask, but if they do ask, then you go ahead and let them until they're ready to
stop. But for me, I do feel ready to stop. But yeah, obviously be prepared that it will
be an emotional time on you. You feel sad and stuff like that, but once you do stop,
I definitely feel like I've got my body back and it is also quite nice to stop and not
be relied on so heavily.
So I think that's all the tips that I wanted to share with you, ask me any other questions
in the comments below and I will definitely answer it. And if you've made it this far
to extended breastfeeding, then well done, you have done amazingly well and I will see
you in my next one. Bye guys.