How can I wean my baby off breastfeeding and still get him to sleep?

The decision to wean is a very personal one and sometimes moms choose to stop breastfeeding and sometimes babies decide that they're done with nursing. Some babies stop very quickly and other babies take months to actually stop nursing. The bottom line is for your sake it would be best to stop nursing slowly. The worst thing you can do is stop cold turkey because it increases the chances of things like engorgement and mastitis, which is a breast infection. What you'll want to do is drop one feeding every two to five days, increase the length of time between each nursing session, and decrease the length of time you nurse your baby. Begin to replace daytime feedings with a bottle or a sippy cup and once your child is a year of age you can start giving whole milk in a sippy cup. Until then if you're weaning your baby and you don't have stores of breast milk that you've saved up it would be best to use formula, because that's going to meet your baby's nutritional needs until they're a year of age. You'll probably notice that your son will not want to let go of the nighttime feeding very easily. Most moms conquer all the daytime feedings, they successfully switched their babies over to bottles or sippy cups during the day but then if your baby is still waking up at night and wanting to nurse, just see how it goes. Try the daytime thing first and then nurse your baby before bed and this will probably just be more of a comfort thing. The older your son gets the better able you'll be able to, not necessarily reason with him, but maybe replace the comfort he's looking for with something else. After a year of age it's okay to give him a favorite blanket or a stuffed animal that he can sleep with to give him comfort, develop a good nighttime routine so that he feels comfortable and safe, put him down and as long as the doctor doesn't feel like extra nighttime feedings are necessary then it's okay to stop nighttime feedings and just let him cry it out. There are a couple of different ways to sleep train your baby and crying it out is one of the most effective ways, according to the literature. It's basically a behavior modification. Babies have learned that when they cry we go get them and they cry and we feed them. If you stop that then they start to think maybe I'll not going to cry and they learn how to self soothe and go back to sleep on their own. That means that you and your baby are getting better sleep at night. If you're okay with crying it out just put your son to bed and for the first little while it's okay to nurse him. You might get all of the daytime feedings taken care of; you're just nursing him before bed. That's okay to do that for a little while to wean him slowly. Then day by day you can see how it goes, maybe try not nursing him before he goes to bed and just try it out and see how it goes. During the night if he wakes up and wants to eat just let him cry. He might cry for a long time. If you're persistent for four to seven nights then he should learn how to go back to sleep on his own. If this method seems a little bit harsh to you then you can try a more graduated approach. You go in and check on him after about five to ten minutes after he wakes up and cries, just gently touch his tummy, avoid turning on any lights, don't make eye contact, don't pick him up, and then just turn around and walk right back out of the room. This reassures him that you're there but you're not going to pick him up. If he continues to cry which that's likely, then wait another 10 to 20 minutes and go back in and do the same thing. Then if he still hasn't fallen back to sleep just slowly increase the amount of time between each check. If he's still crying then wait maybe 30 to 40 minutes. If you do this and you're persistent for four to seven nights he should learn how to go back to sleep his own. Here is a little bit of a disclaimer, all parents know their babies' cries and sometimes kids cry out because they just want us to hold them or he just wants to be fed and loved. But sometimes they cry because they're in pain, or they're sick, or they're in danger, or they're stuck, or something. If you feel like you need to check on him then definitely check on him. Other than that, check with your pediatrician, make sure nighttime feedings aren't necessary, wean him slowly, and it will happen. It will work out for you. If you have any other questions for me feel free to ask them on our Facebook page and recommend us to your friends and family too.
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