Want to wean - Don't know how..

Hi ladies, my son will be 14months in a couple days and I have been exclusively BFing him. I am so glad to have been able to that until now.
But now I feel my son tries to replace his meals with nursing. He's an extremely fussy eater and he'd rather nurse all day if it were up to him!
Right now he nurses several times through out the night (we co-sleep) and he pulls the breast out and nurses on his own from both sides through out the night. And God forbid if i were to turn to the other side he would try to turn me over and if I don't the crying starts. The thing that I really would like to stop is his latest habit .. twiddling my nipple! When he's nursing on one he twiddles the other nipple constantly. However much I move his hand it comes back right up to the nipple. It may sound horrible .. but I would like to have a good night sleep without my nipples being pinched all night long. :)

I really want to start weaning him now but have no clue how to even get started..Don't want to make him feel I am letting him down and I just want to be able to gradually wean him.
I would really like to hear your stories of how you weaned your babies.

[zazou]

Sounds like my daughter. She used to play with my nipples and at one stage needed to play with them to go to sleep (we co-slept too), in the end it got on my nerves a bit because I couldn't sleep properly. I can totally understand how you feel, she gave up at some stage, I just turned to the other side and she complained a few times but then that was it.

I weaned my daughter not so long ago at 23 months. I cut off one nursing session per 5 days so it wouldn't be so traumatising at once. I would distract her alot. Or try to go outside with him around one of the feeding times e.g. playground so he doesn't think about it for a few days. I found the more I was at home, the more my daughter wanted to breastfeed.

By the way the morning and night feeds are usually the most difficult to take away. I stopped night feeding at around 18 months as I was just extremely exhausted and was at the point of being a zombie during the daytime! But just take it slow and the transition should work well for the both of you.

Congrats for breastfeeding for so long :-)))))

[Super_sally888]

Just roll over when he twiddles your nipples.  he'll grizzle, but he'll soon learn not to.

My daugher is nearly 2 1/2 she's still a very committed breastfeeder.

Thank goodness she now sleeps through the night (except for a feed about 6 am).   I do not feed her to sleep.  She drinks both sides and then I tell her that's all. And now she'll roll over and sleep.  We also cosleep.  Took a while to get to that stage.

Anyway, I work full time and she just drinks morning and night and sometimes lunchtimes when I'm home.  I am waiting for her to lose interest..... but it's not happening yet. However, we don't BF in public any more, only at home.

By this stage you can start refusing him when it doesn't suit you.  Distract him.  Tell him mummy will feed you later and tell him when.  Then feed him.

[allmymarbles]

Introduce a little cow's milk, if you haven't already. Also introduce the cup, if you haven't already. A couple of times a day, when he is hungry for milk, offer him the cup. And there is nothing wrong with occasionally refusing to breastfeed him. Just tell him he is a big boy and big boys know how to drink from a cup.

[RBarron]

My daughter twiddles my nipples constantly. It drives me crazy! I hate the feeling of it. I cover my other breast with material from my shirt or if I am wearing a bra I make sure to have the other side up. I will grab anything lying around to cover it up if I am not wearing a shirt. She used to have to fall asleep with her hand in my mouth playing with my teeth  (so weird haha) and when I finally broke her of this habit the nipple twiddling started. I just try to keep holding her hand or putting my hand or something over the nipple so she can't get to it. At one point I was trying to start her on a lovey but she would pick it up and wave it around. I thought it was too distracting so I stopped, but now I am thinking of bringing it back to give her something to occupy her hands. Maybe try something like that - something else to occupy his hands??