Breastfeeding a toddler

I stopped at a year. Not ever met anyone who went beyond that myself.

i think its about what you want. If youre not bothered by night feedings, then dont worry, but at 3, you must be desperate for a full nights sleep if shes still waking to feed. Id be inclined to try and stop it and offer water, or try and cut down to a feed before bed and then tell her no more till tommorow night, cos chances are shes waking for comfort, and she'll get more beneft from learning how to sleep through, than she will be from your milk at this age.
Maybe tell her that when shes 3, then no more, and have some ceremony to celebrate becoming a big girl?
then stick to it

I stopped at 15 months. Advice like this would be better sought at babycenter.com, they have boards specific to this type of question.

I stopped nursing my 1st when i was 18 weeks pregnant with my second, he was about 20 months. My second i stopped nursing at 2 years and 4 months. There was only 1 feed at that age, a bed time one and she just gradually weaned herself as she got more interested in a bedtime story. The only problem i now need to solve is that at 3 1/2 she still co-sleeps :laugh:

I have quite a number of friends who have nursed past the 2 year mark. Hope that helps

is it more a comfort thing to get her back to sleep??? will she go to sleep without actually nursing? I know lots of people who nurse toddlers...you're not a freak. you do whatever it is that works. i personally stopped nursing as soon as the little bugger learned to bite...13 months.

Props to you for being a rockstar mommy! I think at this age, it's mainly a comfort thing. I have a 3yo and she only BF for maybe 2 months. I don't know what happened, but she would try to latch on & then just scream. Within a week her weight loss was noticeable, and I had to put her on formula. I was envious and secretly bitter toward every mom who got to nurse their babies past 6 months! I felt inadequate. So I bow to your nursing prowess!
There's no shame in breast feeding. Michael Jordan was BF past age 3.

Now on to weaning. Can I beg a favor of you? As you wean your baby (whenever YOU decide to), donate your remaining supply to local chapter of Eats on Feets. I would have loved to have known about them before when I was unable to BF my babe.

Personally, I weaned my older son at 1 yr. and my "baby" (now 20-lol) at between 14-15 months due to an ear infection during initial attempts at weaning at ~12-13 months and on the advice of his pediatrician who felt that nursing would be beneficial for his Eustachian tube function until the ear infection resolved.

I know of a very few people and have one friend who nursed their child at the age of 3-4. I, however, think if they are old enough to ask for it; they are too old to get it! Lol! My personal opinion for me only. Humans are the only creatures that even drink milk (cow, goat, etc.) past the physically necessary age to wean to solid foods.

Talk to your pediatrician or dentist for advice regarding possible negative physical effects. It seems to me (again, my opinion only) that nursing a toddler+ is more of an emotional attachment for both mother and child than one to meet the physical needs of the child. Perhaps another bonding routine could be substituted to continue the closeness and still allow the child to advance to a different stage of development if you're ready to wean and feel uneasy about continuing.

Before I had my children they thought that the benefits for the mother of breastfeeding was only for younger mothers and for the child only for 6 months. Now they have found a relationship between the number of total years breastfeeding and lower incidences of breast cancer. Even though they didn't know that then I was big on breastfeeding. My kids slowed down by one and yes they were weaned by about 2 but I really found some benefits to continuing. There were many times my daughter would get sick and the only liquid she could keep down was breastmilk. I introduce milk late in their diets because I wanted to reduce the likelihood of food allergies. They are half asian descent so I wasn't sure how they would do with it and they might have a better chance if I held off. They both are fine with milk. The only reason my daughter was weaned when she was is that my mother was in a bad accident and I had to go to care for her. It just ended in being the best chance. So I have never regretted and in fact was thankful that I did nurse late. I heard other Mom's make statements about not continuing past 6 months since they thought the mothers immunities would have no benefits after that. I felt my kids were much healthier continuing with it longer. And like you it was only pre-nap and pre-bedtime and then just the pre-bedtime. I know I am not answering your question but have run into others who don't see the benefits that I did for my family. I was always supportive of friends who wanted to wean but not always the other way around. I am not sure how long my daughter would have continued otherwise. Anyway for me starting the weaning process before one but completing it sometime in the next year worked. HOpe you get some good information.

My first nursed for 3.3 years and my second nursed until a solid 3 and a half. I am so glad that we had this time (and also so glad that it's now over!) I was always frightened--even the second time when I shoulda known better--that weaning would change things for the negative but of course that's not the case.

It's wonderful to see so many mothers who breasfed at least until age 2. I was breasfed until 3, it used to be a lot more normal. There is nothing wrong with extended breastfeeding. As someone mentioned, the WHO recommends at least age two. Three is no big deal, five - well, I think that's kind of pushing it.