"C. Gregory" ) writes:
Many mothers find that breastfeeding is a relatively easy way to get
toddlers to sleep.

Breastfeeding worked really great, but we just recently weaned, so its not
an option. i love nursing him, but he was getting to the point where i
couldnt sit down without him running up to me going "Nurse, nurse,
nurse!!!!" and pretty much pulling my shirt off. i actually miss it
sometimes though. they were some really nice relaxing times 9when he settled
down,lol). maybe i could teach him that nurse is for nite nite only? has
anyone else done this, and did it work? i dont mind nursing him, i just dont
like him getting all grabby and demanding about it, know what i mean?

Well, I was going to apologize for even mentioning breastfeeding,
because if you weren't breastfeeding it wasn't going to do
much good to mention it. But just possibly it was a good
time to bring it up after all. If you've just weaned, it
may be possible for you to re-start if you want. You may or
may not want to. It's up to you.

Certainly there are lots of people who nurse older children
only at the beginnings of naps and at bedtime. (Or at least,
only at those times as the usual routine. Probably most
would also nurse if a child was badly hurt or sick.) Whether
it would be easy to get into that routine or not, I don't know.

If your main goal is to avoid him being grabby and demanding
about breastfeeding, then the best course would be to
stay weaned. But it may be possible to have the best of
both worlds: the breastfeeding to make the beginnings of
naps easy, without the grabbiness.

If you decide to go that route, what I would suggest is
to decide what you'll do if he's ever grabby, and calmly
do exactly the same thing every time. For example, you
might say "I'm sorry, breastfeeding is for naptime only."
If you use the same words every time he'll get bored
of hearing it and give up asking sooner. You could use
the same response whether he asks nicely or acts grabby:
no matter what, the same answer. He would try a number
of times and eventually give up.

You might have some routine action to go with the
words: hugging him, or standing up and walking
away, or getting him a glass of water. The more
you do the same thing every time he asks, the
faster he'll get the message that you're not
going to give in so why bother asking.

I don't know how many
times he would try, though. Kids can be very, very
persistent about breastfeeding. I think you said he
was three years old? I think it ought to work fairly
well at that age. Their urge to breastfeed isn't as
strong as with younger ones, and they've already
been exposed to some rules and routines.

Since you've already weaned, maybe it wouldn't
be that hard to get him to take a compromise
(nursing only at certain times).


--
Cathy