How many times a day do you nurse your toddler?

[@llli*lbc]

Right now my 14 month old breast feeds morning and before bed, and gets 2 servings of breast milk during the day (I pump x2 at work still). So on weekends, I'm nursing 4x, morning, before each nap (2), then bedtime (not nursing to sleep, but should probably break that sleep/feed association, though during the week milk and naps are not as tied together).

During the week, she leaves 2 or so oz milk behind half the time or more. I think she drinks more milk when I'm around, thought doesn't really initiate it outside of our set times.

I'm just thinking it's time to drop another feeding. I'm curious for any thoughts about nursing at this age, nursing before naps, and most basically wonder this: how many times a day to you nurse your toddler?

TIA

[@llli*nathansmum]

My 14 month old nurses at bedtime, around midnight, first thing in the morning, before his nap at 1, once in the late afternoon/early evening, and sometimes one extra morning session as well, such as today- he is having a morning nap.
So he is nursing 5 or 6 times a day. Unless we are out most of the day, then a timely car or stroller ride gets him to sleep and he will eat more solid food.
I have no interest in trying to break the sleep/nursing association yet because it is the easiest way for me to get him to sleep.
Why mess with a good thing?

[@llli*pteroglossus]

I've never counted, but.....At least 4 times during night, once to sleep at night, 1-3 times in AM, 1 for nap, often 1 mid-nap ....., and 1-3 in evening...

total: 8-13 times.

then there are special days like today when she couldn't seem to fall asleep for nap, and I nursed 3 times on each breast....yow! and last night she kept waking herself up with farts and wanting to nurse back to sleep, probably 20 times over night.

She is 20 mo and eats a ton of solids but breastfeeding is her main source of liquid.

[@llli*zaynethepain]

Ds is 25 months old. He nurses upon waking, after I eat breakfast, 2-4 more times before nap, down for nap, once mid-nap, after nap, 2-4 more times in the evening, down to sleep, and anywhere between 1-6 times over night. Although he did sleep straight through the other night. He has molars coming in right now and has been running a low grade fever on and off for two weeks now. Before that he was spacing nursing sessions out 3-4 hours so maybe 8 times a day. He eats a huge amount of solids too. I'm doing more child-led weaning. The feed/sleep association is something children will naturally grow out of if it's someone is telling you it must be a broken habit. If YOU are done, then I totally understand. Nursing 3-5 times a day is enough to fufill her "dairy" requirements. If you drop under that, you'll need to introduce another type of milk.

[@llli*mommy2lilah]

Trixie is 30 months old and I only let her nurse once in the morning now. At 14 months she was still nursing like an infant - as in, on demand. I didn't pump at work and she drank cow's milk when we were apart, but she nursed all day and all night long when we were together. We stopped nursing to sleep when she was 22 or 23 months old and then fully night-weaned at around 25 months old. She was at twice a day for a while between then and recently whne I started restricting her to only upon wake up.

Are you feeling like you want to move towards weaning and that is why you need to drop a feeding?

[@llli*nola]

Mine is 16 months and nurses 1-3 times most days (24 hours) but I wish it was more. My others as toddlers it was WAY more like 6-12 times a day until after 2 when it dropped down to 1-3 times until weaning.

[@llli*alphawoman]

DS20mo probably nurses about 10-12x/day. Nursing is still his self-selected primary source of nutrition, so we're probably on the high frequency end.

Our nursing day usually looks something like this:
- Wake and nurse
- Nurse after breakfast
- Nurse to nap
- Nurse upon waking
- Nurse at least 3 more times through the afternoon
- Nurse to sleep
- Nurse 3-4x overnight

[@llli*andie613]

My LO is 13 months. I stay at home with him now, so we nurse for AM nap, PM nap, at bedtime, and once overnight, for a total of 4x/day. I will be returning to work full time in about a month, so I will need to wean from the naptime nursings and teach him another way to nap so poor DH won't have so much trouble getting him to nap. My original goal was to bf for 1 yr, and I made it, and now I'm thinking I will continue bedtime and overnight until he's ready to wean, maybe at 18 months?