Extended Breastfeeding Moms, how often do you nurse your child?

My son is almost 10 months and is on table foods. I still nurse him pretty much after every meal as long as he wants to. I am planning on nursing him until his 2nd birthday and am wondering how often I should be nursing him. Also, any advice would be great. Thanks!!

Another question I have is should I continue to nurse my son when he wakes up at night. I know he should be capable of sleeping through the night at his age, but could he really just be hungry? He still sleeps in our room, and most of the time we co-sleep.

After a year there is no 'right way' to nurse. Some toddlers still nurse many times a day. Some only nurse at bed and nap time. Whatever works for you is fine.

ETA: Co-sleeping babies tend to nurse at night for longer periods that other babies. The milk is right there, so they wake and eat often. It does him no harm, and if you're fine with it there's no reason to change anything. If you would like him to sleep the night, you will probably have to move him out of your bed/room first. He won't be able to understand why you are refusing him the breast if he's in bed with you.

When my daughter was 12 months old we still nursed every two to three hours during the day (not the night). We weaned at 12 months, but I'm planning on nursing well into the second year with the baby I am pregnant with now.

Since solid foods would make up the bulk of the diet as a toddler, I think we will certainly cut back on the number of feedings during the day, but probably much of my daughter's fluids will still come from breastmilk when she's over a year old.. So I'm thinking every four hours or so. That's about how often a person drinks. I'm sure that much of the nursing that we will do will be for comfort as well, not just for nutrition or fluids.

My son is 18 months old and nurses about 6-8 times a day, and 2 times at night.

Each child is different, so your child's needs may be different. Do whatever works best for the both of you. As for nursing at night, there is no reason you should have to wean if you don't want to. I know that sometimes I could use a drink of water or even a little snack when I wake up at night, so that is why I will nurse my son if he wakes. It is also a great comfort to him. We co-sleep so it really isn't a problem. But if you would like to night-wean, there is nothing wrong with doing so.

hi there i am still nursing my 10 month old son as well. i nurse him whenever he is hungry, or wants to really.
i have to work on the night feedings though, but other then that i am happy with it.
he does eat table foods, but only breast for drinking.
i will wean him when he is about 1. i dont think i could go as long as 2 years, no offence, to each their own
good luck

Good Job! My son is 26 months, we still nurse about twice a day, once for nap, and once for sleep.
At this point it would depend if he was getting other sources for his drink, like whole milk. If he isn't then about 4-6 times a day. He'll still be good at letting you know what he wants and how much.

Once he's one, feel free to put whatever limits you want on breastfeeding, but until then you should breastfeed on demand. For me, after my first turned one, I had planned to wean but then I found he still really needed the nursing, especially the connection to me. So we kept going but I dropped the nursings I didn't like (middle of the night) and kept the ones that were fine (early morning, before nap & bed). He self-weaned at 22 mo when I was pregnant with #2, and the last nursing he gave up was early morning. It was clearly his favorite.

With number 2, I'm still nursing and he turned 2 last month. He skips days sometimes, and we don't have a regular routine, but usually he nurses first thing in the morning (almost always) and before bed (most of the time). Occasionally we will nurse after nap if he is really clingy or grumpy. And yesterday he was having a tough day, and he asked me for nummies, so we had a little nurse in the mid-morning.

I would start now with teaching him a sign (we used him patting his chest) and a word for nursing, so that he doesn't develop the bad habit of pulling at your shirt to nurse. There's a great article on KellyMom on nursing manners that I started with both boys at around 5-6 mo.

BTW - at 10 mo, my first was down to 5 times a day, my second was about the same.