By Courtney P.

You can read part one of Courtney’s story in last week’s blog post.

Weaning is talked about far less than starting to breastfeed, and I think that’s part of why it can feel so lonely or disorienting when you’re going through it. Child-led weaning has gained real visibility over the past decade, which I’m glad to see; more families now have language for a gradual, child-paced approach, instead of assuming weaning has to be abrupt or forced. It reminds me of something La Leche League (LLL) has often said: that ”Ideally, the breastfeeding relationship continues until the child outgrows the need, on their own timeline.” But even with that shift, resources that are actually made for the child, not just the parent, are still scarce.

In my own corner of the world, continuing to breastfeed past infancy already felt isolating. A book alone can’t fix that, but more visible and available resources can at least begin to ease the loneliness of this final stage of breastfeeding. If a family is navigating that kind of isolation, the least we can do is make sure the resources that do exist are easier to find.

And, as I wrote about before, I ended up writing the book I wish already existed for my son. I didn’t get to publish it until over ten years later; so, my son lived the experience that now other toddlers can read about. Back then, there was almost nothing. Today, there are a few more books on weaning than were when I started. But “a few more” is still not many.

And this is where LLL proves to be so valuable. LLL is a trusted organization with a history of providing information and support to mothers as they start breastfeeding through to the equally important conclusion of breastfeeding.

LLL is a wealth of resources on this topic, with a hearty serving of weaning stories right here on this blog and more coming all the time. And, as you’d expect from the leader in peer-to-peer breastfeeding support, LLL also has great informational articles about weaning, plus a recommended book list that’s always being updated. While LLL is an obvious place to go for these resources, we want to challenge other sites, media outlets, and authors to put out more articles, books, shows, and podcasts about this equally important part of the breastfeeding journey.

Studies have found that toddlers as young as 18 months can watch a character in a picture book do something, and then do it themselves days later. Even three-year-olds will shift how they cope with a hard moment after seeing a character do it first. There’s a term for this: developmental bibliotherapy. Put simply, it means a story helping a child through something hard. The story acts less like an instruction manual and more like a fellow traveler, a character already going through the same thing, walking beside a child rather than explaining to them. A strategy guide couldn’t have done that for my son. An illustrated story book story could.

Every parent going through a hard, quiet, under-discussed stage of feeding their child deserves to find something on the shelf, or in a blog like this one, that tells them: this has a name, other people have lived it, and here is a way to talk about it with your own child.

I wrote the book I wished my son had had, Saying Bye-Bye to Mama’s Milk: A Gentle Weaning Story. I hope more of us keep writing the ones we wish we’d had, too — and that organizations like La Leche League keep making sure families know where to look.

Send your stories to Kylie at [email protected]

Supporting Breastfeeding Families–Today, Tomorrow, Always

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