Nursies When the Sun Shines: A little book on nightweaning

Product Information

While we try to keep our kids from handling non-board books, it's difficult to read to 16mo twins and not have them want to turn the page or handle the book. In Nursies, a toussle-haired toddler is snuggled up in bed with mom and dad, ready to go to sleep for the night, the family's grey striped cat snoozing soundly at their feet. Everything about the book is thoughtful: the child is not gender-specific; the words are pitched perfectly for our nursling children. Nursies When the Sun Shines is a godsend to parents of nursing toddlers, exhausted from late night wakings for milk. We don't have much sun in the Pacific Northwest in the winter--I use a color-changing light to mark morning instead--but the book still helped prepare Lily for the concept, which was invaluable.

I was hesitant to choose this one but was hoping the beautiful illustrations mentioned would win us over. When reading, I replaced the word with "mama milk" which is what I refer to it for my son Forrest and his head kinda perked up like "hmm" and he paid attention to the story - so did my older daughter. We are just about to try night weaning so I am reading it to her and at 22 months she seems to enjoy it. It is used like a proper noun, with no explanation, and only a single picture at the end displays what it is.My book is Nursies When the Sun Shines and it’s a book that is meant to help moms communicate with their toddlers that nursing is for the daytime and that nighttime is for sleeping. I'm not sure that it was this book alone that did it, but it definitely seemed to help her get the idea of waiting until morning to nurse, and for that I am extremely thankful.

And while we do this occasionally, I am not interested in promoting it as a way to night wean my toddler. Motherhood changed me in so many ways and my journey became about making the world a gentler place for babies and children. I read it to them a few times while nursing so they'd be distracted (and not want to touch the book) but overall I wasn't impressed with the story.

It's obviously a family affair, and the dad is clearly present on almost every page, but for some reason he's left out of the text. It’s in the same vein as Nursies in that it helps parents communicate a difficult concept to their toddlers/pre-schoolers. The book closes with a heart-warming illustration of a nursing family: the toddler, nuzzled up to mama's breast, daddy kissing toddler's head, and even the family cat purring a love song. If you don't co-sleep this probably wouldn't work because it's all about the family sleeping together - but it's perfect for the majority who are looking for gentle night weaning help. The sentence structure is a simple lullaby format, so the lack of a straightforward description is understandable.