Background: Breastfeeding is the process of giving a child breast milk that is either expressed or given straight from the breast. It is advised that nursing begin as soon as the baby is born, be continued exclusively for six months, and then resumed for up to two years. The study aims to assess the time to nursing cessation and related factors among mothers of children ages two to three in Bishoftu town, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia, in 2022.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design centered on the community was carried out. The study comprised 389 mothers in total. Through in-person interviews, a pretested, structured questionnaire was used to gather data. After that, it was imported into EpiData 4.4.2 and exported to SPSS 25 for examination. To describe the data, descriptive statistics were calculated. Cox-proportional hazards regression models, both univariate and multivariable, were utilized to find the factors linked to the time until nursing cessation. The intensity of the link was reported using both crude and adjusted hazard ratios (AHR) with a 95% confidence interval. A HR of P<0.05 was deemed statistically significant.

Result: A total of 389 mothers participated in the study, with a response rate of 97.7%. The incident rate of cessation of breastfeeding before 2 years of age is 48.09 per 1,000-person month. In the multivariate Cox regression model, mother’s occupation (AHR = 1.593, 95% CI; 1.130, 2.247), having a younger child (AHR = 2.40, 95% CI, 1.735, 3.319), singleton pregnancy (AHR = 0.483, 95% CI, 0.335, 0.697), use of formula milk (AHR = 1.588, 95% CI, 1.217, 2.071), reactive HIV status (AHR = 18.89, 95% CI, 10.44, 34.16), and unknown HIV status (AHR = 0.418, 95% CI: 0.217, 0.806) were significantly associated with time to the cessation of breastfeeding.

Conclusion: There is a significant incidence of breastfeeding discontinuation.