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You have decided that your child needs to be weaned. Now what? There are many different approaches to weaning your baby off of breast milk. You can consider all of them viable options, so long as they do work for you. Not everything will though. Your first order of business is to make sure your child is ready. To do this, make sure they are old enough and getting enough calories from the food they are taking in. If so, consider these three methods. #1: Skipping A Feeding Perhaps the simplest of methods is to simply skip a feeding. Just do not do a breastfeeding and see how your child reacts. Instead of breastfeeding, give them a cup of breast milk or formula. This is perhaps one of the best ways since you will only drop a feeding once every week or so. Over the next few weeks, not only will the child adapt to the no more breastfeeding, but also so will your body. #2: Older Children Can Postpone If your child is old enough to talk with, distract them during the times when you would normally breastfeed them. Instead of actually going t sit and breastfeed, take the child outdoors for a walk at that time. This way, the child has something to occupy his time. If she does ask for breastfeeding, let them you will do that later. Distract them from it. #3: Shorten Time The final method of weaning allows for the breastfeeding mother to simply shorten the amount of time that the child is nursing. Be sure the child is getting all of the food he or she needs from another source, such as a healthy snack. Then, slowly cut back on the amount of time they are breastfeeding. Go from five minutes down to three minutes, down to two and so on. Feedings should dwindle. If you doing this with a child that is under six months of age, it is important to switch to a bottle feeding schedule so that no nutrients are lacked. These three methods are only three options. There are plenty of other methods out there, too. The goal you should have is weaning your baby slowly so that there is no sudden stopping which can affect them emotionally. When you accomplish this, you and the child will be on a path to improving their ability to stop breastfeeding and your ability to stop worrying about it. The weaning process can be difficult and it can often leave both mother and child wishing for a few more months (or longer) of the process. Once the time has come to wean your child from breastfeeding, it can be wonderful. If you invest the time in making it a good step in the right direction, everyone will benefit from it. Here are some tips to help you to make weaning easier. 1. When you would usually be nursing, introduce your child to something that is fun or new to them. Better yet, take them outside to play during this time. They will not even think about breastfeeding if you occupy them enough during this time. 2. Don't wear the clothing that you normally wear when nursing. This keeps this signal to breastfeed off his mind. Instead of sitting in your normal nursing spot, choose other places in the room to sit. Again, it breaks the connection. 3. For children that are under a year old, you will likely be replacing a breastfeeding session with a bottle or sometimes a cup. Do so when you would normally be feeding the child. This allows the child to correlate the process of breastfeeding with the bottle. 4. For children that are older than one year old, you will need to be a bit more creative in choosing something to fill this time. Instead of breastfeeding, encourage a healthy snack to them. You may want to encourage a healthy juice instead. You may want to skip the food altogether and just plan some time to cuddle together. 5. Make sure there are distractions when normal breastfeeding times are. Dad can help out here. Encourage dad to spend time doing something fun with the child during this time. 6. Don't wean them while they are teething or whenever there is another change happening in their lives. You do not want them to be emotionally scarred by the event! Allow them to adapt to other changes first then introduce the weaning process. 7. Notice that your child may pick up another soothing habit, such as sucking a thumb or holding on to a blanket. This should be okay and not discouraged since they are simply looking for the security from it. Allow them to make the emotional break like this. Encouraging breastfeeding during any of these instances shouldn't be done. By taking these steps, you can safely help your child to transition away from the breastfeeding. Allowing Your Child To Naturally Wean According to the American Academy of Paediatrics recommends that baby's are not forced to wean at all. They also recommend that a mother breastfeeds for at least a full year. The World Health Organization has a different view. There, they encourage children to be breastfeed until they are two years old. Still, there is no limit to when you have to stop and there is absolutely no reason to do so before the child is ready to do so. You should allow your child to wean off breastfeeding when it is natural for them to do so. Allow your child to make the decision when to breastfeed. Most babies will stop breastfeeding between the ages of 12 months and 18 months but others may take a little longer to be ready to do so. What are some of the benefits of this natural process? Keep these in mind. · If the baby makes the move to more solid foods and is okay with missing their breastfeeding session, allow it. This shows that they are confident and no longer need the security of your breast to allow the process of feeding to happen. · Allow your child to breastfeed longer and you can skip the bottle need altogether. Many children go from breastfeeding directly to drinking fluids out of a cup. They do not need to spend countless nights struggling with a bottle then. You get to skip the cost of the bottles too. · Allow our child to determine when to stop breastfeeding and you do not go through the withdrawal of the process. As they naturally replace their meals from the breast with meals from the table, they will get used to the process. So will you. Many mothers struggle with this process because it can be highly limiting to know that your child is no longer breastfeeding. Take the process one step at a time. They may be peaked by a new taste for breakfast and may feel better about eating what their brother or sister is. Most children can breastfeed well past the age of one without a problem. When you allow them to naturally stop breastfeeding, you both come out as winners. They avoid many of the risks children who are fed face. Plus, they are more comfortable with the transition if they are part of the move to stop breastfeeding. You may find that this enables you to be more readily willing to stop, too. Back To Top Next Page |
