How to wean your baby

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Weaning a child from the breast is a responsible process. how to wean a child from breastfeeding and carry out this process as comfortably as possible for the baby and the mother.

Breastfeeding is a bond between mother and baby, there is a lot of tenderness and love in it. But it is also a big burden and the constant need to be at home. When a woman thinks about weaning her baby, many questions immediately arise. Most of all, mothers worry about when can this process begin and how to carry it out?

How to wean from breastfeeding: a last resort

There are situations in life when the question of how to wean a mother from breastfeeding arises too early. The decision to urgently stop lactation must be dictated by compelling reasons. Indeed, in most cases, you can find ways to continue breastfeeding, adapting to different circumstances. As a rule, this requires much less sacrifice and effort than the exhausting struggle with your own milk. According to consultants on breastfeeding problems, about 70% of mothers who decide to wean from breastfeeding earlier than nature intended, return to it again over the next 2-3 weeks. Moreover, the younger the child, the more often the weaning attempt fails. In addition, breast doctors warn that many problems, including cancer, with which women turn to them already in adulthood, have their origins in improper completion of breastfeeding.

How to compensate for the lack of milk

Be there for your child and show him lots of love.
Well, turn the child’s attention away from the boobs. In the second half of the year, breastfeeding continues to give the baby a sense of security and comfort after the painful experience of exploring the world. Feedings are gradually replaced with other meals and attractive activities. And emotional needs, embrace, talk, kiss.

The second year of life is a time of increasing independence, but the breast can still be important to the baby. Instead, offer your child more adult ways to express love, for example, reading books together, reading fairy tales, and hugging more often.

What not to do when weaning from breastfeeding

When weaning from breastfeeding, hide from the baby, that is, leave him alone. It will be stressful for him. Being with you, it is easier to endure difficult emotions, and will enter a new stage without a feeling of loss. He will know that the absence of breasts is not the absence of love. This difficult step towards adulthood will be taken together with your mother.

If you feel like you stopped breastfeeding too early, it would be good to go back to it. This may be evidenced by unfavorable changes in the child's behavior: frequent awakenings during the night, bad mood and whining during the day, thumb sucking, fear of long separation from mother, aggression towards brothers and sisters. If the baby cannot accept change, maybe it is worth compromising and respecting the child's needs? And try again in a few days or a few weeks. Then everything can go without problems, be patient, this is your beloved baby.

How to wean off breastfeeding in a short time

If circumstances still force you to decide how to wean yourself from breastfeeding in a short time, it is better to do this under the supervision of a specialist, mammologist or gynecologist. Your doctor may prescribe medications that suppress lactation. But don't expect pills to immediately solve your problem. Much depends on the type of lactation you have, the age of the baby, the level of prolactin production in your body and a number of other factors. It happens that the medicine only briefly reduces milk production, but as soon as the drug is stopped, lactation resumes. Once you have taken the first pill, you can no longer put your baby to your breast. On the one hand, this is associated with danger for the baby (such drugs have strong side effects). On the other hand, a baby suckling at the breast stimulates lactation, while the medicine suppresses it at the same time. From such contradictory commands, the mother’s nervous and endocrine systems can malfunction. Be also prepared for the fact that at first you may need to pump your breasts quite often.

How to wean from breastfeeding: what to do with breasts?

So, you stopped putting your baby to your breast and started expressing the incoming milk six times a day. Now the main task is to reduce the volume of expressed milk to a minimum. Try not to empty your breasts completely. Every 2-3 days, reduce the volume of milk expressed at a time by 10-15 ml. When you can express no more than 50 ml at a time, begin to increase the intervals between pumping. By increasing the time intervals, after a few days you will be able to displace one pumping, there will be five left. Now you will express your breasts almost completely three times, and only pump the milk twice until you feel relief. After a few days, try to only pump three times a day. Of these, express completely once (preferably in the morning), and only pump the breast twice. After 3-4 days, you will only have one pumping session left, which you can gradually give up as well.

How to wean from breastfeeding: formula milk

We have figured out how to wean you off breastfeeding, but there is one more important point. Babies in the first months of life will have to be switched to artificial feeding. Now you will have to maintain clear intervals between feeding your baby - at least 3 hours during the day and 6 hours at night. When measuring the right amount of formula, it is very important to focus on the weight and age of the baby. Pediatricians advise following the following standards: in the first 2 months of life, the daily volume of the mixture should be 1/5 of body weight, at 2-4 months - 1/6 of weight, at 4-6 - 1/7 of weight, and after 6 months - 1/8, 1/9 of body weight. Please also note that when feeding a formula, the baby should be given additional food.

Why wean your baby?

Understanding how difficult and lengthy the process of weaning off breastfeeding can be, many mothers doubt whether to start. You can often hear the opinion that parents are not going to take any measures, because sooner or later the child will get tired of his mother’s breast, and he will refuse it himself.

However, many factors speak in favor of the fact that after a year the child needs to be weaned from this habit. Among these nuances are:

1. The maximum value of mother's milk for the health and development of the child lies in the first six months; further benefits begin to decline.
2. After 12 months of breastfeeding, mother's milk has virtually no value for the child's development, and can interfere with the adult's consumption of healthy foods rich in essential vitamins and microelements.
3. Waking up at night and sleeping next to the mother will not give the child the opportunity to fully rest without waking up. After a year, the baby should learn to sleep all night on his own.
4. Falling asleep near the breast and waking up at night exhaust the mother, whose body is also significantly exhausted after the first year of the child’s life. Separate sleeping will be beneficial for all family members.

The famous pediatrician Evgeniy Komarovsky names another compelling argument why after the child’s first birthday it is time to wean him off breastfeeding: “A woman who breastfed her child for a year after birth has fulfilled her maternal duty one hundred percent. And he can “indulge” in the implementation of social tasks.”

How to wean yourself from breastfeeding: tips for moms

• Infusions of herbs such as sage and peppermint have a depressing effect on lactation. Alcohol compresses also reduce milk production, but they can be used only in cases where there is no congestion or inflammation in the breast.
• Do not use the advice of your friends to endure it, despite the high temperature, and wait until the milk burns out on its own.
• Do not under any circumstances overtighten your chest. Everyone understands what troubles can arise if, for example, a hand is pulled tightly: disruption of lymph flow, blood circulation, and oxygen supply to tissues is a serious matter. But over-tightening the chest is even more dangerous. Breast tissue is very delicate, easily injured, and microtraumas combined with congestion often lead to mastitis.

How to wean children from breastfeeding after 1 year

• When you decide to wean off breastfeeding, always have some very exciting activity or game ready to quickly distract the child from the idea of ​​breastfeeding at the right time. It is better to prepare options for such “distractions” in advance.
• Provide yourself with activities that do not require long periods of sitting still. As usual, upon seeing “easy prey” in the form of a mother chatting with a friend on the phone in a chair, the baby gladly rushes to her to suck.
• The “1000 kisses” method has proven itself well. Let your child feel that weaning does not mean the loss of mother's love. Hug, kiss, praise the baby more often. This will give him peace of mind and confidence.
• Pamper your baby with something tasty from time to time. Prepare his favorite dishes so that your child always feels full and satisfied.
• Organize a watering hole. Place the mug or sippy cup in an accessible place. Let him always have clean water, compote or fruit drink at hand.
• People, both big and small, do not like to do what they force. Try to persistently offer the breast in the midst of an interesting game, hold the baby at the breast when he wants to go about his important business. If breastfeeding turns from fun into a boring chore, the baby will soon begin to avoid it.
• Choose the right time. The time when you decide to wean from breastfeeding should not coincide with other exciting events in the baby’s life: moving to a new place, leaving the parent’s bed, or entering kindergarten
• Delay weaning if your baby has just had an illness or is cutting another tooth. It is also advisable to ask the question of how to wean from breastfeeding; do not plan it during the hot months, when the likelihood of encountering intestinal infections is high; you should not do this during a flu epidemic or in early spring, when the immune system is weakened.

Gradual weaning

The best way to wean is gradual. To implement it you will not need medications. Simply replace breastfeeding with human food (in adequate portions). So, gradually, stop breastfeeding during the day. But continue to breastfeed your baby at night and at night. Then offer your baby a delicious porridge for dinner, do not feed it at night. This is especially difficult to do, because most babies fall asleep next to their beloved “sissy”, having sucked their mother’s milk to their heart’s content. But believe me, your inflexibility is worth it. Then stop feeding at night. This usually doesn't happen without a fight. The child may have tantrums. Try to give your baby a bottle of baby kefir or an adapted formula; keep a pacifier ready if your baby sucks on it. In short, you just have to get over it. At some point, you will catch yourself thinking that it’s easier to just give up on everything and give up the breast, and everything will be over. However, remember, this problem will not be solved on its own, and you will again return to your trough. So, we must be patient and go straight towards our goal - weaning. Just remember, your milk supply has already decreased, spontaneously, you are already at the beginning of the final stage, you need to be patient a little more! Weaning is a process that every mother goes through and each one has almost the same questions:

• At what age can you quickly wean your baby off the breast?
• How to wean as painlessly as possible for your baby

To make the process go faster, before stopping night feedings, you need to demonstrate and tell the child that you need to say goodbye to your boobs. Here, popular rumor offers many options. For example, you need to start walking with the child in closed clothes, so that access to the body, as they say, is closed. Distract from the breast by any means. Stock up on everything your child loves. Offer him tasty and healthy food. One day your baby will stop trying to reach your breast.