Women’s Health Blog

When your baby has stopped breast feeding and gets
all of his nutrition from other sources than the
breast, he’s actually considered weaned. Even
though babies are also weaned from the bottle as
well, the term weaning often refers to when a
baby is stopped from breast feeding.

When weaning is a mother’s idea, it normally
requires a lot of patience and can take time,
depending on the age of your baby or toddler,
and also how well your child adjusts. The
overall experience is different for everyone.

Weaning is a long goodbye, sometimes emotional
and sometimes painful. It doesn’t however, signal
fo the end to the intimacy you and your child
have developed during the nursing stage. What it
means, is that you have to replace breast feeding
with other types of nourishment.

Starting weaning
Your the best judge as to when it’s the right
time to wean, and you don’t really have a
deadline unless you and your child are actually
ready to wean. The recommended time for weaning
is one year. No matter what relatives, friends,
or even complete strangers tell you, there is
no right or wrong time for weaning.

How to wean
You should proceed slowly, regardless of what
the age of your child may be. Experts say
that you shouldn’t abruptly withhold your breast,
as they results can be traumatic. You should
however, try these methods instead:
1. Skip a feeding – Skip a feeding and
see what happens, offering a cup of milk to your
baby instead. As a substitue, you can use a
bottle of your own pumped milk, formula, or a
cow’s milk. If you reduce feedings one at a
time, your child will eventually adjust to the
changes.
2. Shorten feeding time – You can start
by cutting the length of time your child is
actually at the breast. If the normal feeding
time is 5 minuts, try 3. Depending on the age,
follow the feeding with a healthy snack. Bed
time feedings are usually the hardest to wean,
as they are normally the last to go.
3. Postpone and distract – You can
postpone feedings if you are only feeding a couple
of times per day. This method works great if
you have an older child you can actually reason
with. If your child wants the breast, say that
you’ll feed later then distract him.

If you’ve tried everything and weaning doesn’t
seem to be working at all, maybe the time just
isn’t right. You can wait just a bit longer
to see what happens, as your child and you have
to determine the right time to wean together.

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Breast milk is actually the only food your baby
will need until 4 months of age, although most
babies do well on breast milk alone for 6 months
or better. There is really no advantage to
adding other foods or milks before 4 – 6 months,
except under unusual circumstances.

Water
Breast milk is over 90% water. Even in the
hottest days of summer, a baby won’t require any
extra water. If a baby isn’t feeding well, they
still don’t require any extra water – although
they will need the breast feeding problems to
be fixed.

Vitamin D
Although breast milk doesn’t contain much vitamin
D, it does have a little. The baby will store up
vitamin D during pregnancy, and remain healthy
without any vitamin D supplementation, unless you
yourself had a problem with vitamin D deficiency
when pregnant.

Exposure to the outside will give your baby
vitamin D, even in winter and when the sky is
covered. An hour or more exposure during the
week will give your baby more than enough vitamin
D.

Iron
Breast milk contains less iron than formulas do,
especially those that are iron enriched. Iron
will give the baby added protection against
infections, as many bacteria need iron in order
to multiply.

The iron found in breast milk is utilized well
by the baby, while not being available to
bacteria. The introduction of iron should
never be delayed beyond the age of 6 months.

Breast milk is the best that your can feed
your baby, as it provides everything he will
need for probably the first 6 months. After
the first 6 months, you can introduce solid
foods to your baby if he is taking an interest
to them.

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When you hold your baby for the first time in the
delivery room, you should put his lips to your
breast. Although your mature milk hasn’t developed
yet, your breasts are still producing a substance
known as colostrum that helps to protect your baby
from infections.

If your baby has trouble finding or staying on
your nipple, you shouldn’t panic. Breast feeding is
an art that will require a lot of patience and a
lot of practice. No one expects you to be an
expert when you first start, so you shouldn’t
hesitate to ask for advice or have a nurse show you
what you need to do.

Once you start, keep in mind that nursing shouldn’t
be painful. When your baby latches on, pay attention
to how your breasts feel. If the latching on
hurts, break the suction then try again.

You should nurse quite frequently, as the more
you nurse the more quickly your mature milk will
come in and the more milk you’ll produce. Breast
feeding for 10 – 15 minutes per breast 8 – 10 times
every 24 hours is an ideal target. Crying is a
sign of hunger, which means you should actually
feed your baby before he starts crying.

During the first few days, you may have to wake
your baby to begin breast feeding, and he may end
up falling asleep during feeding. To ensure that
your baby is eating often enough, you should wake
him up if it has been four hours since the last
time he has been fed.

Getting comfortable
Feedings can take 40 minutes or longer, therefore
you’ll want a cozy spot. You don’t want to be
sitting somewhere where you will be bothered, as it
can make the process very hard.

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