!44: The Weaning Strategy - When to Let Your Child Stop Breastfeeding

!±8± The Weaning Strategy - When to Let Your Child Stop Breastfeeding

Weaning is normally defined as when a baby or child stops breastfeeding and starts feeding from other sources of nutrients like the regular food or meals including fruits and vegetables. Weaning similarly applies when the child stops bottle-feeding and solid food is gradually introduced for the child's now regular consumption.

Mothers may be well advised to practice some patience when they start weaning their children from breastfeeding as this cannot be made abruptly. Consider as well the fact that the child to be weaned will need some adjustment. This implies that both mother and child will have to both agree when and how the weaning should be made. Every mother and child has different weaning experiences. After all, adjustments needed to go through as breastfeeding is not merely about a mother feeding her child but also about nurtured emotional bonding.

But weaning should not spell the end for this kind of unique mother-child bonding experience, an experience which both have developed since the child's birth through the early precious months or even years of the child's life. Weaning simply means that it is time for your child to move on to a different level of feeding and nourishment

Since the suggested period of weaning is after one year, still consider both your and your child's readiness to do this. No one else really knows when you and your child are ready to wean so no matter what other people tell you, there really is no absolute time to follow to wean. It is best left to you and your child when to do it.

It is also wisely suggested that weaning should be made slowly, regardless of the child's age during this period. According to experts, a breastfeeding mother should never hold back her breast abruptly as this could prove emotionally distressing for the child. There are some methods, however, which you could try in order to successfully wean your child from breastfeeding:

1. Miss out a feeding - to miss out or deliberately skip a feeding for your child during the periods when he or she expects it can be tried. Rather than breastfeed, try to offer the child a cup of milk. You may also use your own pumped milk, a formula milk or a cow's milk set in a bottle. Then gradually reduce the number of feedings until your child slowly adjusts to this alteration.

2. Cut down feeding time - cutting down the usual length of time your child is breastfeeding may also work for both of you. To substitute the reduced feeding time, give your child a healthy snack or small meal; the food substitute may vary depending on the child's age and supplemental needs. Remember, however, that bed-time feedings are normally the most difficult time for weaning as they are usually the last stage in feeding time.

3. Delay and divert - delaying and distracting a child from feeding is easier to do when the child is older. The older child can be reasoned with, his or her attention can easily be diverted to other things other than feeding from your breast. For the younger child, this can prove effective only when you are only feeding a few times each day.

If, in case you have done every safe trick to wean your child and nothing seems to work just yet, then perhaps it is not yet time. Try waiting some more and maybe in time you will both discover when and how weaning can be possible for both of you.