Breastfeeding your baby, you felt that you gave him the best, healthiest and most environmentally friendly food. But the time of change is approaching.
The baby should start eating differently - you return to work and simply can not feed it as often as it has always been. Or do you understand that the child is already so grown up that it's time to wean him from the mother's milk.
Regardless of how much your child is only a few months or a year old - the end of feeding can be difficult for both of you. Using the recommendations below, you will much easier survive this small loss.
When to start.
Before weaning the baby from mother's milk, make sure that he is ready for this. It is believed that the child's need for sucking gradually decreases in the period from 9 months to 3.5 years. Do not wean the toddler before he turns 3 months, unless there is a good reason for this.
Better gradually.
Before you completely abandon breastfeeding, gradually add to the baby's menu milk mixtures. At first it can be difficult, because not every kid goes seamlessly to a mixture of bottles without problems. Be patient and calmly try again.
Do not rush completely to switch to milk formula. When you are just starting to wean the baby, you will have to express the excess milk. They can be stored in the fridge and feed the baby with her mother's milk from the bottle. So the baby will be much calmer, because the taste will not be familiar to him.
To start.
Try to give up one feeding - for example, at lunch, offer a crumb milk mixture from a bottle. A six-month-old or more adult baby can be offered juice or special soups and cereals. After a while you can replace one more feeding: enter in the menu porridge. So the kid will get used to the fact that there are also other equally tasty dishes than mother's milk. Gradually you will come to the fact that you will only be breast-feeding at night. By the way, such close contact with the mother can calm the baby if he suddenly burst into tears, or his teeth are chapped.
Mother's milk is the best and most complete source of vitamins and nutrients necessary for the growth and development of the baby. The more varied the food you offer your baby to replace milk, the more complete development you will provide him.
Help the baby.
Breastfeeding is an important moment in the development of the child. Thanks to this, the kid feels protected, knows that his mother is nearby, feels her warmth, looks into her eyes. Therefore, when you decide not to breastfeed, try to give your child as much as possible your attention, surround him with love and affection, be close. This is especially necessary for sufficiently adult children aged 1.5 and over, when they already understand a lot, especially the desire to wean their mother's milk.
Help yourself.
If you feel that the breast becomes firm, discard some of the milk. A decoction of sage and a fresh cabbage compress applied to the breast also help. You can feel the tension in your chest for two weeks. Then the lactation will gradually decrease. But the process of its full completion can drag on for several months.
In the article "Correctly wean from the chest" you learned how you can wean the baby from breast milk, and how to replace breast milk with the full nutrition that your baby needs.