Good Baby TipsTips for keeping your baby happy and healthy

Weaning is important not only for the baby but for the mother, and not only physically but emotionally. A nursing mother may feel mildly let down and depressed after she stops as if she has lost some of her closeness to the baby or as if she has become worthwhile. This is one of the reasons for making weaning a gradual process.

Weaning from the breast
Weaning from the breast is quite easy when the mother is producing a small amount of milk. It’s usually not necessary for her to bind her breasts or limit her own fluids. She can just stop putting the baby to breast and wait. If the breasts get so full that they are uncomfortable, she can nurse him for 15 or 30 seconds. This will relieve the pressure without really stimulating the breast. If the breasts become uncomfortable again, she can repeat this. If she is producing a moderate amount of milk, she should plan to wean more gradually. It still isn’t necessary to bind the breast or to limit fluids. Try omitting every other breast feed. If, in a day or two, the breasts have not become uncomfortably full, stop all regular nursing, but put the baby to breast for a short period if the breasts then become uncomfortable.

Sudden weaning from the breast
You may have to wean the baby from the breast suddenly if, for instance, you become seriously ill or you have to go out of town for an emergency. (It is not usually necessary to wean the baby because of mild or moderately severe illness in the mother. Your doctor is the one to decide this).One method is to limit the fluids that the mother drinks and to apply a tight binder and ice bags to her breasts. This is pretty uncomfortable. A better way is to relieve the breasts whenever they become uncomfortably full, either with a breast pump or by manual expression.

Gradual weaning from breast to cup
If a mother is producing plenty of milk, how long should she plan to nurse? Best of all, most natural way is to nurse until the baby is ready for weaning to the cup. Most breast-fed babies are bored between 5 and 6 months. It’s a good idea to begin offering a sip of milk from the cup from the age of 5 months, so that the baby gets used to it before he is too opinionated. By 6 months encourage him to hold the cup himself.

If by 5 or 6 months he is nursing for shorter periods .I would assume he is ready for gradual weaning. Now offer him the cup at all his meals and increase the amount as he shows his willingness to take more, but continue to breast-feed him at the end of the meal. Next, leave out one of his daily breast feeds, giving him only the cup. This is usually at breakfast or lunch. In a week, omit another breast feed if he seems willing, and in another week, the last one. His willingness to be weaned may not progress steadily. If he gets into a period when he is miserable from teething or illness, he may want to retreat a little. This is natural enough, and there is no danger in accommodating him. When weaning is carried out this gradually, there is usually no problem about the mother’s breasts.

Most mothers find they are a bit reluctant to end this important emotional tie and some of them will put off weaning, week after week. Sometimes a mother will be afraid to give up nursing altogether, because the baby is not taking as much milk from the cup as he used to take from the breast. This may postpone the weaning indefinitely. I would stop the nursing if the baby is taking an average of 4 ounces from the cup at each meal, or a total of 12 to 16 ounces a day. After nursing is stopped, he will probably increase the amount from the cup up to a total of 16 ounces or more. This is usually enough with all the other things he eating.

I think it is preferable to have a baby weaned from the breast by 6 or 7 months if he seems ready for it. A child seldom demands a breast after that. When breast feeding is continued way beyond the age that child really needs it, it may become a habit that makes him unnaturally dependent on his mother.