Tuesday, August 30, 2011

PSA: How to wean a baby

(The title doesn't lie, so if you aren't interested in hearing about how I weaned my babies, you'll want to skip this post.)

I nursed all of my babies.  The shortest time was 10 1/2 months, the longest time was around 18 months.  They all went from:

*nursing ALL! THE! TIME! when infants

to
*nursing first thing in the morning, before and after (multiple) naps, before bed time, and during the night

to

*nursing first thing in the morning, before naps, before bed time, and during the night

to

*nursing first thing in the morning, before the ONE nap, before bed time, and during the night

to

*nursing first thing in the morning (I always HATED to give this one up because it would let me get a little more sleep), before the nap, and before bed time
*************************

After going down to two feedings, one of my babies just wouldn't nurse one day (he was about 11 1/2 months old), and so he was weaned, but I chose to wean the others. 

When I knew I wanted to wean the baby, I started replacing one nursing session with a bottle, sippy cup, or snack (depending on how old the baby was) every few days.  I didn't replace another nursing session until I wasn't feeling overly full from having replaced the last one, but it only took 2 or 3 days for my body to adjust to each missing session (This, of course, will vary according to each person's milk supply/production). 

Usually, at the very end of nursing, my baby was down to one nap.  I replaced the nursing session before naptime with stories and songs (making sure I had given the baby a drink before we went to his/her room).  Once my body had adjusted to that, I replaced the  bedtime session with stories and songs.  About this time I got to this point with Marie, she got a cold and had a stuffy nose, so she couldn't nurse very well.  Her cold lasted a few days, in which she did no nursing, and a few days after her cold had passed, when I was rocking her for her nap, she suddenly sat up, looked at me, and patted my shirt.  I told her that mama's milk was all gone, she cried a little, and that was that.

This method of weaning took a few weeks, but I never suffered (like I did at the beginning of nursing, OUCH!), so it was worth it to me.
************************

So!  My REVOLUTIONARY! tips on how to gradually wean your baby from nursing are:
1.  Replace one feeding at a time with a bottle, other food, or an activity (depending on the age of your baby). 
2.  Wait until you aren't feeling uncomfortable from skipping one nursing session before you eliminate another one.

No comments: