Excommunication of a child from breastfeeding must first of all be painless. After all, for a baby, breastfeeding is not just a source of necessary nutrients and a means of increasing immunity, it is also a special emotional connection between the mother and the child. Sharp interruption of such contact will be stress for the baby, and this should not be forgotten.
The reasons for stopping breastfeeding may be different. For example, a mother needs to go to work, or she just runs out of milk, or maybe a child has already left infancy for a long time.
How to wean a child from breastfeeding?
Many mothers are interested in: "How to stop breastfeeding?" This can be done in several ways. Usually, when the baby reaches one-year-old age, he gradually reduces interest in the mother's breast, and is more interested in new types of food that he receives in his diet. This is the time when you can stop breastfeeding.
It is also possible to exclude a child from breastfeeding with the introduction of complementary foods, gradually replacing one breastfeeding with one lure in the form of porridge or fruit puree, if the child eats only mother's milk. It is recommended to replace one feeding per week, continuing to do so until all daytime breastfeeding is replaced by a new meal. It may take 1.5 -2 months, but you need to remember that it is not possible to abruptly abstain from breastfeeding so that the child does not have a psychological trauma.
In case the child is not interested in other food and does not switch to complementary feeding, it is necessary to replace the mother's milk with a mixture. In order for the child to get used to the new product well, it is first necessary to carry out the sex of breastfeeding, then continue feeding the mixture from the bottle. Thus, it is possible to transfer the child to full feeding from the bottle, gradually increasing the dose of the mixture, thus reducing sucking of the breast.
Using this technique of weaning from breastfeeding, you can transfer the baby to a new type of nutrition, and at the same time reduce lactation.
But things are worse with night feeding. If all daytime feeding has been replaced, then the night will have to sweat.
Often, waking up at night from crying baby, the mother hurries to give him a breast, so he calmed down. But now this is not permissible. So how to be?
Try to put the baby as if you were going to breastfeed, but just give him a milk formula or expressed milk from a bottle, do not give the baby a breast, no matter how much you do not like it, because all the efforts will go to the bad.
In case the child refuses to drink the mixture from the mother's hands, you can entrust night feeding to the father, for the baby this will be something new and possibly interesting.
During the weaning from breastfeeding, the mother must compensate for the lack of prior attention during feeding, so that the child does not feel any significant changes in her life and in relation to him.
Smile more often to the baby, talk to him, play, so that he feels that you love him as much as before and everything will be fine.
Errors allowed during excommunication from breastfeeding
Sometimes, in order to wean a child from breastfeeding, it is advised to leave for a while somewhere, and leave the child at home. You can not do this, the child will remember this, and will think that they abandoned him or stopped loving him.
It is strictly forbidden to use nontraditional methods of weaning from breastfeeding, as the consequences will be unfriendly for you and for the baby.
For example, in some families, there is an opinion that if a child does not give up breast, then he needs help to do it. To do this, the mother can lubricate the nipples with mustard or some other irritating substance, so that the baby does not ask for breast.
As a result of such actions, the child may have a violation of the natural intestinal microflora, and the mother may have an upset stomach. After such methods of weaning from breastfeeding, the child gets a psychological trauma for the rest of his life - he realizes that one can not trust in this life even to his mother.
If during the weaning of the child from breastfeeding you are faced with the problem that the milk does not stop working out, try to express it little by little and give the child in a bottle.
If the lactation still continues, you can use cabbage. The leaves of cabbage are rolled with a rolling pin, so that they are roughly the shape of the breast, then they cover both breasts for 20 minutes. The procedure should be done several times a day, and after a few days the lactation will stop.
Good luck!