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How to wean a baby from breastfeeding for up to a year, what to do with breast
Weaning a baby is not easy. This process must be structured so that it brings as little physical and psychological harm to the baby and mother as possible. There are several ways, but not all of them are safe.
How to wean a baby from breastfeeding for up to a year
The most natural and harmless weaning process is when the breast involution occurs – the milk itself shrinks in volume and gradually disappears altogether. But this can drag on for a long time, not all mothers are ready to go for it. Another natural option is to wait for the baby to give up breast itself, this can also be expected for a long time.
How to wean a baby from breastfeeding for up to a year – gradually, with the least stress for the baby, while carrying it more often in your arms.
There is a simple way that older women have used. But he is fraught with many dangers for mother and child. Its principle is reduced to a sharp weaning from mother’s milk. The child is sent to relatives for several days, and the woman tightly bandages her breasts with a cotton cloth.
For a baby, it is a heavy shock to be left immediately without his favorite milk and without a mother. A woman suffers from an excess of milk in the breast, pain and high fever, mastitis, a serious inflammatory process in the tissues of the mammary gland, can develop.
Another option is medication. The gynecologist may prescribe a hormonal drug that suppresses prolactin production. Because of this, the amount of milk will gradually decrease. But this method threatens with side effects and hormonal disruption.
What to do with your breast to stop breastfeeding
The safest and most reliable way is to gradually reduce the number of feedings per day. To do this, you need to take the following measures:
- Do not lug your baby during the day when he is full and uses his chest to calm and relax. Just hold him more often in your arms, distract him with games, walks. Don’t let him get bored – during this difficult period, mom should always be there. Feed your baby strictly by the hour.
- Gently remove daytime feedings while sleeping, let the baby get used to sleeping without breast.
- Replace morning feeding with porridge. To do this, you will have to get up before the crumbs wake up in order to have time to cook.
- Then you can cancel the evening feeding before bedtime. Feed the child with dinner, distract with the game, motion sickness and lullabies will help to fall asleep.
- After that, you can go away from night feedings. If the child wakes up, shake him, stroke him.
All these points are performed one by one and gradually. When one is done, you can move on to the next.
This process is not quick and can take up to six months. But on the other hand, the child does not experience stress, he manages to adapt to innovations without harming his emotional state. Milk production also decreases slowly, which is safe for mom’s health.