How to Wean Your Baby from Breastfeeding

Weaning your baby from breastfeeding can be deceptively easy many times. There are some cases of parents who struggle to make their baby wean. If you know some ways that facilitate in smooth transition of your breast feeding baby into eating semi-liquid or solid foods, it can ease the complications involved.

The problem in weaning the baby from breastfeeding is that one method does not work for all. Some mothers find the resistance from their baby to be very frustrating. The mothers should make this a gradual process as it is not a mere mechanical change of feeding method but involves emotional evolution for the child as well as her.

Some tips you should implement to wean your baby from breastfeeding gradually are given below:

• For babies younger than 12 months, mothers should pump breast milk in a bottle and feed them. Babies older than 12 months can be fed with sippy cups.
• Weaning the baby from breastfeeding can leave him feeling cold and neglected. Cuddle him several times to comfort him with the warmth and security of his mother.
• Reduce one breast feed at a time. Replace your breast milk for other solid foods that the baby has started to eat. Watch if your child is ready to eat them for more than one day without breastfeed. You must ensure that the solid food that was fed to the child is not making him allergic.
• Try to make your baby sleep during night feeding time. This can be the most demanding for the child as he craves more at night or early morning. For a start, you can reduce nigh time feeds to every alternate day.
• Mothers should become more active and not keep sitting close to their child. This is taken as a sort of invitation by the infants to crawl up to her. As the baby becomes more interested in playing with things like blocks or any other toy, it would be easier to wean him from breastfeeding.

Besides trying to wean your baby from breastfeeding, you also need to look after yourself in this period of physical and emotional transition. The breast milk can take 2 to 4 weeks before it dries up. Weaning the baby should be a natural decision based on the bond that you have with your child.