Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Weaning Without Tears

I consider baby weaned off breastfeeding at age 32 months. The weaning was painless. What a journey it has been.

We had such a hard time getting him to latch on. It took him 2 whole months to learn but it cetainly has been worth it. Weaning especially baby led weaning is easy and painless for both the mother and baby. When the time is right, baby will wean off the breast easily.

It was hard work, very hard work at first but it has paid off. I did not have to wean him off a bottle or a pacifier because he takes none of those and weaning off the breast is painless. At first, due to medical reasons and some medication I thought I had to take, I thought I had to wean him off early before both of us were ready but thankfully that worked out and I didn't have to wean him off the breast then. Phew!

So how did I wean him? I dropped the feeds off one by one and reduced the time at the breast. The morning feeds went first because it was easy to distract him when he woke up. The middle of the night feeds stopped when he started sleeping through the night so I didn't have to "wean" him off those. I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night to offer him water instead of the breast (as suggested) and deal with tears. And last to go are the nap time and before bed time feeds.

I told him that he is a big boy now and he can even wear a big boy's pyjamas (with bear or rabbit prints) so he doesn't need his breastmilk anymore and he bought that argument. Hahaha. So recently when he asked for his feed before sleep, I reminded him that he is a big boy now and he pointed to his pyjamas and said "Baby wear bear bear shirt adi (already meaning "now") and that was that. LOL!

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7 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your Graduation of Breastfeeding!!

    We can pop champaign together liao!! :D

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  2. *Pop pop* Yes, about the same time for both of us eh?

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  3. Congrats! I also want to start weaning coz i don want to pump at work anymore. But i don want to make it stressful for bryan as well. So will jst take it slowly.

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  4. shooi,
    Slow and easy is really so much easier to deal with. My sis-in-law weaned at 9 months cold turkey and she said her son cried for a whole week till he vomitted each time. Ouch! I don't know how she managed it. Must have been so stressful!

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  5. I started weaning Clayton on 1/1/07... we are down to one feed in the early mornings and he still wouldn't let that one go. Then I think... it'll be one day so I rather cherish the moment and take it easy. Everytime he tries to ask for feeds during naps, I'll remind him again that he's a big boy too! What a blessing it is to nurse our babies...

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  6. doris,
    Time flies doesn't it? What I thought was so tough for the first two months has flown past and the rest of the breastfeeding journey has been wonderful. :)

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  7. Yes... as I looked back, I still think those sleep deprived nights were worth it... thank God for this gift

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