There are important things that you should know about breastfeeding weaning before you try weaning your own baby, and although the rules are not extremely strict, they are recommended.
What Should I Know About Breastfeeding Weaning?
In regards to what you should know about breastfeeding weaning, one of the most important factors is that you should try to avoid the beginning of your breastfeeding weaning during an illness or developmental milestone in your baby's life. Basically what is involved in the process of breastfeeding weaning is that you are slowly decreasing the number of times that you breastfeed your baby, filling up those times with bottle feeding.
You should generally eliminate one nursing session every two or three days in order to allow your milk to decrease slowly, and if your baby is younger than a year old, you may have to substitute the nursing session with a bottle or cup. You should also remember that simply changing your daily routine can be incredibly helpful here, as if you have a certain time of day or favorite chair that your baby associates with breastfeeding for example, that you should then change this typical routine so that your baby will not be reminded to nurse as frequently.
Offing substitutions and distractions will also be helpful to you during this time, for instance when your child asks to nurse, you can offer them a glass of water or a snack, or even offer to read them a book instead. However it is incredibly important to keep an eye on your baby's weaning process, regardless of how successful it may seem to be going. For instance, if your baby becomes upset and cries or generally does not seem to be responding well to the process, it is best that you back off for a little bit and start up again in a week or two.
After all, this will be a difficult time for both baby and you, and so you need to remember that it is a process, and you simply cannot expect it to happen all at once. Also, the weaning process does not mean that you have to take away breastfeeding altogether; many mothers choose to wean just during the day or at night, and so if nursing at a particular time of day is getting you down, then it is okay to eliminate breastfeeding at those particular times and then continuing at other times.
