Weaning Effects on You and Your Baby
When weaning your child, you have to take their feelings into consideration. Make sure that they are ready to wean, and are at a good age for weaning. Little babies can be very emotional, and weaning can be the most emotional process for them at this stage in life. Most doctors say that a child can feel abandoned when being weaned, and that is why the weaning process should be a gradual one.
Show your child a lot of affection while in the weaning process. This can help make them feel really loved, and lessen any possible feelings of abandonment. You can also give them extra affection if they completed a bottle feeding or solid food feeding session successfully. This will help them transition into those types of feeding and make weaning much easier.
Weaning can also affect your child’s weight. Sometimes, weaned children start to eat less because of the changes in their diet and style of feeding. While weaning your child, monitor their weight and make sure that they are consistent with what is normal. A big drop in weight is never good for a baby’s growth and development.
On the other hand, weaning can also affect your child’s appetite. They may realize that they are being breastfed less and less, and begin eating more when they feed from you than when they feed from the bottle. This could result to a drop in your weight, and you may not menstruate (assuming it has already started up again.) Take care of yourself and your health during the weaning process as well.
Weaning is not without its problems for both you and your baby, but when done gradually, the transition can be made easily. Familiarize yourself with the different weaning processes and choose one that you feel will work for both you and your child, while keeping your other options open.
Helping Your Child Through Weaning
As mentioned, weaning your child from breastfeeding can be a stressful and emotional process for them. Because they have gotten used to you and are reliant on you form comfort, weaning them becomes a challenge because they have to get used to the change. This process can be exacerbated if other major changes happen at the same time that your child is being weaned.
If you chose to go back to work regularly and as a result are often away from your child when you used to be with them all the time, this could make weaning harder. If you moved to a new house or repainted your child’s bedroom, the change in environment may have your child clinging to you for comfort, and therefore not want to wean just yet. Though your child needs comfort, you also have to move forward with your life and with your new family. The best thing you can do is learn how to help your child through the weaning process.
Next Article: Learning to Comfort Without Feeding
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