Weaning Baby
Other Foods While Breast Feeding
Breast milk is actually the only food your baby will need until 4 months of age, although most babies do well on breast milk alone for 6 months or better.
There is really no advantage to adding other foods or milks before 4 - 6 months, except under unusual circumstances.
Starting Solid Foods
Breast milk is all your baby will need until at least 4 months of age. There does come a time, when breast milk will no longer supply all of your baby’s nutrition needs. Full term babies will start to require iron from other sources by 6 - 9months of age.
Some babies that aren’t started on solid foods by the age of 9 - 12 months may have a great level of difficulty accepting solid foods. It’s actually a developmental milestone when your child starts solid foods - as he is now growing up.
When to start the ideal time to begin solid foods is when the baby shows interest in starting. Some babies will show interest in solid food when it’s on their parents’ plates, as early as 4 months of age. By 5 - 6 months, most babies will reach out and try to grab the food. When the baby starts to reach for food, it’s normally the time to go ahead and give him some.
Sometimes, it may be a better idea to start food earlier. When a baby seems to get hungry or once weight gain isn’t continuing at the desired rate, it may be good to start solid foods as early as 3 months. It may be possible however, to continue breast feeding alone and have the baby less hungry or growing more rapidly.
Breast fed babies will digest solid foods better and earlier than artificially fed babies because the breast milk will contain enzymes which help to digest fats, proteins, and starch. Breastfed babies will also have had a variety of different tastes in their life, since the flavours of many foods the mother eats will pass into her milk.
Introducing solid foods
When the baby begins to take solid foods at the age of 5 - 6 months, there is very little difference what he starts will or what order it is introduced. You should however, avoid spicy foods or highly allergenic foods at first, although if your baby reaches for the potato on your plate, you should let him have it if it isn’t too hot.
Offer your baby the foods that he seems to be interested in. Allow your baby to enjoy the food and don’t worry too much about how much he takes at first, as much of it may end up on the floor or in his hair
anyhow.
The easiest way to get iron for your baby at 5 - 6 months of age is by giving him meat. Cereal for infants has iron, although it is poorly absorbed and may cause your baby to get constipated.
Weaning From Breast Feeding
When your baby has stopped breast feeding and gets all of his nutrition from the sources other than the breast, he’s actually considered weaned. Even though babies are also weaned from the bottle as well, the term weaning often refers to when a baby is stopped from breast feeding.
When weaning is a mother’s idea, it normally requires a lot of patience and can take time, depending on the age of your baby or toddler, and also how well your child adjusts. The overall experience is different for everyone.
Weaning is a long goodbye, sometimes emotional and sometimes painful. It doesn’t however, signal the end to the intimacy you and your child have developed during the nursing stage.
What it means, is that you have to replace breast feeding with other types of nourishment.
Starting weaning
You are the best judge as to when it’s the right time to wean, and you don’t really have a deadline unless you and your child are actually ready to wean.
The recommended time for weaning is one year. No matter what relatives, friends, or even complete strangers tell you, there is no right or wrong time for weaning.
How to Wean
You should proceed slowly, regardless of what the age of your child may be. Experts say that you shouldn’t abruptly withhold your breast, as the results can be traumatic; for both you and your baby. Separation anxiety can be experienced by both of you.
You should however, try these methods instead:
- Skip a feeding - Skip a feeding and see what happens, offering a cup of milk to your baby instead. As a substitute, you can use a bottle of your own pumped milk, formula, or a cow’s milk. If you reduce feedings one at a time, your child will eventually adjust to the changes.
- Shorten feeding time - You can start by cutting the length of time your child is actually at the breast. If the normal feeding time is 5 minutes, try 3.
- Depending on the age, follow the feeding with a healthy snack. Bedtime feedings are usually the hardest to wean, as they are normally the last to go.
- Postpone and distract - You can postpone feedings if you are only feeding a couple of times per day. This method works great if you have an older child you can actually reason with. If your child wants the breast, say that you’ll feed later then distract him.
If you’ve tried everything and weaning doesn’t seem to be working at all, maybe the time just isn’t right. You can wait just a bit longer to see what happens, as your child and you have to determine the right time to wean together.
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