Every mother faces the cessation of breastfeeding and is always worried about how to stop feeding the baby so as not to harm him or herself. Breastfeeding should be completed gradually, without using any radical actions. By following all the rules, the weaning process will be natural and not very difficult.
1 year old baby sucking
When to wean
Up to what age to breastfeed, each mother must decide individually. There are certain signs that indicate it is time to stop breastfeeding. The main features include:
- If a child's daytime sleep dispenses with latching to the breast;
- If it’s not mom, but dad or grandmother who puts the baby on a night's sleep;
- The child very rarely wakes up at night;
- A child requires mother's milk no more than 1-3 times a whole day, most often this is due to sleep;
- The baby asks for breast only 1 time in the morning;
- Milk production ends;
- Mom goes to work, leaves for a long time;
- Signs of the baby's psychological maturity appeared (desire to eat, drink, communicate with dad or other adults, show interest in the food of the parents).
Baby at the breast
Which season is better to choose
How and when to stop breastfeeding your baby? It is best to stop breastfeeding during the fall. Over the summer, the baby managed to replenish his body with the necessary vitamins and received a good hardening before the cold winter. Plus, Mom won't need to drink as much as she does during the summer heat. She will wear closed clothes that hide her breasts from the baby, and he will not be able to focus on his favorite pastime.
It is also very important that in the fall the activity of pathogenic microorganisms will significantly decrease, and the baby most likely will not be able to catch an intestinal infection.
Note! In summer, lactation increases somewhat, and with a sharp refusal to feed, this contributes to the appearance of lactostasis.
What to do with milk
For 2-3 weeks after weaning, milk will still arrive. If lactation is mature, then the amount of milk produced will decrease significantly, since there is no longer a need for it. What to do with breast milk after weaning a baby? When filling the breast, you can express milk, but only until a slight relief.
Expressing milk with a breast pump
What to do with your breasts
What should be done with the breast when weaning a child? If the process of weaning occurs gently and gradually, then the mammary gland has time to adapt to changes in the periods of feeding, and nothing has to be done with it. But, if the chest is full, pain and discomfort appear, then you need to slightly sweep it until it is slightly relieved. Cold compresses from cabbage leaves or ice, light massage with camphor oil will help to cope with pain and inflammation.
Note! Breastfeeding mothers should know that to stop lactation it is not necessary to bandage the breast, as this not only will not reduce the milk supply, but can also lead to breast diseases.
Compresses will help relieve inflammation
How can you smear your chest
How to spread the breast to wean a child? In order for the child to stop breastfeeding, you can lubricate the nipples with sea buckthorn oil or chlorophyllipt solution. These funds do not pose a threat to the child's health, but they cause persistent disgust. How else to smear the breast to wean the child? Some mothers advise using garlic juice - if you spread it on the nipples, it greatly changes the taste of milk, and the child begins to cry and freak out.
Important! Often mothers think about how to smear their breasts so that the baby does not suck. Do not lubricate the nipples with any medications, as well as aloe juice, wormwood, mayonnaise or mustard, as this can cause an allergic reaction and stomach problems in the baby.
Stress when stopping breastfeeding
Regardless of the circumstances (weaning is stressful for both the mother and the child), the baby needs to adapt to new conditions, and the mother's body needs to rebuild its hormonal background. For a baby, the transition from breast milk to adult food should be natural and gradual.
Council. Best of all, if the child is psychologically ready for this, then it will be much easier for the mother to stop lactation, and the child's psyche will not suffer.
It is very important to establish psychological contact with the child.
Drugs to stop lactation
If a woman decides to quit lactation with the help of drugs, then you need to understand that only a gynecologist can prescribe such drugs. In addition, it should be borne in mind that chemicals cause many side effects and disrupt the hormonal system. You also need to remember about contraindications, such as diabetes, kidney and liver disease.
The pills will help to quickly stop the production of milk, but this process is irreversible, and a nursing mother must be absolutely sure that her baby already needs breast milk. As a rule, tablets are taken in a course of one to seven days. It is at this time that the milk burns out in the breast.
If a nursing mother nevertheless decided to stop lactation with the help of chemicals, then she must adhere to the following rules:
- Take pills only when needed;
- Do not increase or decrease the dosage prescribed by your doctor;
- To prevent inflammation in the breast, it is necessary to constantly express milk;
- If, after taking the pills, any deviations in health appear, you should immediately consult a doctor;
- After taking the pills, you can no longer feed the baby, as this can be dangerous to his health;
- When using pills, the chest should not be pulled.
Additional Information. The most negative side effect of stopping lactation with medication is that there may be no milk at all on the next pregnancy.
Taking pills can harm the mother's health
What folk remedies are recommended by mammologists
In order to reduce the hot flashes of milk, you need to drink decoctions of diuretic herbs, which will remove excess fluid from the body, respectively, milk production will decrease. For this, it is better to use parsley leaves, lingonberries, juniper berries, birch buds, and also knotweed grass and cornflower flowers. It is recommended to drink no more than 1.5 liters of such infusion per day. You need to take such a diuretic within 1-2 weeks.
In order to remove pain and inflammation in the chest, you can make special compresses. It is best to use the following:
- With camphor oil. Spread a piece of gauze or bandage with camphor oil, apply to the chest, cover with a plastic bag, tie it with a terry towel and keep for 5-7 hours.
- With honey cakes. Mix rye flour with a little honey, make soft flat cakes and apply to the breast.
- From cabbage leaves. Pour boiling water over cabbage leaves, dry and crush with a rolling pin, wrap them around the chest. Keep until the leaves wilted.
- With ice. Apply ice wrapped in a towel to your chest for 10-15 minutes.
Cabbage leaf compress
Sage to stop lactation
One effective way to suppress lactation is to consume sage leaf tea. This medicinal plant has a mild effect on the female body, helps to reduce the amount of milk in the breast, and also fights various diseases of the female genital organs.
To prepare anti-lactation tea, you need to pour one tablespoon of dry sage leaves with a glass of boiling water and leave for 30-40 minutes. Next, the infusion must be filtered and taken up to five times a day, half a glass.
If the baby does not breastfeed
If the baby stops breastfeeding, first in the daytime, then before bedtime and after waking up, and later at night, then this process is called self-weaning. A baby can give up breast between one and five years, when over time he simply forgets about the existence of a breast. This option is considered the most ideal for both the child and the mother.
Why did the baby stop breastfeeding? The main reason for self-excommunication is considered to be that the baby moves to a new level of psychological development: the baby begins to realize that he is a person separate from his mother. At the same time, the child does not just switch to a new way of receiving food, he begins to perceive the reality around him in a different way.
Important! A nursing mother should be on her guard if a baby who is not yet a year old suddenly refuses to breast, behaves very restlessly and is constantly capricious.
Complete refusal to feed
With a complete rejection of GV, it is necessary to replace latching on the chest with hugs, stroking, confidential conversations. It is also important to develop the child physically to the maximum and engage in increasing the mental activity of the baby, more and more to expand the circle of his interests. It is equally important to start complementary foods in a timely manner and gradually introduce the child to adult food. At the same time, it is important to offer the child only healthy products and prepare those dishes that he eats with a good appetite.
The opinion of pediatricians
According to many pediatricians, there are situations when it is better to wait about a month with the cessation of breastfeeding. These situations include:
- The presence of a high temperature and poor health in the child;
- The period of eruption of the first teeth;
- Summer is too hot;
- Moving to a new place of residence;
- A sharp change in the environment;
- Mom goes to work.
In such cases, a sudden transfer of the baby to artificial nutrition can provoke general dehydration in the baby's body. For this reason, pediatricians do not recommend combining such drastic changes in a child's life with weaning.
The period of breastfeeding is good for both the baby and the mother, but someday this wonderful time will end. To prevent the mother from feeling guilt, disappointment or other negative emotions after stopping feeding, she should study in advance all the information on how to properly wean the baby from the breast.
