Many babies get so used to their mother's breasts that they do not want to part with it even during the daytime or nighttime sleep. For this reason, the mother has many difficulties, which are associated with the fact that she cannot freely move around the apartment and do all the necessary household chores. It is necessary to wean a baby from such a habit gradually and very carefully, otherwise the baby will protest, cry and express his dissatisfaction in every possible way.
Baby sucks mom's milk
If the baby sucks all night
If a baby breastfeeds throughout the night, then, in order to get rid of this habit, the mother must first teach the baby to fall asleep at night without a breast. When the baby learns to fall asleep calmly without breast, the number of night applications should be reduced.
Important! It is necessary to reduce the number of night feedings gradually and gently, both for the baby and for the mother. Abrupt weaning can result in mental trauma.
To begin with, the mother should help the child change the association to sleep: teach the baby to calm down and relax in other ways, but not by sucking. When the association of sleep with the breast goes away, then nocturnal attachments will occur much less frequently.
Some babies can wake up to six times a night to breastfeed. Very often, not because they are hungry, but simply to check the connection with their mother. If during feeding the infant does not swallow milk, then this feeding can be removed. Mom needs to set a goal for herself - not to give the baby a breast until two in the morning, just so that he calms down. When the baby wakes up in the middle of the night, then it is necessary to try to calm him down in other ways: swing on the arms, pat the head and back, sing a quiet song. Also, the child's dad can help with motion sickness.
After two o'clock in the morning, you can already apply the baby to the breast in the same mode. Soon he will no longer wake up during this period of time. Gradually you need to increase the interval to four in the morning, and then to six. If you can't calm the child down, you need to give in and give the breast, otherwise the baby will feel something amiss and will be greatly disturbed. Mom should remove the nipple from the baby's mouth before he falls asleep again. You need to give him the opportunity to sleep on his own.
Feeding at night
The infant uses the breast as a pacifier
Babies can breastfeed for long or short periods of time. The amount of time spent at the breast does not indicate the volume of milk eaten. Also, the baby can suckle without sucking milk at all. Very often, a mother can see that the baby sucks a little (holds in her mouth) the breast during sleep. In this case, the baby sucks rather than drinks. Such a need for a baby may arise due to stress, an age jump in growth, a reaction to the weather, or he simply wants to feel all the time that his mother is nearby.
The reasons why this happens:
- Improper attachment to the breast. A child may either lag behind in weight or gain absolutely normal weight, but it is very difficult for him to suck his mother's milk.
- Disease or developmental features. The baby may be constantly begging for breasts due to some neurological disorder, teething or colic. Sucking gives him relief. Also, the baby may often ask for breasts in case of colds, which are accompanied by a high fever. At this moment he will feel bad, scared, and he will be constantly thirsty.
- The child is under stress. Frequent feeding is a baby's natural response to stressful situations. It is not necessary to exclude all the stresses from the baby's life (and this is unrealistic), but it is necessary to give him the opportunity to calm down at the mother's breast, including with the help of frequent attachment.
- Mom's stress. In stressful situations, the mother decreases the amount of the hormone oxytocin, which has a direct effect on milk production. Therefore, it is very difficult for a child to get food from his mother's breast. The more often and more strongly the mother experiences, the more difficult it is for the baby to eat. In such situations, he can actually hang on his chest for days.
Constant sucking
How to wean from falling asleep with breast
How to wean a child from falling asleep with breast? The main thing that mom should do is to teach the baby to fall asleep on its own. The baby will still fall asleep with mom's help, but without breastfeeding.
How can you wean your baby from breastfeeding? First, you need to try to remove the breast before the baby falls asleep and introduce a new ritual in the process of falling asleep. You can read a fairy tale to a crumb, sing a song, tell a rhyme or do a light relaxing massage. If after all the crumb still cannot fall asleep and asks for breast, then there is no need to force events and it is better to give in. It is important to give the baby the opportunity to get used to such innovations. Over time, the baby will accept a new ritual and will fall asleep only from the fact that he hears his mother's monotonous voice.
If the child falls asleep only with the breast, then the baby's dad or grandmother can be involved in the night's sleep. It happens that babies fall asleep more easily if their mother is not around and they cannot kiss her breast.
It will take about two to three weeks to learn to fall asleep on your own, but in some cases it may take one month. If progress is already visible, there is no need to force events, it is better to stay at this stage for a few more weeks.
Laying down for a night's sleep
When to wean
The earliest age of a child when weaning is acceptable is 6 months. It is best to do this no earlier than 9-10 months, when the baby has an alternative in nutrition, and he does not depend entirely on breast milk.
You can try to gradually separate breastfeeding and sleep only under certain conditions:
- The baby is somatically healthy, gains weight well and behaves absolutely calmly;
- The baby eats complementary foods without problems (porridge, vegetable and fruit puree, dairy products);
- The baby is already 9-12 months old;
- The child has his own crib and is not used to sleeping in the same bed with mom and dad.
Mom next to the sleeping baby
How to do it gradually
There are several ways. A long way that requires patience is to feed half an hour before bedtime:
- Prepare the child for bed in advance: bathe, change clothes;
- Let the breast be sucked for no more than 15 minutes. The child must be full;
- Free the baby's mouth from the nipple before he has time to sleep;
- Talk a little with the baby, play quiet games, read a book;
- After half an hour, put the baby in the crib and stay close until he falls asleep. To calm down, you can offer him a dummy.
Teaching your baby to sleep without breast is much easier if dad puts him to sleep and the baby does not smell the milky smell. The father should take on the responsibility of the mother every day for 5-7 days.
Dad's help will look like this:
- Mom will feed the baby half an hour before bedtime and leave the room;
- Dad needs to prepare the baby for bed: buy, change;
- Take the child to the nursery and put in his crib;
- Sit nearby, read books, sing a lullaby or sleep a baby in your arms;
- You need to react calmly to screams and tantrums. You can give the baby a drink of water from a bottle or offer a dummy.
You can also come up with a new ritual. For example, it can be like this:
- The child ate well before going to bed: sucked on the breast, drank kefir, ate curd;
- His mother put him to bed;
- Mom turns on the night light and sits down next to her on the crib;
- Then he gently strokes the back of the baby, sings a lullaby;
- When the baby falls asleep on his own, without breast, you need to gradually stop feeding him at night. You can replace your breasts with a water bottle.
Note! The actions for the evening ritual will depend on the temperament of the baby, his preferences. In addition to reading fairy tales, you can use massage and motion sickness in the cradle.
What not to do
When weaning your baby to sleep while feeding, you need to be patient. Changing a baby's habit won't work in one day. On this path, you cannot perform the following actions:
- Weaning a newborn when he is unwell, he has a fever, teething, or he is experiencing some kind of stress (mom going to work, moving, going to kindergarten).
- To take off the breast abruptly, unexpectedly and leave the baby to fall asleep alone in the room.
- Ignore crying, screaming, tantrums. Leave the baby to fall asleep alone, allowing him to scream properly so that he falls asleep from exhaustion. This is a big psychological trauma for the little one.
- Use mustard, red pepper to lubricate the breasts, trying to wean off hepatitis B. In this case, the child is provided with a taste shock, a burn of the mucous membrane.
If you do not wean
The older the baby, the easier it is to wean him from sleeping under the breast, because with age he becomes more prepared for the fact that he can live separately from his mother, calm down in other ways and eat not only mother's milk.
Learning to fall asleep independently in six months and two are tasks with very different levels of difficulty. In the first case, it is, albeit mild, violence against a small person. In the second, the natural process of his growing up and separation from his mother.
In all matters relating to breastfeeding and raising a child, you should rely on your own feelings and the advice of a counselor.
