Completing breastfeeding can sometimes be a major challenge for the mother. It gets even more complicated when there are two children. Therefore, we have prepared useful recommendations for you that will help you in this difficult process.
Why wean at all? It's useful, convenient and natural. That's right, but there are still good reasons to complete breastfeeding before the babies themselves give up their mother's milk:
- age over 2 years - according to WHO experts, this is the ultimate level, then you need to complete the GW;
- food allergy in crumbs - in this case, it is easier and more effective for the mother to control the child's diet than to follow a strict diet for years or doom the child to chronic dermatitis;
- mom's pregnancy - during this period, due to hormonal changes in the body, a woman may experience pain or discomfort when feeding an older baby, and the taste and composition of breast milk also changes;
- illness and exhaustion of the mother's body.
8 rules for weaning twins
Weaning a baby is not an easy task. Some people manage to go through this stage quickly and painlessly, while other mothers, faced with the first difficulties, decide to breastfeed to the bitter end. The rest await sleepless nights filled with children's tears, screams and indignations. If you have twins, be prepared for the fact that there will be twice as many problems. Everything is complicated by a chain reaction: as soon as one child begins to ask for a breast and cry, the second immediately repeats after him. Here's another difficulty: when one baby wakes up, he wakes up the second with his cry, but it is impossible to put both of them at the same time.
Heed our tips to finish breastfeeding your twins quickly and without stress.
1. Treat your children the same
Observe the rule clearly: if you feed, then both children at once, if you do not feed, then no one. Even if one of the babies is initially less attached to the breast, do not wean him first and do not feed the second in front of him. Otherwise, you will achieve only jealousy, resentment and a sense of inequality between the crumbs.
Feeding one child quietly, going to another room or waiting for the second to fall asleep, is also not worth it. "Lucky" will start to feel that you love him more, and this will ruin the relationship between the twins.
Remember, if you are firmly convinced that it is time to end breastfeeding, be unshakable, nothing should confuse you. Even if one of the children is offended, ill, struck, cannot fall asleep - do not make him any favors, but try to find another way to calm him down. Otherwise, you will only delay the moment of weaning and make the process painful for both babies.
2. Remove daily feeds first
It is usually easier for crumbs to refuse daytime feedings than nighttime feedings. Try replacing one feeding with any complementary food first. If your twins already eat cereals, meat and vegetables, give them mixtures or fermented milk products. Gradually stop breastfeeding completely during the day, only before bed and, if necessary, at night.
3. Find new ways to calm children down
For the baby, mother's breast is not just milk and food, but also a means to calm down. This is why babies latch on to their breasts when they are sick, stressed, upset, fell, bumped, and in pain. If you decide to end breastfeeding, look for other ways to calm your babies. These can be pacifiers or special rituals to relieve stress: pick it up, stroke your head and back, kiss, blow on a sore spot, and so on.
4. Create a bedtime ritual
After the cessation of daily feedings, you need to teach the twins to fall asleep without breast. Think of other remedies to help calm the children down and set them up for sleep. For example, you can read fairy tales, sing lullabies or listen to them in recording, turn on a musical night light with a projector. Another good way to get your little ones to bed is to sit by their cribs, stroking and hugging them until they fall asleep.
Do not rock the little ones. So you will develop addiction in children, which you will also have to struggle with, and it is physically very difficult to rock two babies at the same time. Also, being in your arms, children will only ask for milk more strongly, because they will feel its smell and the proximity of their mother's breast.
If your twins start to be very capricious and cannot fall asleep without milk, give them bottles of formula, milk porridge or fermented milk drink in their beds. By the way, it will be easier to wean the little ones from the breast if not mom, but someone else will put them to bed.
5. Stop night feeds last.
When babies can fall asleep without their mother's milk, night feeds can be stopped. You need to act decisively: just suddenly stop breastfeeding them at night. Let the grandmother or dad be better suited to the waking toddlers, because at the sight of their mother they will become more begging for breasts.
If one of the twins is more restless and often wakes the other up with her crying, try temporarily placing their beds in different rooms. Just don't put them next to your parent's bed.
But leaving babies at night with relatives in order to wean them from feeding at night is inhumane. This will only result in double stress: there is no mom and her breasts nearby, and there is also an unfamiliar environment around. It is not fair to go to rest, leaving the little ones with dad or grandmother: refusing to breastfeed is a common affair of mom and children, so it is better to go through this stage together.
6. Don't tease babies
While babies are still asking for breasts, do not undress in front of them, do not wear clothes with a deep neckline, and always wear underwear. This way you will not provoke the desire to kiss your breast.
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7. Act consistently, decisively and patiently
Weaning should be done gently, gradually, and systematically. Do not rush to extremes, either running away from the crying babies, then starting to feed them again, unable to withstand the screams and swallowing tears. If you behave this way, the children will understand that you can beg for the breast from your mother - you just need to ask louder and longer. As a result, they will throw even louder and more prolonged tantrums, stop sleeping at night and begin to manipulate you.
The only correct decision is to act softly but decisively. Children must understand: since mom has decided that now they sleep without breastfeeding, so be it. If the kids are told that there is no milk before breakfast, then they never drink it before breakfast, and under no circumstances.
Statistics show that the most difficult thing is to wean babies from craving for a breast at night - this usually takes 2 to 7 nights. If it seems to you that you cannot endure the screams of twins for so long and come up with different ways to calm them down, if there is no one to help you put the little ones down and get up to them at night, if the children themselves find it difficult to wean themselves, perhaps in your case it is worth some more it's time to continue breastfeeding.
8. Talk to children if they are older
When weaning babies over 1.5-2 years old, be sure to talk to them about it. Be sure to tell them that you have decided to stop feeding them breast milk. To make it easier for the kids to understand why you are doing this, you can write a legend - for example, that they grew up, so mom's milk is running out. Big ones don't breastfeed. Then give the little ones some time to grasp the essence of what is happening and prepare for the change. Feed them for another 1-2 weeks so they can enjoy their mother's milk. Then stop feeding once and for all.
- Weaning a baby correctly: ways, rules, myths and what not to do
- How to end breastfeeding with maximum comfort?
- Weaning a baby: how not to do it
- How to wean your baby from night feeds
- Folk ways to stop lactation and a list of drugs to quickly stop lactation
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How to wean a baby? By Nina Zaichenko
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