5 Strategies for Weaning your Older Baby
Weaning can be a very emotional time, and weaning an older baby who can clearly communicate their desire to nurse can be hard as a parent. It can leave a parent feeling like they are depriving their child, or in some way emotionally injuring their child to end the nursing relationship. Here are a few simple strategies for weaning your older baby peacefully to help make this process easier on both of you.
Try the don’t refuse, but don’t offer method. Older babies and toddlers are incredibly busy exploring their world and trying out all of their new skills. A gentle way to help begin the weaning process is to stop offering opportunities to nurse, but allowing the baby to nurse when they ask. Many children will stop nursing as frequently with this method, which will reduce the milk supply, and over a period of time will reduce their interest to nurse as the milk supply dwindles.
Offer high-value alternatives to nursing. Children may be somewhat disgruntled at attempts to discourage them from nursing, but can be enticed to try alternatives of high enough value. Favorite snack foods, beloved beverages, TV time if they don’t normally get this, walks outside, trips to the park. These are all high-value alternatives to distract your child to help them learn new routines.
Make sure you aren’t trying to wean during a stressful or unordinary time for your family. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday times are not great times to try to wean your baby. Even with all the new distractions, your baby may need the comfort of nursing if this has not already been ended prior to these disruptive seasons. If things are hectic or stressful, wait a little while and the process will be easier on everyone.
Avoid spending time in places your baby associates with nursing sessions. If your baby knows the rocking chair in the living room is where they get to nurse, maybe spend more time in another room, or remove the rocking chair for a while. Removing the visual cues for nursing can help eliminate the number of times your baby becomes frustrated when they can not nurse. If they normally nurse in their room after naptimes, change the wake-up routine to minimize time in the room.
Have them spend additional time with the non-nursing parent doing fun things! This is a perfect time for the non-nursing parent to get some quality time with the child while allowing for some separation to help facilitate the weaning process.
Just know that you and your child will get through this weaning process, whether it is a nice smooth process, or it gets a little bumpy. If you need help you can always schedule a weaning consultation to get the assistance you need.
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