Archive for the ‘breastfeeding’ Category

Breastfeeding is a relationship. It is the first relationship your baby has in this world.

This experience builds a foundation for his/her future perseption of the world.

Will it be trusting? Fulfilling? Rushed through? Cut off?

Extended breastfeeding is nature’s way of filling your baby’s need for intimacy and appropriate dependency on other people. If these needs are met early on, your child will grow up to be a sensitive and independent adult. On the other hand cutting corners now will only create problems in the future.

Former Surgeon General, Dr. Antonia Novello, proclaimed: “It’s the lucky baby, I feel, who continues to nurse until he’s two.” A baby’s sucking need lessens sometime between nine months and three years. The age at which this need lessens is individual, yet very few babies are emotionally filled and ready to wean before their first year.

Even though our western culture is accustomed to viewing breastfeeding in terms of months, in many cultures a baby is breastfed for two or three years.

This is not the norm the world over.

While weaning is a personal decision, nutritionists and physicians advise breastfeeding for at least one year because by that time most infants have outgrown most of their food allergies and will thrive on alternative nourishment.

Dear mothers, please, think in terms of years, not months, when contemplating how long to nurse.

Weaning is not something that you do to a child. Weaning is a journey from one relationship to another.

The Hebrew word for wean is “gamal”, meaning “to ripen.”

When a child is weaned at the age of 2 or 3 years old, by that time a child is filled with the basic tools of the earlier stages of development, he is secure and ready to enter the next stage of development. A child who is weaned before his time may show anger, aggression, habitual tantrum-like behavior, anxious attachment to caregivers, and an inability to form deep and intimate relationships.

 

Healthy weaning needs to be done gradually; you are helping your child to a new stage of development, not forcing him into it.

 

• Start with skipping the least favorite feeding. (Night time feeding is usually most loved one, so it will be last to go)
• Do not put yourself in the situation (or place) which will remind your baby of nursing. (rocking chair, holding baby in a “breastfeeding” position etc).
• Kip him busy, engage him in some fun activities, may be read a book or play a game, go for a walk, boredom will trigger a desire to be breastfed.
• Become a moving target, but do not reject your baby, if your child persists, or her behavior deteriorates, this may indicate that breastfeeding is still a need rather than a want. Watch your child and trust your intuition.
• Do not wean from person to an object (such as a blanket or a stuffed animal). Introduce other comfort measures such as sitting on your lap, singing a song to a child, letting dads to comfort and reassure a child.
• Breastfeeding will increase again during time of illness as your child needs not only comfort, but an immune boost as well.

 

Breastfeeding is meant to be a pleasurable experience. When one or both members of the mother-infant pair aren’t enjoying it anymore, it’s time to wean. After all, all good things must come to a timely end.

But, please, do it respectfully to your child feelings, weaning by desertion is very traumatic to a child.

Life is a series of “weanings” for a child: weaning from your womb, your breast, your bed, and your home.

The most secure, independent, and happy children are those who have not been weaned before their time.

Let them “Ripe” in their own time, make their journey as pleasant as possible so they grow into sensitive and independent adults.