Weaning, Tips
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About the Author
Claire Martin is a parenting writer at the Denver Post. Her writing has won
national and regional awards, and has appeared in publications such as the St. Petersburg
Times, Good Housekeeping, and Sunset magazine. She lives in Denver
with her husband and two daughters, both of whom were breastfed.
From THE NURSING MOTHER'S PROBLEM SOLVER by Claire Martin. Copyright © 2000 by Claire
Martin. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
- Change the routine. Have Dad take over the bedtime or nursing-time tasks that Mom
formerly handled (dressing, reading stories). - Take the weaning child for a long car ride at nursing time.
- Introduce a "transition object"-a toy, lullaby tape or book, for example-at 12 to
15 months, so the baby learns to associate something besides nursing with going
to sleep. This will make it much easier to wean your baby. - Offer a snack-juice and a favorite food-at nursing time.
- The favorite nursing sessions (e.g., morning and bedtime) should be last to go.
- Manage engorged breasts with a "bra salad"-raw cabbage leaves tucked between your
breast and the bra. - Manually express as much milk as you can when you feel painfully full.
- Sleep in a stretchy exercise bra, with nursing pads to soak up leaking milk. It's
not unusual to leak for more than a month after weaning. Some women's breasts still
produce a drop or two of milk more than a year after they wean their baby.