As a young mother, you might be confused as to when you need to stop breastfeeding your child. My article will help you decide the most appropriate time for stopping breastfeeds.
One of the most complicated questions for a young mother to answer is when exactly is the right time to stop breastfeeding. As a mother, you might be uncomfortable coming up with the perfect answer for several reasons. One is the guilt of weaning your baby from breastfeeding when your baby may still want some more nourishment and the other most often happens to be the suggestions from some experienced mothers who have their own ideas about the perfect time for weaning from breastfeeding. Scroll through the article so that you will understand better reasons to wean your baby from breastfeeding.
Judging the Best Time to Wean from Breastfeeding
Weaning time differs for every mother and child. Research shows that women generally prefer to breastfeed their babies for a duration similar to the one opted for by their mothers. After all, women tend to look upon their own mothers as ideals when it comes to baby care and nourishment. If however, you wish to decide your own weaning schedule, I have listed a few signs to help you decide the right time to stop breastfeeding.
Maternal Instinct
As a mother, you are blessed with a sixth sense that often tells you why your child is crying while it is still unable to speak. This very instinct will also tell you when it is the right time to stop breastfeeding. This decision is meant to be taken solely by you and your baby. Trust your mind and do not take any decisions based on what others have to tell you. Listen to your mind for making any guilt free decision.
Teething Problems
One of the best time to stop breastfeeding is when your baby starts getting baby teeth. As the gums start to harden and teeth start emerging, the baby gets tempted to bite it’s toys and teething ring. And unfortunately, your nipple ends up becoming a teething ring for your baby. Watch out for development of your baby’s teeth. It would be easy to remember that baby girls usually start teething by their 6th month and baby boys by their 10th month.
Love of Solid Food
As your baby grows, you might start introducing him to solid and semi solid foods like formula, cereals, soups, mashed vegetables and fruits, juices, etc. Gradually, your baby will develop a taste for these foods and start looking forward to eating them. Once you are fully sure that your child has adjusted to its new diet, you might easily take a decision to stop breastfeeding.
Losing Interest
Losing of interest in breastfeeding applies to both the baby as well as the mother. You might suddenly notice that your baby does not breastfeed as long as it previously used to. Instead it goes on playing with the breast or holds on to it just for comfort whenever it is tired or sleepy. Similarly, new mothers have a natural instinct to breastfeed when their child is born. This interest considerably reduces in some women after a period of time. If you happen to feel that you have had enough of those breastfeeding sessions, then there is nothing wrong in listening to your heart.
Ending the Contraception Effect
Breastfeeding is the nature’s way of providing the contraception effect to women with breastfeeding babies. I agree that this concept is not cent percent foolproof, but it is valid in most of the cases. However, if your wish to resume your fertility and start menstruating in a normal way, then it is time you stopped breastfeeding your child.
Ending Maternity Leave
One of the best time to wean your baby from breastfeeding is when your maternity leave is coming to an end. Amongst working women with careers, a maternity leave may last from four months to eight months post delivery. It is virtually impossible for women to rush home during the office hours for a midday breastfeed. Instead, they should plan to wean their babies from breastfeeding at least a month before they resume their work.
Health Reasons
As human beings, we all are subjected to injuries and infections and breastfeeding mothers are no exception to this. You might be prescribed medication to recover from these infections. However, it is to be remembered, that mothers can pass on their infections as well as chemical contents present in their medication to their innocent child through breast milk. In order to keep the health problems away from the baby, mothers may be forced to wean their babies from breastfeeding.
Starting of Play School
As a mother, you might have decided to breastfeed your child as long as possible. However, once your toddler is ready to join preschool, it is a sign that it will be independent thereon. It would be very difficult to have breastfeeding sessions once preschool begins. So, this is definitely the most appropriate time to wean your child from breastfeeding.
Your decision could be based on any of the above reasons. Initially, your child might resist being weaned from breast milk. Similarly, you yourself might have some painful health issues once you curtail your feeds. But stay firm and stick to your decision no matter what. Weaning your baby from breastfeeding will not only give you your personal space and freedom, but it will also be one of the first steps to make your child independent and boost his immunity.
