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Suggest Ways To Wean A Child Off Of Breastfeeding

Posted on Fri, 16 Sep 2016

Question: My 2 year (2014 September 26 born) son is not ready to wean. he was exclusively breastfeeding till 7 months and started going to day care from 8 months onwards. so I was continuing BF in the evening and night after the office hours. Started giving cow milk after one year. Now for the past one month we are trying to wean him gradually. He came to know that and he is not ready for that. He is very upset and angry and not taking proper food at home. But eating good in day care. Night also feeding frequency has increased and he is not ready to drink from bottle. Keep on crying until he gets BM. Pls suggest solution

Answered by Dr. Pradeep Kumar Jain (58 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Try to wean him gradually with full patience

Detailed Answer:
Hello

Welcome to HCM
I have gone through the query and do understand your concern.
Weaning is a very gradual process and one should keep patience as forced weaning may cause irritation and child may backfire with more indulgent in the same activity.
Depending on your approach, weaning could take days, weeks or months.
It is always better to make it slow and try to distract the child into some other activity (like giving soft toy or bottle)during his routine time of breastfeeding.Also make a habit to let him drink from cup or bottle during day time.

Breast-feeding is an intimate activity for you and your child.Rushed waening may upset your baby.So dont get overly worried and I am sure that by taking a gradual approach to weaning — and offering plenty of love and affection — you can help your child make a smooth transition to a bottle or cup.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar