When does a mother need to breastfeed her child? It is generally recommended in medicine that complementary foods can be added at 8 months old and weaned at one year old. The latest should not exceed one and a half years old. However, in real life, many people do not strictly follow this standard. In fact, extending the breastfeeding period is not conducive to the growth and development of children. So how can a two-and-a-half-year-old baby be weaned?
How to Wean a Two and a Half Year Old Baby
1. Fast weaning: If you are fully prepared, both you and your baby can adapt, and the time for weaning is ripe, you can quickly breastfeed your baby. Especially considering objective factors, if a mother has to travel for a period of time, she is likely to be completely weaned in a few days. If a mother stops breastfeeding after going to work, her daytime milk supply will also quickly run out.
2. Gradual weaning: If your baby is highly dependent on breast milk, rapid weaning may cause discomfort. If you place great importance on breastfeeding and spend every day with your baby, sudden weaning may lead to feelings of loss. Therefore, you can adopt a gradual weaning method. Gradually reduce the number of feedings, shorten the feeding time, and pay attention to reducing the intake of soup and dairy products, so that milk secretion gradually decreases and eventually disappears.
3. Eat less breast milk and more milk. When starting weaning, you can give your baby some formula milk or fresh whole milk every day. It should be noted that babies should be encouraged to drink more milk as much as possible, but if they want to breastfeed, mothers should not refuse them.
4. Cut off the milk before and at night. Most babies have the habit of breastfeeding in the middle of the night and before going to bed at night. Babies have a lot of activity during the day, so it's relatively easy not to breastfeed them. The most difficult thing to cut off is probably breastfeeding before going to bed and in the middle of the night. You can cut off the night's milk first, and then cut off the milk before going to bed.
5. Reducing dependence on mom, the role of dad cannot be ignored. Before weaning, it is important to consciously reduce the time spent by the mother with the baby, increase the time spent by the father taking care of the baby, and provide the baby with a psychological adaptation process.
6. Cultivate good behavioral habits in children. Before and after weaning, it is necessary for mothers to hold their babies more and give them more caresses. However, they should not easily accommodate the unreasonable demands of their babies, and should not develop bad habits because of weaning.
Precautions for weaning babies
1. The child eats empty breasts or uses a breast pump to empty them.
2. Wear a tight bra. Discard your nursing bra and make it history. Find your previous bra or buy a new one.
3. Take Western medicine or traditional Chinese medicine.
4. During the three days of taking medication, if there is swelling and discomfort, and you have to remove it, then use a breast pump to empty it.
5. It's been 3 days since taking the medicine, so usually don't bother with the breasts. It takes time for milk to completely withdraw, and it needs to be slowly absorbed by the body. Therefore, some mothers may take about 5 days to completely withdraw milk.
How to weaning a two-and-a-half-year-old baby? This article explains several methods for weaning a two-and-a-half-year-old baby, which you can refer to and try. Children who breastfeed for too long will reduce their intake of food nutrients. Moreover, it is detrimental to children's chewing function, dental health, and palate development. So regardless of whether the child cries or not, they should indeed be weaned at the age of two and a half.
