Tear-less weaning!

tikka · Nov 28, 2009

I have to say I did not much differentiate between solids and semi-solids... may be I should use the word weaning food! I know some docs prescribe semi solids between 4 and 6 months and then solids at 6 months. I dont understand that logic. The idea is that the child is exclusively breastfed till 6 months and then put on weaning food. ACtually, if you can read Gill Rapely's book it clearly explains how a child becomes ready for solids and how child-led weaning works. BTW did you get my mail... am wondering if I got your mail id right. Vidya, sending you also one... word of caution, we had reason to believe DS had extensive allergies - both DH and I have asthma and other auto-immune issues. So you guys need not be as cautious as we have been, IFYKWIM

Vishalini3 · Nov 28, 2009

Krithika, Deepa Santosh (dubbi) has my email id too... add me in Am right now thinking to start semi-solids after 5months completion, based on my supply, not sure what i wud think then

kewl1 · Dec 21, 2009

Hello Tikka,
I was looking on some info on weaning and nursing pattern at 10 months when I came across this thread. It will be really nice if you could send me as well your email. I would really appreciate that.

I am looking on for some help/guidance/advice on how I should go about for my 9.5 months old daughter who is exclusively breast fed uptill now. She wakes up 3-4 times at night to feed. I get really tired as i have a 4 year old as well to look after. My elder one was combination fed so i am new to EBF thing. Ideally i would want to feed my dd only 2 times a day once she is a year old. Is it possible? I am really interested to know what was the pattern of nursing - like how many times in day and night for your baby who self weaned at 2.5 years.

Thanks sooo much for all you help!

tikka · Dec 21, 2009

Hey Kewl, the information I was sending them is very subjective and really what works for me need not work for you. I can recommend a lot of sites that helped me with taking forward the weaning process. I will ask the mods if they will want to put up the links in the stickies we have on the forum... The information is generic, as parents we adapt what is available to us to suit our child.
So here goes the sites:
Condensed Chart for Introducing Solids Solid Foods for Baby, Feeding your baby homemade solid food.
Mother-2-Mother.com
http://www.babyfriendly.org.uk/pdfs/weaning_leaflet.pdf

These three were helpful for me in choosing what I went into my child's mouth and how quickly I want to wean.
Coming to your question of can you feed just twice after the first year? Yes it is possible IF your child takes to cow's milk around the first birthday.
Congrats on exclusively breastfeeding your child for 9.5 months. Has she been slow to take to solids. (or am I getting it wrong, by exclusively bf, do you mean your child is not on weaning food now or that she is only on breastmilk and not on formula... sorry confused!)
If she is not on solids yet then introduce solids like how the sites suggest with a 6 month old, but you will be able to move quickly on to stage 2 and stage 3 foods barring allergy issues.
My child bfed close to 12 times a day even at first year, he would came down to around 6 at 2 years, within months he started dropping sessions and was on the verge of weaning when he turned 29 months. The last session was dropped because amma had to be away .

kewl1 · Dec 21, 2009

Hi Tikka,

By EBF I actually meant no formula or cows milk untill now. Yes she is eating solids and thats going good. Sorry for the confusion.

Hmm, so its not that only my babywho is sooo demanding on BF schedules. You say your LO used to feed 12 times a day at 1 year, so that means its normal for older baby to feed so many times? Some days you just get tired with BF and really I was looking for fewer BF sessions now that she is becoming big.

The links are excellent!! Thanks so much again!!

tikka · Dec 21, 2009

you are welcome. Yes. we went through phases of very intense separation and stranger anxiety and DS then did nurse very frequently. Also, we had a reason to nurse frequently and in small amounts: reflux. Your mileage may vary. At 14 months, I tried to night wean, but gave up because he seemed so very unhappy at that. Once those phases of anxieties went by, he did do much better... that's why I think our weaning went without an issue. It does get very intense, but this is such a crucial time for them and a year in a life of an adult in comparison is a reasonably short time. Hope things get easier for you. HTH.
p.s. have you checked the baby food section, there are a lot of stickies on weaning food age appropriate.

radhee · Aug 2, 2010

Krithi, I read your first post the time my LO was born and decided that if I had to wean him, it should be tearless. Well, we did do that finally - tearlessly successfully.

Here is our story: LO is 22 months now and though I wanted to hit the 2nd year mark, I could not due to some very bad skin issues I had been having ever since I got pregnant and had to leave it untreated as the particular antibiotic was contraindicated during lactation. So I finally initiated the weaning process at 22 months.

I was so so worried about this transition because my little boy loved to drink BM than anything else in the world. He had no particular feed timings and would drink as and when he pleases...Sometimes he would survive only on BM and not eat any food. So it was a tough decision to make, to continue or not to...but finally took the decision to wean but without the use of any harsh methods or any neem etc. You know what worked out? The simple coconut oil...I told him the last 2 weeks that soon oil will be coming instead of mumum...One day, DS frowned for some reason while drinking mumum and I asked if oil is coming and he said yes...I took that as a chance and applied coconut oil for the next feed. I didn't offer to feed, but I didn't refuse when he asked. After he got the taste of oil, he refused to drink, point blank. Every time he asked and drank, there was oil and he refused to drink. He played and remained normal the whole day..absolutely no crying, but only didn't sleep in the afternoon...At night, he was so tired that he slept on my shoulders. Same story the second day. No cry, no fuss, no tantrums. He remained very very normal and played as usual. He didn't even ask because he thought I got sick and oil was coming because of that. So every time he got reminded of drinking BM, he would say "mumma maathi potto" which means mumma take tablet. For the first time in these 2 years, he fell asleep on his own...Wow...I just could not believe this happened...

That's our story. The same method may not work with every child, but perhaps something milder as coconut oil can be tried instead of neem or anything else that might give the child the idea that mommy is trying to stop intentionally. As each child is different, the mom is the best judge to decide what method will work for a tearless wean. Wishing all mommies and babies a very smooth transition period.

tikka · Aug 2, 2010

Radhee, Congratulations on that milestone. The important thing was you waited till Ben was ready, whatever the method. Hope you get to feel well soon.