I know breastfeeding is good for the baby and it is recommended to breastfeed as long as possible up to age 2. Chhori is 18 months now and we have decided to wean her off breastfeeding.
As I have written in my previous post, we had wean her off night feed for a while now and I am so grateful to have a husband who helped me to do that. I am sure I couldn’t have handled it by myself. I felt like a zombie some days when I used to feed her at night and have a full time job.
But I thought she was old enough to have cow milk now so I decided to wean her off breastfeeding altogether. I knew it was not going to be an easy task but me and AS made the decision that it was a good time to do it.
Lately, I have realised that Chhori wanted to be breastfed when she is bored, not when she is hungry. She is doing well with solid food so it was our motivation to go ahead with the weaning.
In order to discourage her from asking for milk frequently, I made a paste out of turmeric powder and lemon and rubbed it around the nipples.
I told her my boobs hurt and showed her the yellow nipples. She didn’t believe me at first so she tried to drink the milk as usual. But it was not the same because of the paste so she immediately stopped. Every time, she asked for milk, I showed her my turmeric lemon rubbed boos and emphasised that it hurts. The first few days she kept on trying to drink once in a while as she forgot the taste but I kept on adding the paste so she would understand that the milk doesn’t taste the same anymore.
I guess it is easier to wean when kids are under 1 but when they are a toddler, they remember them more so it is harder to wean them.
Anyway I had to do it for 5 days in a row before I stopped applying the paste and then, I didn’t need to show her but just tell her that it hurts. By day 7, she didn’t even ask for it anymore.
Today is day 16 and she doesn’t mentioned it at all. So finally she is off the boob.
We did have one night when she cried a lot – almost 2 hours on and off and nothing we did would make her stop but apart from that things are looking OK. She still wakes up some nights but she is not asking for milk, which is great. Sometimes it is hard for her to go back to sleep but I am sure things will get better as time passes.
I think more than her, I had trouble the first few days because when she want to be fed and she cried or made sorry faces, I feel so guilty. Sometimes, I felt as if I shouldn’t wean her now but me and AS had made the decision and I had to stick with it. Also I know for sure, the longer it goes on, the harder it will get for both of us. Now I can play with her for a long time without her getting distracted by wanting to breastfeed. I really love our new relationship. 🙂
Tell me your weaning story. Is there anything I could do to make her feel better?
Take care everyone,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO
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