Wednesday, 2 November 2011

The end to breastfeeding

Breastfeeding Mnara.

A very dear friend of mine shared with me sometime back how her trying to stop breastfeeding almost cost her health if not her very life.

It was a very sad story to me and for a moment I thought, it’s amazing how easy it has been for me to stop the whole breastfeeding process. Well, let me qualify that and say that my children have not breastfeed for long , I am not sure why they think breastfeeding is a boring affair, they stop  at some point around 7 months, but it is usually a process.

Once I sense that the baby does not want to breast feed any more, I start reducing the times they are on the breast. This might even take a whole week of reducing supply. And since breastfeeding is a question of demand and supply, the milk production starts to gradually reduce. Anyway, the fact that they are not even interested as much, helps a lot to reduce production. 

I also make deliberate effort to take a lot of coffee, which I have had helps to reduce milk production. This has worked for me with all the three babies and I have never had a problem with stopping the whole breastfeeding process. I think it must be hard and painful to stop abruptly. So my advice to mothers is that, we need to appreciate that this is s a process. Just like the beginning of breastfeeding was a process, so is the ending.

Thanks to my friend for sharing with me, I would never have known that Mums can struggle with this. Therefore I decided to share about it today. Anyone else who has had a different experience  that we can learn from? Please share.

3 comments:

  1. Hey, yeah my baby girl is today 1year 10 months and it has and is a struggle to stop her from breast feeding. I think its more of a soother or form of security for her, especially now after undergoing surgery.

    I have tried all stunts and of late even applied colgate and lemon on my nipples but she sucked it all , of course complaining its 'kali' i.e bitter but moves on with the breastfeeding.

    Am open to ideas on how to stop her from breast feeding.

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  2. I have been lucky.. I have 3 kids.. My first one weaned himself at 7mth..food taste dbetter then this.. My second one a girl weaned her self too at 11mth and now my 3rd one is still going strong.. I think BF is health for the baby and also having your body back feels great! So I would not let me baby use it just for their own toy :)-

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  3. Some good news, baby gal has stopped breast feeding and am very excited. She had a hole in the heart and we had surgery a month ago,hence the extended breastfeeding.

    How did she stop? I asked the Lord to help us and He did. She cried a bit the first night but now when she asks, I give a polite NO and she lets that topic go. So am thankful to God and yes its great to have my whole body back.

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