On I am going to break down today’s show, into several show. I am going to talk have a Part 1 which will focus on the basics of gradual weaning, whether it be parent or baby led and Part 2 – I am going to go into more detail about gradual weaning, plus share some of my personal with teething and weaning. In Part 3, I am going to share some personal breastfeeding stories of my own and in doing so will talk about my personal experiences in weaning each one of my three kids. I talk about how my families concerns about how I could possibly breastfeed a baby who is teething… led to my obsession with breastfeeding a baby who is teething.

By sharing some of my personal experiences, you will gain insight as to why I wanted to become an IBCLC and why I feel that being an IBCLC is such an important job. I am blessed to be part of a professional community – one hat I am proud to be a part of and one that I take seriously and as many of you know I also take with a heavy does of humor also. I know for sure, that being able to laugh at myself and the antics around me is a matter of survival for all things breastfeeding and mothering related. I will than share with you information about weaning from a professional point of view because this is what I do as an IBCLC.

As many of you know, my mission in hosting this show is to help normalize breastfeeding, all around the world. I love helping parents prepare for breastfeeding during their pregnancy. I love providing my breastfeeding class to help you learn all about breastfeeding. However, my love of moms/babies and breastfeeding does not stop there. Weaning is an important part of the breastfeeding process and one that should not be ignored.

I am glad that you are learning about breastfeeding from this podcast and I hope that as you become more comfortable with my voice and what I have to share, that you will take your learning to the next level and choose to take my breastfeeding class. It beats out any local class that you can take and it is yours as soon as you sign up for it. All the feedback I receive from moms who have taken this class is that they realize there is so much more to learn about breastfeeding than a 1-2 hour class can teach them. Many have said that they did not realize it at the time, but once they had their baby, it became crystal clear to them how much they did not learn. I call those classes a “one and done.” I use to teach classes like that and realized they were just a teeny, tiny bit helpful. You take the class and that’s that. Where is your ongoing support for all the months that you are breastfeeding. Which was my motivation for creating the absolute best breastfeeding class for you and you can easily get it online.

Check out: aabreastfeeding.com/breastfeedingclass to join us. I truly do look forward to you joining our private group and to get to know you better as we interact with each other during the class and in our weekly meetups. Curious to know more details: go to: aabreastfeeding.combreastfeedingclass for all the info and find out how I can help you prepare for breastfeeding. If you have any questions that are not answered about the class, feel free to shoot me an email at: aabreastfeeding@hotmail.com and I will be happy to respond within 24 hours to all your questions.

So often weaning is talked about as being a hard stop in your breastfeeding relationship. This makes it seem to be more about loss or a detachment from your baby. I like to think of weaning as being a passage from one relationship with your baby to evolving into another kind of relationship with your baby. I know we have many seasons in our mothering and weaning is just another Season.

In order to include all moms, dads and partners in this weaning discussion, you will frequently hear me refer to parents rather than each individual person. Since our kiddos breastfeed for several weeks, months and years, you will hear me refer to our kiddos as babies or toddlers or child or children. Since a complete weaning discussion could easily take 5 hours as the subject as a whole is quite broad, I am going to focus on the gradual weaning process that happens over a longer period of time, rather than talk about abrupt weaning which is usually something that happens over a very short period of time, as in hours or days.

There are a few things that you may not know about weaning because it is often not talked about. One fact is that the weaning process, which can take days, weeks, months and years, actually begins with the first introduction of foods other than breast milk. Yes, many people are surprised to find out that once their daily diet changes from an all breast milk diet to adding other foods – this begins the weaning process.

The other fact that I would like to mention is that so often the assumption is made that it is only mothers who are actively putting their baby to the breast/chest for feedings, for milk transfer. When they are reducing the time and frequency of feeds, we consider this weaning. While this is true, there are also women who are using other methods to remove the milk, either hand expression or pumping. They also go through the weaning process.

They have been removing the milk for their biological child or an adopted baby, or perhaps they were a surrogate and pumped for a baby that they carried for intended parents. They can be a donor mom and removing milk for donation and there milk is going to a milk bank or perhaps directly to another baby. At some point, they decide to wean and they also will go through a process that needs to be met with information and support.

Throughout this show, when I describe weaning, please know that I mean this is happening from both direct breastfeeding and from alternative ways such as hand expression or pumping, as a way of removing the milk.

When weaning gradually, it is said to be: Parent led or Baby led

Parent led is where the mother purposefully begins to eliminate or reduce the amount of times and minutes a day or night that she breastfeeds or pumps. There are many variations of parent led weaning.There can be daytime only weaning, in which the parent decides to gradually eliminate feedings or pumpings between 8 am and 10 pm and let the baby do his or her normal thing throughout the night and early morning.

There can be night time only weaning, in which the parent decided to gradually eliminate feedings or pumpings between 10pm and 8am. In the case of parent led weaning, mom is deciding when and where and for how long she breastfeeds or pumps. She has a plan and is following it with the goal in mind of being fully weaned by a specific date or approximate time period.

Baby led weaning is when your baby or toddler gradually, and on their own begin to go longer in between feeding times and spend less time feeding. Some babies just get super darn busy and active during the daytime and lose interest in breastfeeding any of the hours they are fully awake. They kind of fall into a pattern of nursing to sleep, nursing a time or two in the middle of the night and are eager to nurse first thing in the morning. After that, there is no way at all, no matter how hard their moms try, that they can get their babies to sit for even a few minutes to nurse during the daytime/active hours. This mom/baby pair may have these routine going on for many, many months, before the baby gradually begins to drop the late and middle of the night feeds.

Be prepared for your baby to seem like they are fully weaned and than 2 days or 5 days later, come back to the breast again. I find that when a baby shows not interest in breastfeeding for a couple of weeks, typically they are done and just don’t come back to it. There are no hard and fast rules around the weaning journey and this is important for everyone to recognize this.

I have witnessed up close and personal, moms of twins and how different the weaning process was for the twins as it all did not happen exactly the same. In one instance, the process for each baby was like night and day. One mom in particular had a really rough time with her twins in the early days of breastfeeding. Her daughter breastfed until she was 14 months and then over a period of a short time, as in weeks, weaned herself. Now her son, he continued nursing until he was almost 3. This mom had 2 other kids and she did not seem to really mind, however, she did pump for quite a few months so she could mix her breast milk in with the babies foods, like cereals and yogurt and veggies and fruit smoothies and puddings. If your baby weans earlier than you had wanted, and you would like to continue them having your milk, usually for health purposes, you can keep up your supply with pumping as long as you like and continue giving your baby your milk by adding it to other foods just like this mom with twins did.

If you are getting my drift, there are lots of variables when talking about weaning – who is weaning, how they are weaning and how long the process takes. You can already tell that this is my code word for: It is best to be as flexible as you can when it comes to weaning.