Weaning, Tips

• Change the routine. Have Dad take over the bedtime or nursing-time tasks that Mom formerly handled (dressing, reading stories).


• Take the weaning child for a long car ride at nursing time.


• Introduce a "transition object"-a toy, lullaby tape or book, for example-at 12 to 15 months, so the baby learns to associate something besides nursing with going to sleep. This will make it much easier to wean your baby.


• Offer a snack-juice and a favorite food-at nursing time.


• The favorite nursing sessions (e.g., morning and bedtime) should be last to go.


• Manage engorged breasts with a "bra salad"-raw cabbage leaves tucked between your breast and the bra.


• Manually express as much milk as you can when you feel painfully full.


• Sleep in a stretchy exercise bra, with nursing pads to soak up leaking milk. It's not unusual to leak for more than a month after weaning. Some women's breasts still produce a drop or two of milk more than a year after they wean their baby.