Weaning Your Younger Baby – Part One: Is Your Baby Really Trying to Wean?

Thinking of weaning your baby? How do you know if your baby is ready?

Good question. Babies go through stages and sometimes you may think your little one is ready to stop nursing. One of these issues is called a nursing strike.

For instance:

You have a 9 month old baby who hasn’t shown any interest in nursing for the past few days. Is your baby already trying to wean himself? Before you consider yourself lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you view the situation), take a moment and examine the situation:

Is your baby really initiating the weaning process? Or is he going through something else—say, a nursing strike?

It’s not uncommon for a mom to proclaim that her 10 month old baby weaned herself with no outside help; however, it’s rare for a baby under 18 to 24 months to truly self-wean.

If your child is under a year old and hasn’t shown much interest in solid food or drinking from a cup but has stopped breastfeeding, he’s probably on a nursing strike. Nursing strikes are a way for your baby to tell you something’s wrong.

S/he may have mouth pain from teething, an ear infection, a sore throat, is for some reason too distracted to nurse, have a stuffy nose that makes breastfeeding difficult, feel ignored, or is reacting to a food sensitivity from your diet.

If you want breastfeeding to continue, minimize any distractions and keep offering the breast. Express milk and give it to your baby via a spoon or cup, not a bottle. You’ll know your baby is getting enough to eat when your baby has 6 to 8 wet cloth diapers (or 5 to 6 wet disposable diapers) a day. Nursing strikes last an average of 2 to 4 days.

Tags: breastfeeding challenges, Nursing Your Baby, nursing your older baby, weaning