With the birth of a baby, doctors recommend breastfeeding on demand. That is, as soon as he cried, you can put it on his chest. This contributes not only to satiety, but also to emotional communication with mom. Mom’s breast is the protection of crumbs by maternal antibodies, savings on mixtures, and also an excellent sedative. Newborns fall asleep very well, smacking and not releasing the nipple from the mouth. But time goes on, the baby grows up, and soon you will have to think how to wean the child to fall asleep with a chest. First of all, it will be necessary for mom to get enough sleep. It is no secret that every woman in this difficult period experiences a lack of sleep.
When to think about it
While the child is small, there is no reason to take the most valuable from him. Up to about a year, you don’t even have to think about how to wean a child from falling asleep with a chest in his mouth. And you will be comfortable, and the child is well. By 12 months, you have two options:
- Discontinue HB completely. Now the baby can already eat porridge, and the physiological need for mother's milk has almost disappeared. But do not expect that he will refuse a warm, native "nipple". Therefore, learning to sleep without a breast will gently prepare the baby for a complete rejection of it.
- But more often than not, the question of how to wean a child to fall asleep with a breast arises among women who want to preserve GV and further, but at the same time get more freedom. This is a good option, because sucking as a way to calm the nervous system is very important for this age.
Very interested in ways to wean a child to fall asleep with a breast, those mothers who want to delegate part of the care functions to grandmothers or other family members. If you have such an opportunity, then it must be taken advantage of.
Choosing ways to calm the baby
You can’t just deprive the crumbs of what pleased him and not offer an alternative. So think about what you can offer him instead of a chest. Usually this is required from mom more significant efforts. What can be offered here:
- Bottle or nipple. True, it is likely that then you will have to wean your mother from these substitutes.
- Lullabies
- Reading of books.
- View pictures.
Most likely, you will have to try everything and experimentally establish what suits your baby. Do not forget that the substitute should not be used with breastfeeding. It is necessary to lay the crumb using other methods without resorting to breast aid. I must say that it is only verbally easy and simple. In fact, this is a long and thorny path, which can not do without the tantrums of the baby. The task of a wise mother to try to do without them.
You can’t just stop giving breasts
There are no easy ways to wean a child to fall asleep with a breast. If you want this process to be as easy as possible, you will have to abandon radical methods. If at one point you decide to leave the crumb without the usual breast, then wait for the scandal. You can’t do without tantrums, and tantrums will not be a day or two, but constantly. That is, every time before falling asleep.
It is necessary to have iron nerves in the middle of the night for several hours to rock a screaming child who insistently demands a breast. In the end, mom gives up and the baby gets what he wants. Let him finally calm down and fall asleep. In vain experienced hysteria, tomorrow again you need to start all over again. Then dad will connect, and he will obviously protect the child’s quiet sleep and his own, respectively.
There is another scenario. Mom firmly decided not to give breasts, endured all the torment, and the child as a result fell asleep from nervous and physical exhaustion. But the next day does not bring relief. If at another time, in addition to going to bed, the baby receives a breast, he will continue to demand it before bedtime. And it will continue tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and for a long time. So how to wean a child? He will fall asleep without a chest, only for this the baby should be full and calm. Stress does not contribute to this.
We feed before bedtime, but sleep without a chest
This is the best option that many parents have experienced for themselves. One year old child can already be explained that we will go to bed now. Make a bed with him, your favorite book. Now tell him that at first he can suck, then he listens to a fairy tale and will sleep.
Now you need to determine for yourself how long it will take the child to satisfy the sucking reflex. Usually 10-15 minutes, then the baby will inevitably fall asleep. After that, you need to put the baby in bed and start reading fairy tales. But no more than 20 minutes, after that you can pat the crumbs on the tummy, on the back, so that he falls asleep. Here are almost all the recommendations on how to wean a child. He has to learn and get used to falling asleep without chest, because you have not practiced such a method. Some mothers, even very young children, are first fed, and then pumped in cots, lulled. They do not have a combination of two concepts - chest and sleep. But if this moment is missed, then you need to correct the situation.
Learning a little bit
Of course, the process of falling asleep turns out to be very long. Mom needs a lot of patience and effort. Read, sing, stroke, lie down nearby. It is much easier to give breasts for 10 minutes, and the baby is sleeping sweetly. But this is necessary in order to safely go through the process of reducing the number of night feedings, and then the excommunication itself.
It is in the daily, systematic work that lies the answer to the question of how to wean a child to fall asleep with breastfeeding. Therefore, do not be lazy. Children are so used to sucking to soothe and fall asleep that they can spin in bed for hours. Despite the fact that before the tale the baby received a breast, it’s new for him to fall asleep without a nipple in his mouth. Of course, if you use a pacifier, then the problem is solved easier. Even under the breast, the nipple is replaced by a dummy, and the baby calmly goes to bed. But this is also not the best option. The baby does not learn to fall asleep himself. In addition, sucking a pacifier is also a habit.
Not without mistakes
Each independent falling asleep is a small victory. But to perform this ritual correctly every day is very difficult. Guests can come to you, and after a storm of games, the child simply can not fall asleep without a chest. Sometimes in the evening I want to watch a movie. Sometimes a child gets so tired that he falls asleep under his chest after 2-3 minutes, and there is no way to complete the program until the end. Sometimes the baby is naughty and refuses to let go of the nipple until he falls asleep soundly.
Be that as it may, tips on weaning a baby to fall asleep with a chest help poorly. It requires regular effort, willpower and commitment to the result. No matter how irregularly the training takes place, every day you will notice that the baby is falling asleep more easily without a chest. This will be your personal path to victory.
Daytime motion sickness
Usually in the evening, the baby gets tired more and easier to put. But how to wean a child to fall asleep with breast in his mouth during the day? It turns out to be much more complicated. A lot of distractions, the light from the window. Most often, an attempt to take away the chest is accompanied by the fact that the child fumbles for several minutes in the crib, and then gets up again and goes to play. After an hour and a half, you can try again. Sometimes it will turn out to pick up the chest, sometimes the baby falls asleep only with it.
Try to entrust laying to the husband or the grandmother. The child understands perfectly well that there is no breast, which means it is useless to ask her. Therefore, if you want to know how to wean a child to fall asleep under the breast, ask your relatives for help, and go shopping yourself. Stacking will not be easy, but more often you can do without tears and tantrums. This is a key point when weaning to sleep with breasts. It is daytime sleep. Often parents say that if relatives managed to put the baby in the afternoon, then he does not ask for breasts in the evening, but only drinks water and calmly falls asleep.
Day walks
How can you make your life easier? Experienced parents give their recommendations on how to wean a child from falling asleep with a chest. When the quiet hour is approaching, pick up the child and go for a walk with the stroller. On the street, they usually fall asleep calmly and sleep well for several hours. This experience will be carried over to night sleep. After some time, you will notice that the baby can fall asleep during the day himself, playing with a toy, without a chest and long persuasions.
Separate bed and chest separately
Those who followed this recommendation quickly got a good result. This is repeatedly emphasized by reviews. How to wean a child to fall asleep with a breast? His chest should not be associated with bedding. Only in this way can you achieve good results. Tell the baby that he does not suckle anymore in the crib. You need to choose a place for this, where you practically never go during the day, some chair in the living room or dressing room.
The idea is simple. When the time for going to bed is approaching, you can call your child on a chair for feeding. After that, you can go to bed together to read a book. If the baby asks for the breast again, you will have to go back. Turn off the light and tell the child a memory tale. This is better than sitting with a book in your hands, you can pat the baby on the head, on the back.
Prospects
Over time, a child who has a good dinner or supper will suck for only a few minutes, since breasts are no longer a source of nutrients for him. Gradually, you can completely abandon the hepatitis B. There are times when a child falls ill and has to be fed again in bed. But at such moments, HB is even desirable, since a sick child often refuses food.
Reduce night feeds
Moms know well that there are different feedings. Daytime, before going to bed - these are the main types. How to wean a child to fall asleep with a breast? This problem must begin to be solved in the evenings, when a tired baby is ready to fall asleep. The next moment is daytime laying. Spending more time on the street with a stroller during a quiet hour, you take another step towards weaning the baby.
And what about night feeds? Usually, weaning from sucking before bedtime does not affect their amount. Moreover, it can be different each time. Sometimes a baby sucks every two hours, another time only twice a night. But this is only at first. When the habit of falling asleep on one’s own gets fixed, the baby, even waking up at night, will fall asleep again without any problems. The maximum that is required of you is to stroke it on the back or tummy.
Consider the doctor's recommendations
Your local pediatrician can tell you how to wean a child to fall asleep with a chest. The practical experience of these doctors is very important for young parents. There is an opinion that you need to completely wean when the child is two years old. Most pediatricians recommend starting “preparing the ground” in advance. A good prerequisite will be weaning from sleep directly under the chest. Such tasks should be set for themselves when the crumb is 6-8 months old. This is ideal, you can start in a year, but you shouldn’t postpone further.
That is, you set as your distant goal the most gentle weaning from HS. And the first question is how to wean a child to fall asleep with a chest. The doctor's advice is as follows:
- Mom needs to limit herself a little in fluid intake. The less fluid that enters the body, the more difficult it is for the baby to feed. Most likely, he will not want to suck for a long time and will begin to gradually wean.
- Gradually reduce the duration of feeding. If you manage to put him to sleep without a chest, then this is the first step in the right direction.
- Express milk no longer needed so as not to provoke its excessive production.
- An increase in physical activity also causes milk to become less.
- Stop eating foods that stimulate lactation.
That is, in addition to pedagogical issues, doctors talk about physiological features that need to be taken into account. When there is little milk, the baby has to make an effort to suck. It quickly tires. And since he already eats everything and is not hungry, sucking begins to decrease in time.
The main thing is the calmness of mom and baby
Do not forget about this when you decide how to wean a child to fall asleep with a chest. What to do - we told, now an important nuance remains. Focus on your child and do not try to carry out this process as quickly as possible. An exhausted, nervous and sleepy child will be capricious during the day, which gives an additional load on the nervous system of the mother, who also did not sleep. It is especially important not to make the following mistakes:
- You can not refuse to breast-feed when the baby is sick. Often this is the only food that the baby can absorb.
- You can’t refuse to fall asleep under the breast or wean from the hepatitis B at the moment when your family is undergoing serious changes, a sharp change in the situation. The child also experiences stress, and he needs to leave at least something familiar and dear.
- Do not torture the child. If he does not want to release the nipple and is actively protesting falling asleep without a chest, his time may not have come. Try the experiment again in a month.
Systematic work gives the result
Of course, falling asleep without a chest is an additional burden for mom. Naturally, soon this will lead to a weakening of the mother-child binding, but so far everything is only worse. Instead of giving the child a chest and sleeping peacefully with him in the same bed, she needs to sing songs, download, stroke the baby, offer him some water.
But several months of systematic work give their result. The child gradually ceases to ask for breasts for falling asleep day and night. The main thing is to learn it once. Some women at this moment feel some emptiness, the loss of something very important that has been happening between them all this time.
At this time, you can decide for yourself whether it is worth folding GW finally or continue until they reach 2 years. Everyone decides for himself. But most women take this step because they get tired of endless evening and night feedings. But if all this is not there, then GV can be maintained as a support to the body and the maintenance of a special relationship between mother and child. Remember that these moments will never happen again. Tomorrow he will become older, and, like many mothers, you will experience nostalgia on sleepless nights with a restless bundle in your hands, falling asleep sweetly at your chest.