Weaning my daughter wasn't easy. As I made mention earlier, she didn't stop nursing until her fourteenth month! The decision to breastfeed was easy for me, the benefits for my baby and myself far out weighed any excuses I might have had. Before I get to the weaning, let me preach a bit about why breast feeding works for young moms.
Its unusual for teen mothers to pick breastfeeding in the U.S.A. ! That is a sad statistic because a teen mother's body readily makes breast milk just like any other mother. Breast milk isn't just healthy for a baby in so many ways, it is healthy for mommy too. I personally lost weight easily after my pregnancies by nursing and I had 40lb weight gains. Teen girls are notoriously worried about their weight. That should be reason enough to nurse, get your figure back.
More importantly its free! What mother doesn't need extra money? Especially a teenage mother, whose chances of employment paying anything more than minimum wage are not good.
Some teen mothers have told me their milk supply wasn't good. Trust me, your baby is getting enough, your breast fed baby is going to eat more then a bottle fed baby because natural breast milk digests easily. If your baby is gaining weight, you are doing good! If your doctor isn't concerned, keep going! There are many natural teas that help milk supply come in better. I used these teas, this is my personal favorite
Please take a minute to look into what formula is really made of, reading the label may disgusts you enough to second guess bottle feeding. Podered cows milk.. vegetable oil, corn syrup and added vitamins and water.. now you drink it!
But this is NOT La Leche, so back to my story...
DeAna who wouldn't wean... At fourteen months she had a decent vocabulary and understood much more than she could say. I finally had to tell her no more. The first day I refused to let her nurse and handed her a sippy cup. She wasn't happy at first but she complied. She woke me up so often that night and my breasts hurt so bad, I gave in and nursed her.
When the sun came up, we went to the sippy cup again. That night I gave her a bottle and refused to give in no matter how I ached. I wore my wash able breast pads and toughed it out. She took that bottle ( I LOVE washable breast pads, cost effective and environmentally friendly!) .
The next morning she didn't even try to nurse, she used her cup. That night I gave her a bottle and she took it happily. I know, a bottle! and yes, I slowly had to wean her off that too. The pain and engorgement from not nursing was terrible, but guess what?? After 9 months of pregnancy and 14 months of nursing I finally allowed my self to take Tylenol, between that and hot water packs, I was good to go and so was she! No more nursing. I had my body back and she was a healthy happy toddler.
No comments:
Post a Comment