Weaning AL from breastfeeding….

There was no fixed rule on how to wean a child from breast. This would just be Mummy’s experience and please take note that Mummy didn't graduate from any medical assistant school on breastfeeding. This is just sharing…

PaPa discussed with Mummy that Mummy would need to wean AL off from night feeding. This was because Mummy might need to go to outstation in future that PaPa wanted AL to be able to sleep throughout night without getting comfort from the breast. Besides that PaPa wanted Mummy to get back the sleep because Mummy had been waking up walking from room to the kids’ room to feed AL a few times. For the past few months, AL was not on breast on weekday office hours except night time. Sometimes weekend she would still ask for comfort during daytime. Mummy managed to wean her off from breast when we were not at home. It was a slow process of weaning her off.

The biggest challenge was the night feeding. The first night was on Saturday night 28Aug2010. AL cried and slept the whole night. Mummy was facing night engorgement and feeling so sad. Emotionally, Mummy really missed the breastfeeding attachment with AL. It was hard for us. Then on Sunday night 29Aug2010, AL was also crying and holding Mummy’s bra strap to sleep with her pitiful face.

On Monday 30Aug2010 4am, AL woke up and said “Mummy, I want Mummy’s ‘nok’ “. (Note: ‘nok’ meant milk). Mummy said “No more AL”. Reluctantly, she said “’Nok’ with spoon”. AL rejected bottle since she was 1+ years old. She had been drinking with cup or with spoon. So, at 4am, Mummy set-up the mini Japanese table on the floor for AL, wore a bib (just in case) and mixed about ¼ cup of milk for her. Mummy dozed off on the sofa when AL patted Mummy with the cup and said “Mummy, no more and want some more”. Mummy made another ¼ cup and then continued dozing off when she said “Mummy, AL full and ‘bou bou’ already”.

Mummy’s engorgement was quite bad and Mummy wanted some photos of the last breastfeeding with AL. On 31Aug2010, Mummy told AL how about last breastfeed and she nodded her head. PaPa took some of the photos to keep as memory. With these photos (which would be posted later…), that was AL’s last breastfeed. That night AL did ask for once and when Mummy explained she reluctantly accepted it. JL also helped to explain that AL was already big girl.

From that day onward, it took her some time to change from “Mummy’s ‘nok’” to “Spout” or “Spoon”. She was slowly willing to accept drinking mix of Enfa+Susta (Chocolate) as long as not white color. Now at least she would drink about ¼ to ½ cup of milk at night from cup. According to KongKong and PohPoh, during daytime, sometimes she would take 1 to 2 times of ¼ to ½ cup of milk.

Since her formula rejection, we didn’t force her because we didn’t want to create phobia and total rejection by her for the rest of her life. However, we were happy with her progress now that at least she would take min ¼ of cup of milk per day. Also she would finish up about almost ½ box of UHT Strawberry milk when we were out.

On and off, she would still hold on Mummy’s bra strap for comfort…

Officially it is almost one month AL totally weaned off from breast. Mummy’s breast still had some engorgement till now but not that bad. It was time to get back to Mummy’s old bras. Mummy had been breastfeeding AL since she was born on 20July2008. Mummy started to breastfeed her within the 1st hour after delivery.

It was a memorable journey and with no regret because AL’s immune system was much stronger than JL. Having inverted nipple and with the entire initial painful journey had taught Mummy with a lot about breastfeeding. Mummy would not ever forget all the wonderful Mummies who supported Mummy throughout the whole journey… Thanks a lot…

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