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The World Health Organisation recommends at least two years, in industrialized nations as well as in countries where the child’s health is more obviously at risk. It is becoming more widely recognized that breastfeeding protects against infectious diseases - especially in areas without access to clean water. However it is less well known that formula fed babies are five times more likely to die than breastfed babies in this country. And here we notice the preventative effect of breastfeeding on diseases like childhood diabetes, asthma and ear infections. If you have decided that you do wish to instigate the end of breastfeeding, plan to do it gradually, for your benefit as well as the baby’s. Sudden weaning can cause painful engorgement, even when you thought that your milk supply had dwindled. Suggestions of times not to wean (terminate breastfeeding): when baby or mother are unwell, when you are about to move house or go on holiday, because someone in authority disapproves of the age of your nursling, when the next baby comes if you are still nursing, during a heatwave. These times may precipitate your need to reconsider your relationship with your child and partner but they can be a mistaken time to force weaning if everything just seems too much. At stressful times it can be disheartening to find your nursling apparently regressing by getting more enthusiastic about breastfeeding. It is temporary. Parents tell me they notice that their children are more independent than their contemporaries, when they have chosen to wean themselves from the breast in their own time. However there are times of natural maturing and some children decide that they will wean themselves at significant moments; there are no rules. | ||
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CATHERINE HOLLAND Tel: 0701 7415310 Email: catherine@catherineholland.co.uk | |
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