It has been 4.5 months now since I gave birth to my son and he has been exclusively breastfed till yesterday. It gives me incredible joy and pride to know that I have been able to feed and nourish my baby for so long. For most of you this is not an incredibly long time, but let me explain that I come from a family of extremely poor milk supply. My grandmother bottle-fed all of her 9 children. I was a formula-fed baby as my mother's milk supply expired within day 10 of my birth. So, you can assume that my personal goal was to feed my son for his newborn saga namely three months. And it has been a joy to actually have had sufficient milk to sustain him for almost 5 months. I must let you know that I did take supplements (Lactare tablets) for three months after my delivery to enhance the milk supply.
I have heard stories about mothers not really enjoying breastfeeding and all the bonding that people expect you to automatically have. So it has really been a blessing for me, that I have had this incredible journey with my son. I did not experience the pain that people talk about nor did I resent him waking up every hour in the initial first few months. It was our lovely un-interrupted time with each other.
Now that I am back to working full time (albeit at home - I am a WFH mom at the moment), I think it is time to start introducing solid-foods and start my weaning. I always assumed that when the time would come for me to supplement your diet with cow's milk/ragi manni/tomato juice etc. I would feel really upset and emotional. But that is not the case. After completing his 4th month, I can slowly see that my milk supply is not sufficient for him and he is starting to feel antsy and irritated even after feeding close to half an hour. I realize that inspite of missing feeds , my breasts do not feel heavy or painful meaning lesser milk supply. And so, after talking to numerous people I decided I would start on Ragi Manni for him followed by tomato juice in a bottle (tomato juice pictured below). I give both during the lunch hour ( 12.30 - 2 pm) followed by playing for a while. And he is full enough to take a nap of 2 hours after that.
I was scared that he would not want to feed from me after introducing a feeding bottle to him. Pictured below is his first time using the bottle. So far, he is more than happy to come back to me to feed.
Can you spot him trying to push the bottle away using his leg ? It was his first time using the bottle today and I had to snap a picture, and document it here.
Have a good day!
Congrats on having lasted that long. Lactare did nothing for me I was almost completely dried up by the time I suffered my second and massively painful mastitis at 5 weeks. Like you though I was genetically screwed my mom never established a milk supply with me and I have PCOS that makes it harder too.
ReplyDeleteI introduced solids around the same age, one food at a time every 5 days to rule out allergies easily. In Switzerland babies are weaned of apple sauce, so I made my own when she was ready to taste something aside from formula, it's a super easy one to pull, just peel the apples and boil them in a little water, then when they are soft put the little water left in the pan and the apples in the mixie and blitz to a puree, it keeps in a jar in the fridge for a few days. My daughter LOVED it, then we introduced rice, and steamed puree veggies one by one, she used to like them mixed with plain rice cerelac...they grow up so fast!
I have decided on ragi manni followed by tomato juice. It has been two days. But the idea of apple juice seems really yummy. I should definitely try this. Another friend suggested apple puree too - but she said she started it after 6 months.. Can I start apple juice at the age of 4.5 months?
DeleteActually apple sauce is Apple puree, not juice :) In Switzerland apple juice is given a tea spoon at a time in case of constipation in babies as little as 3 month old. The puree is thicker because it contains the pulp of the fruit, and because it is cooked it is already broken down for easy digestion for babies. I did have to resort to the apple juice trick when she was 3 month old because all the pediatrician advices given to me to make her poop failed, and my mom told me that back in the days the apple juice trick was what Doctors recommended.
DeleteI think the reasoning for apple being the first food in Switzerland is that our diet is wheat heavy and it's not a easily digestable one for young kids and wheat introduced too soon can lead to the developpment of gluten allergy, and we don't have many other cereals that are truely local that mother 3-4 generation back could rely on to wean their child, so fruit it was as Switzerland produce all orchard fruits so I can imagine how it was an easy choice for weaning food.