Strike a baby

Some children emphatically refuse to take their breasts for several days, and then, after much persuasion and cajoling, return to their old habits. A joke called strike, this behavior is usually caused by physical anxiety, such as teething, illness or hospitalization, and emotional shock, such as a recent move to a new home, a mother's illness, a family breakdown or too much noise in the house( too many guests,too many duties outside the home, holiday stress and so on).Our first child, Jim, refused to take a breast after visiting the waiting room for suturing after falling at the age of eight months. As young parents, we decided that it was time for him to wean him. In the end, he was already eight months old, he ate solid food and drank well from the mug, and in those days almost all children were weaned from the breast by eight months. We made no attempt to bring him back to his chest. Now we know that Jim just had a strike.

Here's how to negotiate with the striker. First of all, take it as a temporary loss of interest in the chest, and not as a sign that your child is ready to be weaned. Children under nine months rarely want weaning. Try to identify the possible physical or emotional shock that caused the strike. And then lure your starving child back to your chest. Imagine that you are just starting to breastfeed your newborn baby. Meet again. Temporarily put off all the duties that do not allow you to be with the child. Explain to your husband and other family members that the child has declared a hunger strike and that in the next few days you will need to fully focus on the child. Turn off the phone, relax in a comfortable feeding station, relax together in a warm bath, turn on soothing music and just keep your baby skin to the skin for most of the day. Wear your child in a bag as much as possible so that the baby is next to your chest. Feeding during day and night sleep - proven ways to lure the baby back to the breast;children, the opposing breasts in a state of wakefulness, most often agree to suck it when they fall asleep or even in a dream. Cling tightly to your baby at night. Sometimes recreating the feeding environment reminds the child of what he is missing. If the child continues to withdraw from the chest, do not feed by force. Give your child to sleep, skin to the skin, so that his head rests on your chest. Remember, "nurturing" means nurturing, caring and caring, and not

just providing food. Sometimes children need a few days of feeding exclusively caress and tenderness before they return to the breast.

A hunger strike may be an indication that the child wants to review the contract between the mother and the child. Try to restore the situation in which you were breastfeeding before the strike: your child's favorite position, a rocking chair, a place in the house or a position in the cradle lying in bed. With the creative approach of the mother in most cases with a strike can manage for a couple of days. But we know children who refused to take their breasts for almost a week, and then gradually returned to it. Their mothers did not lose heart, became as accessible as possible, expressed milk to maintain its output and listened to their intuition, which told them that the child was not yet ready to wean. In this case, the advice of the mother who has gone through this is helpful - call the "La Leche League".If, after all these tweaks, the child still refuses to breastfeed, you can be sure that this is what your child is aiming for and that your child is really ready to move to a new level - to weaning. Do not be sorry: rejoice that your child has matured before the time.