Baby Drinking Vitamin D Milk after Breast Milk Weaning

Real Dad Blog Version: When it is time to wean your child from breast milk, be a real dad, and help both your son and his mother.

My son is almost one year of age. There is a lot of debate when to wean babies from breast milk. Doctors say a mother should start weaning around one year of age. More extreme groups of baby experts may state even later. We have decided to stick with what the doctors say. We do not want to be one of those odd couples that have their kids breast-feed until the age of four.

There are a few ways to wean your child from breast milk. A breast-feeding mom can do it cold turkey, gradually, partially or have the child choose when to be done. I strongly suggest never to do a child led weaning. My philosophy is that it is good to give your children choices but they still need to know who is in charge.

My wife decided to do it somewhat gradually. We started supplementing Vitamin D milk after we ran out of the frozen breast milk. She just did a morning and night breast-feeding. As time went on, the night feeding left and then finally today, all breast milk has ceased. Rylan is fully on vitamin D milk.

We are lucky Rylan has had an easy time adjusting to the weaning. Today he tried to go after his mother’s boobs a few times. Those times were when he was tired. He handled the boob rejection just fine. It has been pretty easy on my wife, until today. Her boobs are now in pain. This pain is common among women who stop breastfeeding.

As a dad, there are things I can do to help my son during the weaning process. More importantly, there are more things as a husband I need to do for my wife.

For my son… I need to be there for the bottle feedings. Be patient with him when he wants his mother’s boobs and instead, he gets a bottle or sippy cup. Be understanding when he cannot fall asleep because he is used to breast milk.

For my wife…. I need to massage her back when her breasts are in a lot of pain. I need to not tell her moo (as I did when her milk was coming in) because her boobs balloon up. I will run to the store and get her cabbage because that is supposed to help reduce milk production and ease the pain. I will also get her ice packs when needed. I also need to be patient with her as she goes through this process.

If I do those things for my wife and son, I am a real dad. I better start with the massage.

You may find more parenting and dad suggestions in the dad / parenting suggestion category.

As time goes on, you may brush your baby’s teeth with a baby’s toothbrush.  Start this when your baby gets their first teeth.  Our son Rylan loves getting his teeth brush with a baby’s toothbrush.  We tell him that we are going to brush his teeth and he throws his hands up and down in the air with excitement.

When you watch the video of us brushing our baby’s teeth, you can tell Rylan enjoys it. We did things to help with his enjoy of getting his two baby’s teeth brushed.  We brush our teeth around Rylan.  It got him intrigued with us brushing our teeth and he then gets to join in on the fun.  We also have been doing this since he has born starting with the washcloth cleaning his mouth.  He has been exposed to good oral baby hygiene by having good adult oral hygiene.  This new dad likes to have clean teeth and a clean mouth.