Set the Weaning Schedule

The AAP recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of your baby’s life. If you can manage this, your breast milk will help protect him from disease and food allergies, as well as provide a range of nutritional benefits. You’ll also benefit: Moms who breastfeed have a lower rate of ovarian cancer and osteoporosis later in life. What about when those six months are over? The AAP recommends that you keep going through the first year of your baby’s life and beyond—there’s no upper age limit.

So how do you pick a time? Or do you let your baby decide?


On your schedule Mother-led weaning is the norm—in the United States, at least. When you set the schedule, you don’t necessarily go against your child’s wishes on when, but you do set the pace. Reasons to start weaning range from a new pregnancy or an illness that requires medication or chemotherapy to the inchoate but unmistakable feeling that it’s time to move the relationship to the next stage. “It’s not unusual for a mom to feel burned out and just say, ‘I've reached my limit,’” Vickers says. “The key thing is to find as gentle a way to wean as possible.”

On your baby's schedule The far less common approach to weaning is the child-led version, in which you let your baby set the pace. Children will, when left to their own devises, wean eventually.  “It’s rare for a child to wean on their own in the first year,” says Vickers, “but it happens.” The more likely natural age lies somewhere between two and four years. Signs of a child’s readiness are obvious, Vickers says.  “They simply need the breast less, and therefore seek it out less until they don’t ask for it at all.”  It’s certainly the most hassle-free way to go—if, that is, you love everything about breastfeeding and are in no rush to end it.




Next — Know When to Start: the Pros and Cons of Each Stage