How to wean a ten-month-old baby

Breast milk is the most common way of feeding nowadays. Even mothers who want a perfect body will choose breastfeeding because the nutrition in breast milk is incomparable to many milk powders. Of course, weaning is also a very important thing. At what age should a baby be weaned? How to wean a baby at ten months old? Let’s take a look.

If conditions permit, you can let your baby eat until he is one year old before weaning. Because from the time the baby is one year old, the nutritional content of breast milk begins to decrease, the amount of breast milk also gradually decreases, and gradually cannot meet the baby's needs.

1. Weaning too late is also harmful

Compared with early weaning, late weaning is also not suitable for the baby's growth.

It is best not to wean your baby before he is one year old, in order to avoid the baby becoming overly attached to breast milk and consuming less meat, fish, meals and other complementary foods, leading to adverse consequences such as weight loss, malnutrition, poor physical condition, frequent illness, etc.

2. Rough weaning is not advisable

Weaning is the first hurdle that the baby and the mother need to go through after birth. It is a big deal for both parties, and both need to adapt and accept it psychologically and physiologically. Therefore, rough weaning is highly undesirable, and there must be a gradual transition and a preparation stage.

Babies need to prepare for weaning at around 4 months old. Add complementary foods to your baby appropriately so that your baby can begin to get to know foods other than breast milk. This is not only beneficial to the baby's growth and development and balanced nutrition, but also can train the baby's chewing and swallowing functions.

With the preparation in the previous 4 months, the 8-month-old baby has become accustomed to and even likes the added complementary foods, so the mother can start by reducing the number of breastfeeding sessions and replacing them with complementary foods. Gradually reduce the number of breastfeeding times until breast milk is completely replaced by formula and complementary foods.

Generally speaking, weaning takes 2 to 3 days. Even if the baby is not used to it, weaning can be completed within a week.

Although the baby may be irritable and uncomfortable during the initial weaning reaction, the mother should give the baby more caress but not indulge him, so as to avoid failing to wean the baby and indulging the baby's bad temper. During the weaning period, it is best for the mother to feed her baby her own meals and spend more time with her baby, so that the baby feels that although he can no longer get breast milk, his mother is still by his side to care for him and protect him, thereby reducing the psychological harm of weaning on the baby.

As the baby grows, the nutritional needs will increase accordingly. The amount of breast milk will not increase as the nutrients in it can no longer meet the baby's growth and development needs, so there is a need to add complementary foods. In addition, the child's deciduous teeth also erupt as they grow, and they can gradually adapt to semi-liquid and semi-solid foods in addition to liquid foods. Their chewing and digestive functions are also gradually formed and mature, and they are able to increase the ability to eat complementary foods.

Weaning too late will cause the child's oral cavity to not adapt, and the child will lose interest in non-liquid food, be unwilling to eat porridge, rice, pasta and other complementary foods, and may even hold the food in the mouth without swallowing or even vomit it out. This will cause malnutrition, poor physical condition, weakness, and even affect their intellectual development. Secondly, it is not conducive to the improvement of the chewing function of the teeth.

Weaning also needs to be done step by step

Mothers must first understand that weaning is important, but it must also take into account the child's physical and psychological transition and adaptation. Zhong Xixia said that if you want to wean your baby smoothly, you should not wait until the baby is 10 months old to add complementary foods. Generally, you can start adding complementary foods when the baby is 4-6 months old. This is the first step in switching from breastfeeding to complementary foods. The added complementary foods should be paste foods, such as rice paste, vegetable puree, etc., and then gradually add complementary foods from liquid to solid in the stages of 7-9 months, 10-12 months, and after 1 year old. Since infants and young children have poor digestive functions, even after adding solid complementary foods, soft and easily digestible foods should be given priority.

The method of adding complementary food is to start by reducing breastfeeding once a day and replacing it with complementary food, and gradually increase and reduce the number of breastfeeding times, replacing the reduced breast milk with appropriate complementary food. In this way, you can completely and successfully wean your baby by 10 months.

3. The best time to wean your baby is when the weather is cool

Spring and autumn are the best seasons for weaning because children are more likely to accept full complementary feeding when the weather is cool. If a child suffers from diarrhea or other diseases in autumn, you can postpone weaning for a few days until the child recovers. In fact, for some children who eat little or no breast milk and mostly rely on formula milk, weaning is relatively easy, and there is no need to be too particular about the timing of weaning. If there is enough breast milk, it is best to choose the right time to wean.

When the time for weaning is around 10 months in summer, it is best to postpone it slightly until the cooler autumn. In summer, children drink more water and have poor appetite, so indigestion and diarrhea are likely to occur if they are weaned at this time. Generally speaking, people in the south should pay more attention to the timing of weaning than those in the north. Director Zhong Xixia said that the weather in southern China is generally hot in summer and the high temperature can easily affect children's appetite. In Guangzhou, the climate around late October and November is more suitable for weaning.

How about weaning a ten-month-old baby? The above introduces the question of whether it is good or bad to wean a ten-month-old baby, and also popularizes some knowledge about the weaning period, so that everyone can understand more about this issue, and it can also allow mothers to learn some common sense so that they can use it in daily life.