How I weaned my little boy (Part 1)
Today I weaned my little boy. He is 18 months old. My initial plan was to breastfeed him until he was two years old. I’ve never had a problem nursing him because he doesn’t bite me or hurt me in any way. However, he has become very attached to me. He didn’t want anyone, not even Lola or Yaya, to feed him or put him to sleep. He just wants me. Since I work at home it becomes a huge distraction as he knocks on my desk at home and never stops crying until I get out of the room. He pulled me out of the office and took me to his bed to nurse. He sucks while eating, while watching TV, while playing. I always have to bring a jacket when we go out because I don’t know when my shirt is ripped off and sucked. It must suck at night while I’m at work. I don’t get enough sleep because it wakes me up every now and then. An activity that was once enjoyable has now become a burden to me.
The right opportunity came when my mother needed to visit my grandmother last weekend. Yaya has also gone home, so Aki and I have the house to ourselves. He had my undivided attention for three whole days. While at my grandma’s she informed me that my cousin Cathy had already weaned her daughter and she was going to bring home the weed plant they used. She told me to get my son to wean. For three days, I regulated his feeding, letting him nurse only after meals and before bed. He didn’t seem to care. He seems very satisfied and happy just to be with me. When my mother came back, I brought home some banyawan stalks from my Lola’s garden. I decided to wean my little boy the next day.
Early the next morning, I set up my weaning kit. I crushed one end of the banyawan stem and applied the extract to my breasts. Banyawan is an herbal plant believed to treat diabetes. It has a bitter taste and is usually boiled and drunk. Initially i wanted to use ambalaya extract but i decided not to use it because my son eats ambalaya. I also considered using chili pepper extract but that might be too much and I don’t want to hurt myself either.
When Aki tasted Banyawan’s bitter taste, he was stunned and surprised. Try the other breast and find that it has the same bitter taste. The bitter taste had such an effect on him that he stopped every time he felt the urge to breastfeed. I gave him a chocolate chip as a reward for remembering the bitter taste, and to my surprise, he wiped the chocolate on my breast and tried to feed it! Perhaps he thought that chocolate would remove bitterness! That was a funny moment!
My little boy’s first day of weaning started well. My fear is how he acts during the night when I sleep.
