The mother will be feeling the effects of this cold turkey thing
pretty quickly too you know... I don't want to be in her shoes in the
next few days when she develops one nasty breast infection!

Don't get me wrong, that baby is suffering both physically and
emotionally! There will be reprecutions for years on this one... It
is sooo sad to see something like this happen. The best we can do is
present an "unbiased" opinion. A clear statement of the facts.
Appreciate that she wishes to wean her baby quickly, and explain to
her that it at this young age a baby doesn't really understand the
difference between "wants and needs". She will want to eat because
she needs to eat. She will want to be changed because she needs to be
changed. She is not imposing her will on the mother, it's the other
way around. In a gentle way we need to make her understand that.
Give her tips or references and contacts on how to wean quickly. It
has been done before, we just need to get her on the road to success
rather than frustration. Give her the example of a smoker. There are
not many successful Cold Turkey quitters. They call it weaning for a
reason... Weaning means to gradually reduce.

This is coming from a woman who has been nursing for the last 9
years... non-stop. No, I'm not nursing my 9 yo... I'm not nursing my
7 yo... My 4 yo nurses very, very rarely... and my 2 yo is on her way
to weaning now.

I've seen it all... Or just about.

Johane

"Michelle Podnar" wrote in message m...
Poor baby!! That must be a form of child abuse to withhold food from you
child for so long!!

--
Michelle P
Ava Marie July 14, 2002
wrote in message ...
A mother on one of the message boards that I lurk on decided to wean her
six month old "cold turkey". *sigh* I wanted to cry for the little girl
when I read her post. She was trying to get her to take a sippy cup and
said that she hadn't eaten much in 18 hours until she finally gave in and
nursed her. She keeps talking about how it's a battle of wills and how
stubborn the baby is! It upsets me just thinking about it. That poor
little thing just thinks that her Mommy will feed her, she doesn't have
enough logic to understand that Mommy is never going to feed her again. Of
course, most of the other mothers were saying things like 'poor, Mommy'.
Poor Mommy?! Mean Mommy and poor baby! Finally, some people spoke up and
she attacked them, of course, as being crazy APers. I don't think you have
to be AP (and I'm not) to think this seems cruel. That poor baby must be
so confused.

Manda