Feeding baby african grey

How Do I Hand-Feed an African Grey?

By Karen Mihaylo

i Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images

African greys are usually attentive parents, but occasionally a clutch is abandoned and hand-feeding becomes necessary. An ill bird can also require hand-feeding. Hand-feeding an African grey parrot isn't difficult, with proper training and a little experience. To be prepared for an emergency when breeding African greys, ask your avian veterinarian or a reputable breeder for hands-on training before the eggs begin hatching.

Properly Prepared Formula Is Essential

Leave the baby in his nest or brooder while you clean and disinfect the preparation area, wash and dry your hands and prepare the formula. Mix warm bottled water with powdered formula, using a commercial baby parrot formula specifically formulated for African greys. Never heat prepared formula in a microwave; hot spots can burn the chick. Follow the manufacturer's directions carefully; dilution rates and feeding schedules vary according to the chick's age. Malnutrition, dehydration or an impacted crop are some of the problems that improperly diluted formula may cause.

Keep the Formula Warm

Use a thermometer to ensure the formula is between 103 and 108 degrees Fahrenheit, leaving it in the food during feeding. To keep the formula at the proper temperature, lower the feeding container into a bowl of very warm water. Stir the formula and check its temperature each time you fill the feeding syringe. Proper food temperature is crucial for healthy weight gain.

Initiate a Feeding Response

Keep your chick warm and away from drafts while feeding him. Gently touch the soft pad at the inner edge of his beak with the filled feeding syringe to initiate a feeding response. When the chick opens his beak, angle the syringe behind his tongue, toward the back or sides of his throat, avoiding the windpipe located in the center of his throat. Slowly depress the syringe while the crop, a pouch on the front of the chick's throat, plumps up. Don't allow the crop to overflow.

Clean the Chick After Feeding

Baby parrots are messy eaters, and must be cleaned immediately after being fed. Using a cotton swab moistened with warm water, thoroughly clean inside the beak. Any food particles stuck here can turn sour, which may cause a bacterial infection. Carefully clean his face with a soft, moist cloth. Even his nostrils may contain caked formula. Dry him thoroughly, and replace him in his brooder or nest to avoid a chill.

Allow His Crop to Completely Empty

An African grey chick's crop must empty at least once each day. Failure to allow emptying of the crop may result in sour crop and bacterial infections, the two most common problems seen in hand-fed chicks. Let the chick go unfed for seven hours overnight, which allows the crop to empty completely. Other potential problems include malnutrition, pneumonia caused by aspirated formula and health or behavioral problems caused by early weaning.

References

BirdChannel. com: 14 Parrot Hand-Feeding Tips
Hilltop Animal Hospital: Hand-Raising and Hand-Feeding Baby Birds
Arizona Parrots: Dangers of Hand Feeding Baby Birds

Photo Credits

Writer Bio

Karen Mihaylo has been a writer since 2009. She has been a professional dog groomer since 1982 and is certified in canine massage therapy. Mihaylo holds an associate degree in human services from Delaware Technical and Community College.

Feeding your new baby - The world of African Greys

BRINGING YOUR BABY GREY HOME - FEEDING
By: Christine Wanger

Young African Grey Parrots will learn to wean on to solid food at around the the age of 12 weeks. But just because a bird has been seen to eat solid food, this does not mean that the weaning process is done and your bird's hand-rearing formula can be forgotten. Many African greys can still be reliant on you for 'Top-up' feeds for many weeks to come. This is something which many breeders will not tell you as they want to farm the young birds out as soon as possible to keep costs as low as they can, get their cash and be sure the bird is still young and tame. Unfortunately many birds are sold as weaned and die of starvation a few days after being sold as the owner will not be informed that top up feeds are required. A bad scrupulous breeder will not care for the bird's fate as long as they get their hands on your cash! These kind of people will never offer you a refund, their only concern is the cash.

Be prepared!

There are a few things you can do to prevent your newly purchased bird from starving to death. Firstly you need to be prepared! Ask the breeder what hand rearing formula the bird has been reared on and ask if you can purchase some. If they will not sell any to you or say they don't know, then buy one of the brands available in pet stores which say they are suitable for African Grey parrots. There are many good brands available on the market, the store owner may be able to advise you. Secondly ask the breeder if the bird was syringe fed or spoon fed. This will make booster feeding for you much easier if you have the right equipment that the bird will recognise and realise it's food time.

Is my new home ready?

When your bird arrives home with you, the cage and feed pots should already be in place. When setting up the cage remember that a young Grey will not be very good at climbing around and getting from perch to perch with ease. Most birds have come directly from a cage where they have been either on a perch very low to the bottom of the cage or even just the flat surface at the bottom of a cage. So it is very important to set up the cage with the perches placed down low in the cage until your bird learns to climb around. If your bird is having problems getting around the cage, it may have difficulties getting to the food and water pots too. I find it best to place the pots on the bottom surface of the cage away from the perch so they don't poop in it, weaning birds find it far easier to eat while on a flat surface rather than while perching. Also avoid water pots that are too deep as the bird may get chilled if it keeps falling into or standing in the water pot.
*Your birds main food pot should include a pot with at least half pellets and half seed mix. You should ask your breeder whether your bird has been weaned onto pellets or seed. Most will say seed as it is the cheaper option but a pelleted diet is so much more healthier and young birds are more willing to try them. Many young birds have difficulties shelling the seeds in their mix- this is usually something they will learn to do from their parents. So always try pellets- get them eating healthy while young!

TOPPING UP YOUR AFRICAN GREY'S DIET - SOFTFOOD

Ok so your new bird is now home with you and settled - fantastic! After a few hours of being with you you will need to offer the bird some of the hand rearing formula which you have purchased. A great way to tell if your bird is hungry or needs topping up is to hold the bent teaspoon or syringe in front of your birds beak. If your bird is hungry it will recognise the feeding instrument and may begin to grab at it with its beak and flap its wings. If this happens be prepared as it can get messy until you master the art of hand feeding!
Mix the formula as directed on the packaging and allow it to cool! *A good tip here is the temperature when ready to feed should be warm and not hot - you should be able to poke your finger into the centre without any burning, just a comfortable warmth. Your bird should only take a few teaspoons until it is full up. Make sure that you try to keep the formula away from the feathers and clean your birds beak after as it will matt the feathers and stick into a hard messy lump on the beak and feathers if not cleaned up. Job done!

DIET SHEET FOR WEANING BIRDS around 12 weeks old plus.

* A supply of fresh seed mix/pellets should be available all of the time.

Remember- your parrot will be unsure of how to shell seeds at this point and it may take lots of practice so the amount of seeds which are eaten will be minimal and other foods need to be offered. Weaning your bird onto a pelleted diet is a much healthier and easier option!

*A fresh supply of water should be available all the time.

*The first stage in weaning your African Grey is to gradually reduce the amount of hand rearing formula feeds. So firstly aiming at 3 feeds per day these should be equally spaced at about 8 hours apart. so for example:
*7am
*3pm
*11pm

*Inbetween feeds a fresh supply of fruit and veg should be offered. for example, between 7am and 3pm offer a dish of fruit and between the 3pm and 11pm feed offer a dish of vegetables.

* See list of safe fruit and vegetables for Ideas. At weaning age it is a good ides to offer fruits and veggies in small pieces. Peas and sweetcorn are often readily taken raw or cooked.

*Parrots are not keen on cold straight from the fridge foods and it can upset a young birds tummy so always try to serve at room temperature.

*Veggies are best served warm and are often refused when they have turned cold.

* Always remove any spoiled dirty foods immediately.

*Other foods can also be offered inbetween feeds. This is a good opportunity to offer things such as sprouted seeds and pulses, soft low fat and easy to eat foods such as scrambled egg, hard boiled egg (chopped), chopped roast chicken breast ( no bones), white boneless fish, a few sprinkles of grated cheese, boiled rice or pasta, a very small amount of biscuit crumbs, millet spray or seeds, wholegrain healthy cereals either soaked in soya milk or eaten on their own. Boiled sweet potatoe I find is also very well consumed at this age as it has a soft mushy consistancy.

As your bird gradually learns to eat more during the day, feeds can be reduced to 2 feeds per day, so one in the morning and one at night time just as top ups to ensure your bird is eating enough. These two feeds can be given for many weeks to come until your bird refuses them and decides he/she no longer wants them.

*African Greys do not like to be rushed through the weaning process so do not be in too much of a hurry to drop the final 2 feeds. In the wild African Greys do not learn to wean until they have first learnt to fly (around 12 weeks old) and the process of following their parents around and learning to eat different kinds of foods can take weeks or sometimes even months in the wild! But they can also rely on you too much for food so getting your bird eating healthy on a 3 formula feed diet rota followed by a 2 a day formula feed is a very healthy way to introduce your bird onto solid foods.
*Purchasing some gram scales to weigh your bird is an excellent way to ensure your bird is eating enough and not loosing too much weight during the weaning process!

Breastfeeding on demand

You can often hear from a nursing mother: "I feed on demand, my baby requires a breast every 3.5 hours." Or: “I have always fed on demand. In a year, we already had 1 feeding in the evening, and my child calmly refused to breastfeed. Before talking about the demand of the child, it is necessary to find out what modern women mean when they say - "I breastfeed. "

Modern mothers consider breastfeeding necessary for feeding their baby. Just for feeding. Breast milk is food, the mother supplies the baby with the nutrients necessary for growth and development. When a baby suckles at the breast, he eats. Breastfeeding makes sense only as a process of supplying proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and microelements.

During suckling, the baby receives the nutrients it needs with mother's milk. This is the absolute truth. There is another unconditional truth, which is not given any importance in modern society, it is not taken into account and is not considered. Breastfeeding for a child is communication with the mother. We need to figure out how the child understands feeding on demand? Can he understand anything at all? Is there any difference for him how he is fed, for 15-20 minutes after 3.5 hours or in some other way?

What is on-demand feeding

On-demand feeding of a newborn baby means putting it to the breast for every squeak or search. Squeak and search movements in newborns, even as early as the second or third day of life, begin to appear much more often than after 3.5 or 2.5 hours. The need for attachments increases rapidly, and by the 10-12th day of life, the need to attach to a child may occur 15-16 or more times a day. Applications vary in duration. The baby can fall asleep and sleep while sucking for, for example, 1.5-2 hours. Can release the breast after 1-2 minutes. And then ask her again. Why does a child need such frequent contact with his mother's breast?

That's why. Being in the mother's belly, in a calm, familiar environment, listening to the noises of the mother's body, being in a warm, cramped, confined space, the baby sucked his fist, fingers, loops of the umbilical cord, swallowed amniotic fluid. Learned to suck and swallow. After birth, experiencing discomfort for any, the most insignificant reason, the baby tries to get rid of it. You can get rid of discomfort by getting into the usual conditions of a comfortable stay. The only place where the baby after birth can feel the sensations familiar to him is in the arms of the mother. The only familiar action is sucking. The only familiar taste and smell is the taste and smell of milk and lube in the areola. Milk and lubricant have an odor and taste similar to the taste and smell of amniotic fluid. Therefore, experiencing discomfort, the baby squeaks, or begins to look for an object to suck with his mouth. Ideally, it is immediately applied to the chest. The baby becomes warm, cramped, he hears the beating of his mother's heart, breathing, grumbling in the intestines, he sucks and feels the familiar taste and smell. If such an action happens constantly, the baby gains confidence, no matter what happens, he will solve all his problems with his mother. The place of comfort is now under the breast, and you can suck on the breast.

This whole process is biologically justified. A newborn child does not feel the feeling of hunger, this feeling is not formed in him. It will begin to form at about two months of age. How to feed a creature that does not experience hunger ?! How to encourage him to take some action to get food? This can be done only at the expense of some other incentives. This stimulus for the newborn is constant bodily discomfort, thanks to which he wants to suckle all the time! The most intense, frequent and prolonged sucking in infants is observed in the first two or three months of life. It is in these first months that the main weight gain of the baby occurs.

Feeding in the first month

Baby falls asleep with breast in mouth, sleeps sucking for a while. Falling asleep deeply, lets go of the chest. After sleeping for a while, he wakes up, and is applied on waking. After sleep, he can stay awake for some time, for example, an hour and a half. During wakefulness, he may feel discomfort 2-3 times, for example, from a completely natural desire to pee, and having called his mother for help, having kissed for a couple of minutes, he will do his deeds. Then he will want to sleep, feel discomfort and, kissing his chest, will again fall asleep sucking. After some time, he will wake up and attach again. Then again a little "walk". And after some time, he will fall asleep at the chest again.

The daytime naps of a one-month-old infant feeding on demand vary in duration and number. There can be 4-6 dreams during the day, and they can last from 5-15 minutes to 2-2.5 sometimes 3 hours. "Around" each dream, the baby is applied to the chest, and applied between dreams several times. At night, the child falls asleep at the breast. Usually in the early morning hours, he begins to fuss and apply. In the morning, he almost never fully wakes up. The baby sleeps, from time to time, sucking on his mother's breast. Waking up in the morning, the baby is again applied to the chest. If you count all the attachments that have happened in a baby of one month of age, then approximately 16-20 attachments are obtained. This is how a newborn human cub behaves if it is given the opportunity to behave in accordance with physiological and psychological needs, which, by the way, are genetically determined. The child of the first months of life does not separate his personality from the personality of the mother and from her breast. Mom and her breasts, and everything connected with them, are the universe of the baby and himself.

In most cases, a modern woman, being afraid to “accustom a child to hands”, strives to limit his requests for sucking. A pacifier and a bottle of tea or water come to her aid in this matter. They, too, can be sucked ... The need for sucking seems to be satisfied. But only the need for communication with the mother during suckling is not satisfied, the peculiar chain of mutual assistance and cooperation between mother and baby is destroyed, the formation of maternal affection and concentration is disrupted. Is the difference in the two actions noticeable to the reader: the baby cried, the mother took him, put him to her chest and started rocking him, or gave him a pacifier and started rocking the stroller, even with the words “Why are you crying, my sun?”

The modern woman who gives a pacifier and pumps a stroller is not a bad person deliberately harming an infant. She is simply in captivity of prejudices regarding the relationship between mother and baby. She does not know how to behave correctly, does not know what to do in accordance with the natural needs of the child. If you tell her what the child really needs, she will exclaim in horror: “What is it, don’t let him get away with?!” Indeed, the child of the first months of life must not be let off the hook. For a woman who does not know how to comfortably carry a baby, and who does not know how to feed him in various positions (sitting, lying, standing and even moving), this can be very difficult. Especially if she is not sure of the correctness of her actions.

An action that should become automatic for the mother of a newborn: when the baby cries or shows other signs of anxiety, put the baby to the breast.

What's next?

The baby is growing. A fairly stable rhythm of daytime sleep begins to form in him, and a 3-4-month-old baby behaves quite differently from a newborn. Feeding on demand at this age looks something like this...

At three months, the baby has 10-12 feeds during the day and 2-4 at night. There are frequent applications for a short time, but their number is reduced. There may be a long night break in feedings, about 5 hours, but this is very rare. Much more often the night break is 2.5-3.5 hours. By this age, the baby's body is noticeably rounded.
At four months, the baby begins to breastfeed noticeably less frequently. The main feedings are associated with sleep: the baby suckles before bedtime, during awakening and during sleep, both daytime and nighttime. In this regard, he has a fairly accurate feeding regimen. And many babies stop breastfeeding when they wake up after daytime sleep, sometimes as early as 2.5-3 months.
At five months, the baby has 8-10 daytime feedings and 2-3 nighttime, attachments as well as in the fourth month of life, are organized around dreams - the baby eats when going to bed and some babies suck during awakening.
At six months, the feeding regimen changes. The most active sucking shifts to the last 2-3 hours before waking up from a night's sleep. The period of daytime wakefulness can be divided into two periods: in the morning, when the baby sucked during the night is rarely applied to the breast, and in the evening, when attachments become very frequent. In total, there can be 7-10 day applications and 3-4 night applications. At this age, the baby begins a period of acquaintance with new food - pedagogical complementary foods. Sometimes there are attachments associated with the introduction of complementary foods, the baby “washes down” samples of new food with mother's milk. But many children do not want to drink complementary foods. When complementary foods are introduced to an on-demand baby, it is never meant to replace feedings with complementary foods. This is practically impossible, because the main feedings of the baby are associated with sleep, and mother's breakfasts, lunches and dinners, during which the baby gets acquainted with new food, are located between the baby's dreams, during his wakefulness.
At seven months, the frequency of application is about the same.
At eight months, the feeding regimen changes. Since the baby shows high motor activity and is very busy exploring the surrounding space, in the daytime he forgets to breastfeed. In this regard, the number of daily feedings can be reduced to 6-8 times. The baby compensates for the reduction in daytime feedings by increasing the frequency and duration of nighttime feedings up to 6 times.
In the second half of the year, babies who stopped breastfeeding when waking up after daytime naps recall this habit again. The baby’s daytime sleep in the second half of life, as well as in the region of a year and older, looks something like this: the baby falls asleep sucking, sleeps quietly for a while, for example 1-1.5 hours, then starts tossing and turning, fiddling, worrying, at this moment the mother lies down next to , gives him a breast and the baby can fill up 10-15-30 minutes sucking. Mom may well use this time for her own rest - lie down, read, while the baby sleeps while sucking. I know my mother, a lover of embroidery, who used this time specifically for embroidery ...
Breastfeeding becomes more frequent at nine to ten months. In the daytime, this is 4-6 full feedings and about the same number of attachments for various reasons. The baby has new reasons for attachment. If, during active actions to master the world, the baby fills a bump or gets scared, he calms down with his mother's breast. There may be situations when you can comfort the baby by sitting next to him and hugging him. At night, 4-6 feedings remain, the baby begins to suckle more actively in the morning between 3 and 8 hours.
At eleven months, a baby can already have 2-3 complete complementary foods. Initiation to adult food in the mind of a child is not associated with breastfeeding: attachment to the mother's breast is something other than the desire to get enough of the product they like. As a rule, after the baby has eaten, he feels the need to attach himself to the breast. The number of daily feedings remains the same in the child, but the number of short-term attachments increases. There are active mid-morning feedings between 4 and 8 o'clock in the morning.
At ten or twelve months, the baby, if he is already walking, can sometimes breastfeed every time he comes to his mother, i.e. about every 15-30 minutes. Attachments around dreams and night sucking persist. Therefore, if a mother says that a child suckles once or twice a day, this means that there is no feeding at the request of the child. There are restrictions imposed by the mother, with which the baby has come to terms. He treats breast sucking like food, sucks on a pacifier or a finger to fall asleep or soothe, or falls asleep just like that, without calming down.
At twelve months, the baby is applied in about the same way.
At the age of one and a half years, there may already be one daytime nap, so there are fewer attachments associated with sleep. Preserved for morning sucking. The baby is very free with his mother's breasts. Sometimes it happens that he comes up to suck just for fun. For example, like this: he comes up, climbs on his knees, looks into his mother’s face, smiles, starts to swarm in his shirt, gets breasts, smiles at his breasts, sucks for 30 seconds and leaves.

As for the number of feedings per day when feeding a child on demand, their number is almost never less than 12. A newborn has 12 or more attachments, mostly they are all associated with dreams. And a child, say 1.5-2 years old, can also have about 12 attachments, only 3-4 are associated with sleep, and the rest are short-term attachments for various reasons. I suggest to all mothers reading this text - do not count the application, do not notice their duration. Breastfeed your baby as often as he asks, when you feel the need to.

Moms who don't think about breastfeeding without looking at the clock may get the impression that when breastfeeding on demand, the mother can do nothing but feed the baby. This is wrong. After the birth of a baby, a mother begins another life, she is called life with a baby. That's all. The child is with the mother, not the mother with the child! Feel the difference! You need to be able to organize your life in a different way, in the first months, of course, the help of loved ones is very necessary. In the tradition of many peoples, it was customary for the first 40 days after childbirth to remove a woman from any housework and household chores, she was engaged only in a child. In some nations, objects that the mother of a newborn touched were considered “unclean”, therefore, they preferred to protect the mother from the rest of the household, allocating her a separate “corner” of the house, where no one bothered her and she did not interfere with anyone. Among the Slavs, such a restrictive custom was called a six-week. By 1.5-2 months, the rhythm of daytime dreams begins to form, and the baby has a kind of “regime”, the mother becomes more free.

For a mother who can't imagine breastfeeding without looking back at the clock, and who is sure that the “right” baby is the baby lying quietly in her crib all the time, feeding on demand will be a complete hassle. It will be much easier for such a mother if she stops looking at the clock and ties the baby to herself with a large scarf or uses a patchwork holder (sling). It will become easier for her if she stops running between the nursery and the kitchen, but takes the baby with her to the kitchen and carries him around the house with her, doing housework, in a box, a cradle, a special chair, if she tries not to put him off often, and pick up as soon as possible, postponing the baby only in case of emergency and not for long.

Breastfeeding is not the same as house arrest. In the conditions of modern society, it is possible to organize the exit of a nursing mother to work from about 6 months of age of the baby. If necessary, you can start working from the age of 4 months, but, of course, it is better not every day of the week and not full time. It is the responsibility of a breastfeeding consultant to help a mother organize her return to work.

Sometimes, when I advise mothers on breastfeeding, I suggest that they forget for a second that they are already living in the 21st century. I propose to return, for example, to the cave and ask what they will do if the child woke up at night, how to calm him down? If you are walking through the forest and trying not to attract the attention of predators, how to make the baby silent? If the child is thirsty, what will you give him? What is the baby used to, for thousands of years of its existence? To the fact that he sleeps on his mother while she wanders through the forest with a digging stick in search of roots, and wakes up when mother stops. Since mom stopped, then there is time to wake up and suck. Therefore, even now the child sleeps well, tied to the mother with a patchwork holder, wakes up when the mother, having done a few household chores, sits in a chair to take care of the baby.

Some mother, reading about the cave, will be offended, saying that she is a civilized creature. But please think. Man, mother's breast and mother's milk have been created by evolution over millions of years. They are made for each other. Baby food has created progress and more recently. The skills of motherhood and breastfeeding have also been lost by our society quite recently. A person is not physiologically adapted to artificial feeding and a pacifier. The mother's breast will not produce enough milk at 6-7 feedings per day. Nature did not know, when creating man as a mammal, that the time would come when the need for breastfeeding would be satisfied by some kind of pacifiers and nipples.

Changes that occur during the formation of the personality of a child who did not have full contact with the mother during prolonged breastfeeding are noted by modern research by psychologists and sociologists. These are changes with a minus sign. It would be better if they were not, these changes.

Breastfeeding is not only important for the baby, it is also important for the mother. During on-demand feeding, the woman's feelings change, a stronger attachment to the baby is formed, the woman becomes more sensitive to the needs of the baby. Deeper affection and understanding are not only preserved in infancy. They persist for life. For clarity, imagine what happens to a woman’s feelings if she tries to “withstand” a child, endures his crying, anxiety. What happens to a woman if she uses the recommendation from one very popular parenting book: "Go to the child if he cries for more than 15 minutes"? Speaking in abstract terms, humanity is interested in reviving the practice of breastfeeding. The revival of this practice is impossible without mothers realizing the true reasons for the child's need for attachment to the breast.

Lilia Kazakova, pediatrician,
head of the breastfeeding and childcare consultant service

When is it time to stop breastfeeding :: City Polyclinic No. the viewpoint of self-excommunicating advocates. But this issue has always been considered from the point of view of benefit to the baby. And what does medicine say about what terms of involution will be useful not for a child, but for a woman?

What is lactation involution?

Involution of lactation (from lat. involutio - coagulation) is a physiological process that completes the period of breastfeeding. This biological mechanism starts on the 40th day from the moment the baby was last attached to the breast. Since the onset of involution, the mammary glands decrease in size and stop producing breast milk. Usually, the process of involution is recommended to be carried out gradually so that the child can adapt to a new way of getting food, and also learn to calm down without being attached to the mother's breast.

Under normal conditions, each mammary gland will continue to lactate as long as milk is removed from it - and this phenomenon, the same for animals and humans, is used in agriculture. As the volume of milk production decreases, its composition changes: the content of fat, immunoglobulins increases, and the level of lactose decreases. If lactation is not stopped forcibly, it can continue until the baby is weaned from the breast; under natural conditions, this usually occurs in 2 - 2. 5 years.

The process starts when the pituitary gland stops producing enough of the hormone prolactin. Milk production continues for some time after the cessation of its suction. As they write in the materials of the WHO, “if in most mammals “drying” occurs on the 5th day after the last feeding, then the period of involution in women lasts an average of 40 days. During this period, it is relatively easy to restore full lactation if the child resumes frequent sucking.

Thus, as soon as attachments to the breast become rare and short, the process of involution begins. This can happen at any time - it is known that sometimes children themselves refuse breastfeeding for a variety of reasons that need to be discussed separately. There is an inhibition of protein synthesis and structural changes in the mammary gland - the reverse replacement of the glandular tissue with adipose tissue begins, which allows the breasts to return to their previous size and shape.

Signs of lactation involution

If involution occurs naturally, it usually starts when the child is two years old. At this time, the frequency of attachment naturally decreases: the child has other interests, including interest in "adult" food. How can a nursing mother understand that involution has begun?

The breasts shrink slightly and do not fill with milk even if you do not feed for more than 12-24 hours. That is why if at this time the child stops breastfeeding, this does not cause any frustration and suffering from excess milk in the mother. Milk, in terms of composition, properties and appearance, is increasingly reminiscent of colostrum.

The baby's sucking activity is markedly increased. This is due to the fact that milk production is reduced, and the child is still trying to suck out the same amount of portion. A child for one feeding can be applied to one breast, then to the other - and so on several times. The period of such sucking activity can last up to several months.

Mother's psychological readiness for weaning. This is a very important sign that should not be ignored. As soon as a nursing mother is tired of breastfeeding, this is a sign that the process is either incorrectly regulated, or, if there have been no problems with lactation so far, it is coming to an end.

Psychological readiness of the child for weaning. Usually, by the age of two, the child is socialized, ceases to experience an urgent need for tactile contact with the mother, and begins to receive the necessary nutrients from other sources. The psychological need for the child gradually disappears

Forced involution

If there is a need to wean the child prematurely, then you need to be prepared for the following consequences:

pain and discomfort in the mammary glands of varying intensity;
formation of seals in the area of the mammary glands;
fever;
deterioration in general condition;
purulent-inflammatory complications (breast abscess and mastitis).

If the need to interrupt lactation is associated with medical indications, then it is necessary to carry out involution under the supervision of a physician. What needs to be done first? Reduce the number of feedings by offering the baby a different food source. In addition, strict control of fluid intake with its restriction is necessary, and additional pumping may be required in order to avoid stagnation of milk.

If you are tired of breastfeeding

The psychological state of a breastfeeding mother is a very important criterion that must be paid close attention to. Lactation is a very energy- and resource-intensive project for the female body, and it is not surprising that exhaustion sets in sooner or later. Some nursing mothers can wait for natural involution without any problems, but for many there comes a point when, due to fatigue, continuing to feed is impossible. Unfortunately, this objective situation (the amount of forces and resources is strictly individual) often causes a feeling of guilt in a nursing mother, since the advertising of the need for breastfeeding before self-weaning has reached its maximum in recent years. What needs to be assessed at this moment? On one side of the scale, there is a benefit for the child, and on the other, the psychological and physical comfort of the mother.

Many will choose the comfort of their mother in such a situation, and they will be right. How long breastfeeding will continue is up to her to decide, since only she can assess the degree of her exhaustion. After all, there are now excellent breast milk substitutes, and a calm and rested mother is an irreplaceable resource that cannot be replaced by anything.

Many experts say that breastfeeding up to a year and a half may be optimal. Thus, the well-known pediatrician Dr. Komarovsky recommends starting breastfeeding correction starting at the age of one: at this age it is already time to introduce calming rituals that replace breastfeeding, and also gradually reduce the number of daily feedings. WHO recommendations to breastfeed children for more than two years, according to Komarovsky, are due to high infant mortality rates in Asia and Africa, where a child's life often directly depends on how long his mother breastfeeds.