Cooking | Health | Nutrition | Weight Gain | Weight Loss | Women | Baby | Social Planning | SITEMAP

How to wean infant off the breast milk?

You introduced infant to dairy products such as yogurt at the age of six months Introducing Dairy products . However, it is not replacing breast milk or the infant formula with the cow's milk. The infant still depends on the breast milk.

For the first twelve months, breast milk provides iron, Vitamin B-12 before it is available through cow's milk. It is recommended that mother breast feed infant till Vitamin B12 is available through egg yolks or cow's milk.  After the infant has reached the first birthday, the infant may be slowly weaned over to whole cow's milk. At the end of 24 months of age, the cow's milk can provide sufficient amounts of essential protein, calcium, magnesium and vitamins B12 and B2.

The non-vegetarian infants can be weaned over to 100% cow's milk by the age of 18 months. The non-vegetarian infants can have plenty of bio-available Iron and Vitamin B12 from meats and egg yolks. The vegetarian infants should be weaned over to 100% cow's milk by their second birthday. The vegetarian infants may be weaned over to Iron fortified formula before weaning over to cow's milk, saving about six months of breast feeding.

All infants should be weaned over to taking milk from Sippy cup by the age of 10 months. In South India, Paladai cup is used.

Weaning for Non-Vegetarians Infants

The mother slowly switches over to cow's milk over six months. It is important that the infant is being given egg yolks and some meats starting at 10 months age. The weaning schedule follows.

up to 12 months: 100% breast milk

12 to 14 months: 75% breast milk, 25% cow's milk

14 to 16 months: 50% breast milk, 50% cow's milk

16 to 18 months: 25% breast milk, 75 % cow's milk

18 months plus: 100% cow's milk.

Normal weaning for Vegetarians Infants

The infant is exclusively breast fed for first 18 months. Thereafter, part of breast milk is replaced with cow's milk as follows. The infant's diet is rich in iron and vitamin C.

up to 18 months: 100% breast milk

18 to 20 months: 75% breast milk, 25% cow's milk

20 to 22 months: 50 % breast milk, 50% cow's milk

22 to 24 months: 25% breast milk, 75% cow's milk

24 months plus: 100% cow's milk.

Early weaning for Vegetarian infants

In this approach, infant is weaned over from breast milk to iron fortified infant formula, and then from the infant formula to cow's milk.

up to 12 months: 100% breast milk

12 to 14 months: 75% breast milk, 25% Infant formula

14 to 16 months: 50% breast milk, 50% Infant formula

16 to 18 months: 25% breast milk, 75 % Infant formula

18 to 20 months: 75% Infant formula, 25% cow's milk

20 to 22 months: 50 % Infant formula, 50% cow's milk

22 to 24 months: 25% Infant formula, 75% cow's milk

24 months plus: 100% cow's milk.