Unweaning. Hmmm.
Unweaning is when you finally get your nursing kid off the breast and then cave in months (years?) later and let her take up breastfeeding once again.
For anybody who has weaned a child, this sounds a wee self-hating. That said, Jenna Hull makes a pretty good case for it.
An essay in the January/February issue of Mothering magazine, Hull explains why she decided to "unwean" her three-year-old daughter Georgia. Pregnant with her second child, Hull worked to gently get her big girl off the breast. Then the baby was born and big sister changed -- a lot. The once sweet girl had become mean, snotty, jealous and intolerable.
Hull writes that she tried everything: showing Georgia her baby pictures, explaining how much she loved her, listening, reassuring. Nothing worked.
Then, the crazy idea: why not start nursing Georgia again? Thus commenced the unweaning. Georgia didn't flinch.
In fact, the big sister changed immediately and Hull nursed the pre-schooler and the newborn side-by-side. All was well and eventually Georgia, the once again happy and now excited older sibling, weaned herself at around 4 years old.
Hull says she doesn't know where she came up with the idea of unweaning, but I do. I've weaned two kids, one easily and the other not so much, but both have looked at me with those eyes, a certain sadness, when watching me nurse a younger sibling. I remember thinking how much easier it would be -- at that moment -- to let whoever wanted to nurse to just get in line. But I never did -- too big of a can of worms.
Despite what the naysayers of extended breastfeeding may think, no
kid ever came home from a freshman year at college to warm, sweet
squirt of mama's num-nums. Every breastfeeding newborn is eventually
weaned -- whether it's hours, days, weeks or years after that first
latch (and re-latch).
What do you think? Is Hull a big old wimp or a loving mother? Were any of your kids unweaned? Would you ever consider it?
Photo: greenpeanursery.com
