Preparing ODS for when mama BF's newborn

[busymama77]

Any recommendations - articles or books on how to answer questions from my ODS (4yo) while I'm nursing his baby brother? He's never been around another mama nursing, never seen it actually done and I know he's gonna have a ton of questions when he sees me doing it and I would like to be prepared.

[buckeye_bebe]

I took something my daughter said and ran with it as an opportunity to introduce the subject. Since then, I've made more mention of it, with more and more details as she asks more questions and the time draws near. We were discussing all the things she is looking forward to; sharing her bed with her broth, painting his room pink, feeding him bottles but not pizza. So the bottle but not pizza thing was just the perfect segue in to mommy makes milk for the baby. Later, that fit in perfectly when she poked me the nipples in the bathtub and asked what those are. So I just listen to her and share the game plan.

I've been able to ask some leading questions once I figured out how much she has been able to synthesize and come up with on her own. I am also being open to any natural curiosity and exploration, so if she wants to know why I have boobs and she doesn't, I'll explain. One bonus to this process has been to further the concept of sharing. Mommy makes the milk to share with the babies, and partners/children get to hang around feeding time and share their love and kisses while baby is getting the milk.\


Good luck, hoping it all works out for you!

[EmilyG]

My dd is 4, and she just seemed to accept it as perfectly normal the first time she saw me nursing her new sister and asked what I was doing. I told her that was how the baby eats her milk, she asked about bottles and I told her the baby only needs to drink from bottles if mommy isn't there to nurse her. She was fine with that.

That being said, I did find her trying to breastfeed her sister twice, and use the breastpump once, lol! She was convinced she had milk for the baby too.