Ready to Wean: The Return of the Dangling Red Earrings (Family and World Health / We Like to)

I want to love this book. I want it to be the magic bullet that helps my daughter understand the weaning process. So far she loves the book, but I think she doesn't get what "ready to wean" means. The illustrations are VERY weird. There are random animals, fairies and dragons throughout, plus some of the adults look out of place. The baby eating carrots and nut butter gives me the CREEPS too. I love the premise, but I think the language and prose could have been polished more. Our best toddler books are very lyrical with short, repetitive sentence structure. This does not have either. I'm sad that there isn't a bigger selection of books like these, as there is obviously a "weaning market" of which I'm a part. I will probably end up making my own book with pictures of my daughter. I've heard that recommended in a breastfeeding guidebook somewhere...

As someone else mentioned, some of the language is admittedly a little awkward and could be honed more. However, I searched high and low and there seem to be almost no literary resources for weaning toddlers so... I love this book! I change some of the wording when reading it (which I do with lots of kid books. There's no rule against doing that and your child probably won't know. I say my child's name instead of "the little one") This book is special in our family since it has helped up broach a sensitive topic in a way that reinforces our closeness rather than separation and fear about that. (My partner and daughter gave my a big silly sun hat and dangly red earrings for my birthday because of the subtitle of this book.) We used this book to introduce the topic of weaning to our two-year old and I know it has helped her think about weaning constructively because she can verbalize her own understanding of weaning as "all done mama's milk" and can talk about things we can do to be close besides nursing, which the book goes into.

very sweet book. the pics are bright and fun, though a little strange. (an eagle perched on the back of a chair that daddy and baby are sitting in reading) but interesting and attention holding. the words are set up in larger type and 2 sentences per page opening, which i find useful as it makes it easy to see whats coming next and therefore able to interchange words for your and your child's verbiage.(we do not call it nursing, we call it nonny, so i use the terminology my child is familiar with.)

First confusion on this book: whereas the cover shows a toddler nursing, the solid foods drawing is of a little baby, eating carrots and... peanuts?! Such an allergenic, dangerous food to introduce as first food...Second confusion: there are so many toddlers nursing, page after page, that my daughter immediately opened her mouth and lifted my shirt when seeing them.If your child in under 2 years old but has the comprehension of a 12 year old (and still nursing), that book might help, because the writing is very fancy.Ex:"Someday, Mommy or the little one may be ready to wean. Mommy may say, 'Today we will start nursing a little bit less and, when you are __________(fill in the bland with child's age, indicating time you will stop nursing) 'We will stop nursing and be close in other ways..."My toddler was less annoyed with me reading Shakespeare to her.I am going to donate it to the local library. Hopefully other mothers will take a peek instead of ordering, and realize it is not worth it.

I love that there is a book to read to your kiddo about weaning but like others have said the wording is weird and doesn't flow well. Kinda just thinking of using personal pictures and a website to create my own book for us to read instead.

I was a gift to my daughter as she was just weaning. She said it was a nice story.I have not actually seen the book myself.

The pictures are nice. The story line is kind of strange for a child though -- somewhat better for an adult. I wish I liked this book--the idea is good and there is definitely a need in the, um, weaning market, but I'm going to send it back.

Good story for preparing to wean a toddler.

"Sometimes mommies have to take off silly hats...or dangling red earrings when little fingers begin to wander.""Little ones need lots of nourishment and closeness besides nursing.""Mommy's milk is just the first of many winning tastes."I find the language a little abstract and advanced for a toddler.