In an ideal world how long would you breastfeed?

[BlueParrott]

Hello. Just curious how long if you had no other commitments ,ie work or other kids, would you breastfeed for? My son is 18 months and has an occasional night feed but I stopped breastfeeding during the day at 14 months partly because of work and my relationship. I love breastfeeding and would have carried on but I felt he was ready to stop.

[RockyBird]

One year

Mine were bfed til 14 months and 2 years 2 months

If I'd had a third I would have started mix feeding at 6 months or less with an eye to being stopped totally by a year.

EBF is massively overrated.

[sonlypuppyfat]

I fed all mine until they were about three

[AmberEars]

One year felt right to me. I gave up at 8m with DC3 and I'd have liked to carry on a bit longer. The good thing about a year IMO is that you don't have to faff around with bottles and formula - you can go straight on to cups and cows milk. Also somehow a year felt right to me emotionally speaking. It's not the same when they can walk etc!

[Gardencentregroupie]

With DD I had a series of goals, setting new ones when I'd reached one. I initially wanted to get through a week, then 6 weeks then 6 months, then to a year. At a year we were TTCing DC2, and I decided I would wean her when I got pregnant. I found out I was pregnant a few days before her 2nd birthday and slowly weaned over 4 months.

[mikado1]

rockybird, am interested to hear why you say that? I'm at 17m and counting here and can't see him self-weaning any time soon, though he was night weaned 2m ago. I am happy to go with it for the moment but don't want a distressed two yo when I do decide to move on.

[BaronessBomburst]

I kept going until DS self-weaned. He was 4. By the end it was just cuddles in bed in the morning and once he started school there wasn't time anymore. The only exception was if he was a bit under the weather.
I think once they reach 2 or so it's a lot easier to say, "no, I'm busy cooking dinner, you'll have to have a cuddle with daddy and a beaker of juice instead" kind of thing. Then it just tails off naturally. You don't even need to fed everyday.
I suppose what I'm saying is you don't have to stop because of work, if you don't want to. Your milk supply will adjust.

[mikado1]

Thanks Baroness!

Currently he has morning and bedtime feed plus 2/3. I do find sometimes he will ask close to a mealtime and I'll serve food first, to start some boundaries.

[BroomstickOfLove]

I bf mine until they self-weaned, and while there are plenty of things that I would do differently if I had my time over again, I'd keep the breastfeeding duration the same.

[Cosmicglitterpug]

I did 11 months with both. Meant to do a year but DD 1 stopped I think because I was pregnant and after nearly three years of being either pregnant or bfing I was knackered. If I had a third I'd consider doing it for less time.

[RockyBird]

Mik I chose to bf because it seemed right and lucky for me after a couple of very painful weeks we settled well into it. At the time I fell for the formula may as well be arsenic line that was very much touted then (2004/2008).

I've since had experience of FF with my niece and nephew as babies (SIL was unable to BF both times for more than a week and felt massively guilty and felt she'd failed) and realised that actually as long as a baby is fed, warm, clean (ish), nurtured and loved...how they are fed is irrelevant.

My opinion, obviously, other opinions are available.

[Blazedandconfused]

Ideally, till I was thin again. In reality back to work and constantly being touched, and the night wakings meant I was desperate to stop by 11 and 10 months.

Still a stone away from being thin, have lost my superpower- to settle and soothe. Big part of me wishes I could have continued for longer. But I am glad I no longer have to keep getting my boobs out.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I fed until 3. We would have continued but I was starting to get some sort of dermatitis on my nipples

[MewlingQuim]

I stopped bf DD at one year as we were ttc again and starting ivf drugs. It felt too soon for me, though she gave up easily, but the ivf failed and I was always a bit gutted that I gave up bf for nothing.

Saying that, friends who tried to let their dc self wean found themselves pissed off with it by 3y and the child still showing no signs of stopping, so at least I have fond memories of bf rather than getting fed up with it

[museumum]

I did 13 months. Felt just right to me.

[andpropersteel]

Forever. Except not, because it'd get weird eventually. Can you tell I'm just about to start with solids so feeling all emotional about the end of EBF?

So probably 3 years for me because in an ideal world I'd have a 4 year age gap.

Breastfeeding lets me eat all the food though, so ideally as long as possible.

[NerrSnerr]

I breastfed until my daughter was 2 and that was enough for me. I am pregnant again and I hope my son will self wean between 18 months and 2.

I stopped feeding my daughter about 3 months ago and she saw my breast this morning and asked for food and pointed which gave me a pang of wanting to feed her, she was happy to go and get her doll and let her have some instead though.

[alltouchedout]

DS1 was 2, DS2 was 2.5. DS3 is 2 and I am desperate to wean him but he is having none of it. I'm just done. I wish to goodness I could find a way to make him drop it but if anything he seems to be more into it now than 6 months ago. Argggghhhh.

[Cuppaand2biscuits]

I fed both of mine until a few months past their second birthdays. My dd self weaned, I was pregnant with her brother and I think my milk dried up.
I decided to wean her brother at a very similar age because I was going away for a few days so it seemed like a good time.

[JellyWitch]

To self weaning.

My eldest was nearly 5. Thankfully over about 3 1/2 it was just bedtime.

My youngest is currently 2 1/2 and I will be honest, I am hitting the stage where it's hard again. I'm trying to look after myself and maintain the reserves to keep going with her as she is so committed.

[RockyBird]

"Ideally til I was thin again"

I'd still be bfing my 8 year old if that was my target

I lost 2 stone after stopping with my first and fecking gained two stone after stopping with my second. Go figure!

Interestingly my weight was exactly the same at the point of stopping with both (11 st)

[HumpHumpWhale]

I fed DS until 20 months. Nightweaned at 17 months. I cried the first night he went to sleep without a feed. He didn't! I thought weaning might stop the night wakings. It didn't, & I was really sad I'd weaned him to no purpose rather than letting him self wean. I loved feeding him to sleep, it was so sweet and gentle and nice.

DD is six months, and I CANNOT WAIT to stop. She's a horrible thrashy gnaw-y feeder. She regularly bruises and grazes my nipple. She won't feed in public or with anyone else in the room so I'm really tied to the house. She wakes up to eat every 2 hours at night. I haven't had a full nights sleep in 4 years, and not more than 3 hours since she was born (she was actually better as a newborn than she is now). I'm completely touched out and so sick of breastfeeding bras. I just want it to end. But she won't take a bottle and point blank refuses to be spoon fed so we're doing baby-led weaning and it's slow going so far. So yeah. I don't have an ideal length of time!

[IssyStark]

My eldest stopped at 4.5yo, he decided himself as I was pregnant and he didn't want to take the baby's milk! He was down to only a couple of feeds a week by then.

His brother still latches on 3-4 times a week first thing in the morning for a micro feed (a minute at most) and will ask when feeling out of sorts. He'll stop eventually :)

[ozboomoo]

Until they self -wean ... both of mine did at 16 months !!!

[peaceloveandbiscuits]

Fed DS for a year but with problems at the beginning, so effectively only 9 months from the actual breast, expressed and formula combination before that. He gave up himself just after his first birthday and I appreciated that it was his decision, but would have happily carried on for a few more months. We only fed every couple of days in the evening at that point, so it was nice and pure comfort/bonding time for us, rather than fraught and desperate as it can be at first.
I have a friend who chooses to feed her 2.5yo during the day, whenever he asks for it. I respect their decision and clearly it works for them, but I'm grateful it's not me, so I'm pleased DS gave up at a relatively young age.
Now pregnant with DC2 and hope to be able to feed from birth but will go with the flow and see where the journey takes us. Maybe I will be feeding him/her until 3yo! Who knows!