Breastfeeding toddlers and beyond

[Pluckedpencil]

Starting a thread for all those tenacious ladies who are continuing to feed their little massive bundles of joy from a year and beyond.
I am a mum of two and have had my fair share of cracked nipples, weird comments in parks, acrobatic toddlers and breastfeeding multitasking. My nearly two year old is still feeding and my six year old has stopped now, although it was resurrected yesterday when he was crying with tummy pain!
Not an expert or even peer supporter but I'm sure those ladies will come along soon too!!

[Mermaid36]

Hello!
Feeding my 19 month old twins and training to be a peer supporter!

My bundles are thankfully little due to prematurity, can't imagine feeding "full size" toddlers

[Pluckedpencil]

Twins, I am in awe. I felt like a feeding cow with just the baby and a toddler, I still cringe when I see a sow with loads of piglets!
I am currently getting a pretty strong nursing aversion with the 2 year old, but she is so undemanding that I feel awful to refuse the odd time in the day that she asks.

[GrainOfSalt]

I fed mine until he self weaned sometime between 4 and 5. I'm a peer supporter too - just came on to add moral support . I did 'don't offer, don't refuse' from about 3 years old.

[KalaLaka]

pluckedpencil I had bf aversion with my 2-3 year olds. You have my sympathy, it's an awful feeling.

[raisinsarenottheonlyfruit]

Feeding my 4 year old. Checking in :)

[ShoeJunkie]

Fed DS1 until he was 5, still feeding DS2 at almost 3 (although he's not as boob obsessed as his brother so don't know how long we'll go for).

If people are on Facebook there is a good group 'breastfeeding older babies and beyond'. Lots of advice and support there too.

[MoNigheanDonn]

17m old here (him not me!). Surprised we are still going as have had some very hard times but we powered through. He doesn't really demand in the day anymore except for his nap, but still feeds alot in the night.

[Mermaid36]

plucked I do often feel like the cat/pig/rabbit etc you see in memes with lots of wiggly, squiggly babies attached to them....feeding toddlers is an exercise in patience!

[Pluckedpencil]

I find I have a lot more conflicted emotions about it the older they get. I think the myth is that they naturally wean at 2ish, but that is just an average, and as we all know, the average is made up of the extremities, so for every one who weans at a year, there is one that weans at 3...

[lynmilne65]

am i the only one who thinks bf toddlers is a bit meh ?

[MoNigheanDonn]

lynn

[MoNigheanDonn]

This is one of my favourite pics atm lol. I do find myself speaking it out load, sp3cially to my mum/grans

[JohnLapsleyParlabane]

Currently sitting feeding my 2 year old. I actively night weaned her over the last year and now she has milk either side of sleeping.
Someone said to me that 'after about a year it'd more for the mother than the child'... Clearly that person had never nursed a toddler!

[Rubbermaid]

Hi lyn considering you’re posting on a thread about breastfeeding toddlers it’s perhaps unsurprising that yes, you are the only one. Hope that helps

[raisinsarenottheonlyfruit]

lynmilne65 you're not the only one, no. But you would be wrong.

Plenty of people share the same view but they're based on ignorance because after generations of formula promotion we're out of touch with what's normal.

I was going to have a go at you tbh but then remembered I probably felt the same way before becoming a mum. I wouldn't have rocked up to a natural term BFing support group and said that though - that is rude.

The truth is nature designed us to BF toddlers. There are multiple health benefits for both mother and child. It's a scandal that more isn't done to educate the public on this IMO.

[Tableauz]

DD is 2.3 now and still breastfeeding multiple times per day. I want to reduce to just morning and night but she wants it all the time and it's easier to pop her on for a couple of mins than deal with the increasingly frenetic shouts of boobie!

[lynmilne65]

is one 'n'

[lynmilne65]

ok

[Cracklesfire]

Still breastfeeding DS who will be 2 soon. Currently considering tandem feeding as I'm 4 months pregnant. He asks for a feed less and less now so we're down to once/maybe twice a day which seems manageable. The only advice the midwife gave me when I mentioned I was still breastfeeding was to wean.

[Pluckedpencil]

For what it's worth, tandem feeding was good for me. it was a bonding experience for the two of them. The younger one still tries to encourage the older one to join in but he is definitely finished now so politely declines! probably different if they are 2 and 0, not 4 and 0 as the 4 yo was virtually weaned though.

[Cracklesfire]

Thanks Pluckedpencil - I don't feel it's fair to wean DS at the moment as he's had a lot of upheaval this year (moved house 3 times) and just a few months ago he reverted back to feeding hourly. I love it for the times he's not well and it still seems like an important part of his day for him. I like the idea of it being something DS and the new baby can bond over. I think I'll need to master feeding bub in a sling though - it was something I never could do with DS was little.

[littletwofeet]

I’m tandem feeding a 4 year old and 1 year old.
I’ve recently started having problems with the 4 year olds latch, he digs his top teeth in (leaves marks but doesn’t break the skin). I’ve tried getting him to do a big mouth, re-latch him everytine but he just gets upset and says he doesn’t know how to get the milk any other way.

Anyone got any advice please?

@Cracklesfire tandem worked out great for us. Things I wish I had known;
Older one may feed constantly (more than the baby!) when baby first born.
Older one may stop eating food completely for weeks (and put on masses of weight from all the milk/colostrum). This is common and nothing to worry about, also means you don’t have to keep getting up to make the toddler snacks!
My toddler woke up through the night for about a week or two after Baby was born, then went back to sleeping through.

The toddler holding the newborns hand or stroking their head when feeding just completely melts your heart.

[Bummybum]

Still feeding ds who just turned 4. Thinking I should stop as having trouble conceiving but people have told me one quick nurse a day shouldn’t make a difference.

[Cracklesfire]

Thanks littletwofeet - I'm totally okay with that if that's what DS needs/wants. He absolutely loves babies and we're working a lot on sharing just now which he's okay with but I think if he sees it as something they both do as opposed to baby taking away from him he'll maybe cope better. At least I hopefully won't need to worry about blocked ducts and becoming engorged!

This is all very positive. DH is fully on board now he's had time to get his head around it which helps too. To be fair I didn't think we'd make it to the end of the first week when we started so I'm surprised myself we're still feeding.

Did you find your LOs had an aversion to your milk when pregnant? I read it can happen but haven't noticed any change in DS so far.

The teeth marks sound sore, DS has been leaving toothy dents for the last few weeks but I've been putting it down to his back molars starting to come through and I'm a bit more sensitive just now. I'm no help with that one though.

[user1499786242]

Feeding my 2.3 year old
Have just spent the last two weeks night weaning to try and improve his hourly wake ups
It's going pretty well!
I'm 3 months pregnant and don't want to tandem feed so really need to stop but not sure whether to go gradually or just cold turkey?? Anyone done either?