I breastfed my child til she was 6yr old AMA

[needmoresleepnow]

DD was breastfed til she was 6. Ask me anything

Just remembered that years ago there was a documentary about extended bf and Veronica from Mothering Magazine was on it. I think her DD's were 7 and 10 and still BF, her husband used to get in the queue for his turn too

Confident child not confirmation child!

Did you not feel a bit weird about it? Were you able to see your breasts as sexual during the years you were feeding her?
I'm very pro-breastfeeding. Currently feeding 2 under 2 and I have a MIL who asks me constantly when I'm going to stop as if it's a sick little hobby of mine!
However I do find the idea of BF a child that age a bit gross - don't get me wrong I really wish I didn't find it gross, but I do. I guess I'm just conditioned that boobs are sexual, and once a child becomes aware of that, I couldn't cope with them sucking on them. I know you are totally right about the benefits etc. There's just something in my mind that says "ick". I'm quite pleased I can't remember my mum BF me (although I think I was about 3 when she stopped).
The more people that do it and talk about it the more normal it will become. Which is good thing I'm sure.
Mums are judged so much. If child and mother are happy and healthy - is it anyone else's business?

greenmerecat it continues to be nutritionally beneficial til they stop. Yes it is to do with comfort too. My daughter is very secure and I attribute this at least in part to the natural term weaning.

With regards to it being like a dummy or a bottle I feel the opposite is true. - bottles and dummies are great replacements without the health benefits

What people don't realise is that you feed your baby everyday and it was totally natural the day before so it's totally natural the next day even if it means one day they are two and the next day they are three. And If the toddler is really keen it's quite hard to explain why they can't have it anymore.

I want to reduce but my girl cries when I tell her we have to cut down :(

@needmoresleepnow thanks for answering.

I think my main point is with comforters like dummies, children are generally weaned off them much younger than 6, so I guess my question is do the health benefits outweigh the issues caused by reliance on a comforter?

What do you do when she cries for a toy or ice cream?

thiskitten No I never felt weird about it. It was simply part of my mothering experience and was the best thing for my child.

Well done on the tandem feeding!

I could very easily separate the sexual from the functional role of my breasts - I never quite get this arguement to be honest as no one ever asks if you can separate the functionality of the vagina for giving birth from the sexual side of having sex!

I think you're fab op. Feeding mine children was one of the most joyous fulfilling thing I have every done. Fed my youngest till she was 3.5. I encouraged weaning for several reasons but it was gentle and calm and I remember our last feed.
A lot of my friends fed their kids for over a year. I hope the tide is turning towards longer term breast feeding and we are moving away from this idea that 6 months is the right age to wean

I am a very 'live and let live' kind of gal but I really do feel that if a child is old enough to ask to be breast fed then it is too old to be breast fed. Just my personal opinion though, as the thought of it just weirds me out ✌🏻

I still bf my 4 year old.

I never intended to bf so long but she's wanted to continue.

It hasn't got in the way of her having a very close bond with her father. It hasn't stopped her from being able to be comforted by the other adults in her life.

Wow well done OP, what a lucky girl. I think you're doing a great service to ebfers with this thread as your answers are so informative and unemotional. I also think it's great that the vast majority are admiring/accepting or just plain curious. No questions but following!

greenmerecat

I think my main point is with comforters like dummies, children are generally weaned off them much younger than 6, so I guess my question is do the health benefits outweigh the issues caused by reliance on a comforter?.

There are risks associated with damage to teeth and decay etc from bottles and dummies which simply aren't there with breastfeeding. So the health benefits plus the avoidance of tooth damage was key for me.

continually She doesn't get everything she asks for as I have already said I parent appropriately and she has boundaries and when feeding she had to ask properly. However I rarely denied her a breastfeed if she asked and I could do so - just like I wouldn't deny her a hug

Amazing job, well done! I stopped feeding all of mine between 1.5 and 2 but only because that felt right to us, I can totally see why others would feed for longer or shorter! I too hope that long(er) term breastfeeding is becoming more normal, the health benefits are profound.

uthredswife Thank you and well done on getting to 3.5yrs and having a gentle weaning experience.

Antihop well done on your BF experience. Totally agree my DD went to nursery from 13 months and had/had a good relationship with grandparents and her dad as well as with me.

howdy if you apply that principle to any other source of nourishment - be it food or emotional- it doesn't make sense. Do you stop giving your children cornflakes because they are able to ask? Did you stop cuddling them when they were able to ask for a cuddle?!

mikado thank you for your lovely supportive post

Well done and well done on answering some of the harsh and unnecessarily critical comments on here.

My DD was a boob-monster. She stopped at 3yo because I was pregnant and my milk dried up so it was painful for me and unsatisfactory for her. It feels very odd that she doesn’t remember it at all now, it was such a big part of her life. She used to say she loved my boobs more than me! (DS was a functional breastfeeder, he just got the milk, didn’t really care about comfort, etc).

Not sure what your sources are for claiming that a 'natural weaning age' is 4-7 years. This meta-analysis says:

Durations of breastfeeding were generally longer in ancient times (4) than in western society today. Aristotle stated that breastfeeding should continue for 12 to 18 months, or when menses restarted in the nursing mother. Mothers in Zulu societies have traditionally breastfed their infants until 12 to 18 months, at which point a new pregnancy would be anticipated. Ancient Hebrews completed weaning at about three years. Most children in traditional societies are completely weaned between two and four years of age (5).

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720507/

booboostwo Thanks! I started this post knowing full well there would be some harsh and critical comments but I would rather answer them and hopefully educate

My DD was a boob monster too and loved my boobs more than she did me!

gorgonlondon

www.health-e-learning.com/articles/A_Natural_Age_of_Weaning.pdf

I think you're bloody wonderful OP!

Did you ever have moments where you thought "I can't do this anymore"?

Also... my son is on a double boobing situation at the moment 😂😂😂 he has to have both, not just the one. I'm sure it's to do with his appetite growing but did your DD ever do that?

I have nights at the moment where I'm so tired still. My DS (14mo) still wakes regularly during the night and I'm just so freaking tired. I sometimes wonder if he'll ever stop. I would never do it unless he was ready though... he needs his comfort and I hate the thought of him not being comforted.

rightyhochaps I felt that I couldn't do it any more many many times!

Initially when she was born - 9 weeks prem - just getting started was horrendous.

When she was a similar age to your DS and I had gone back to work and she was feeding loads in the night. I felt like I would never sleep properly again!

When she was about 4 onwards when I ovulated it made me want to crawl out of my skin and similar when I was on my period

But the benefits to her far outweighed a couple of icky feeds a month!

GorgonLondon that quote is from the summary of cultural practices! The section is even titled “Historical and cultural perspectives”!!!

Clearly cultural influences in the acceptability of bf are quite different from what might happen in a state of nature. Later, the article you link to, suggests 2-4 years as the natural age of weaning, but the reference again comes from a survey of American mothers raising again the question of the influence of cultural bias.

The change of weaning teeth to permenant teeth is a good biological indicator of the natural age of weaning.

So the rape of a human is not ok but this is
Basically yes, stop downplaying rape.
Rape is penatration by a man using a penis, so this is not rape is it.

@needmoresleepnow Thanks for the link, i've just read that very short article. Unlike the one I posted, it's not peer-reviewed or published in a journal, and doesn't link to many other sources.

Also, it gives the range of weaning ages from 2.5 to 7 years (at most), with not much discussion and no citations.

I don't believe it answers the points raised in the paper that I quoted, do you?