I still breastfeed my 5 year-old

[TandemFeeder]

I’ve had another baby too so am now a tandem feeder. Happy to answer any questions.

Ok I BF but seriously? This? Just no.

Feeding a toddler is absolutely natural. Infants are meany to be fed for around 2 to 4 years. It's just not common now in the west as formula has taken over.

It's perfectly normal practice in many parts of the world and has been since the dawn of time.

Why is the criteria different?

You’re on a thread where women who prioritise the needs of their children and do something entirely beneficial is bashed.

Bash formula feeding and there you are. Something that we know is not optimal and only needed in a small minority of cases. The majority of people who formula feed do not do so for the benefit of the child.

It is possible to continue breastfeeding after the milk teeth start to fall out. Unusual but occasionally possible. At what point would you call time on it OP, if your child was one of the minority who was still able to latch into their teens? Would you ever say enough’s enough? And if so, when?

Yes I reported it too.

The honest answer is that I’ve never viewed it this way. It’s something he enjoys and which has physiological benefits for both of us (it offers the mother protection against certain cancers), so it feels like there’s no good reason to stop.

Among many others...right?

Well done OP . Its a lovely thing to do. My son naturally weaned at juat after 5 after spending a year just having a very quick feed at night time.

It's surprising how many grown adults have completely irrational ideas about normal biological functions. The only way to normalise this is to get more women talking about it and do some myth busting. It also needs to be addressed in schools when they learn about the birds and bees to tackle the nonsense that you must stop at two years old or your child will be a serial killer!

Why would length of breastfeeding have anything to do with formula?
I imagine it’s got nothing to do with formula “taking over” and everything to do with access to clean water and food. No one uses formula until 4, hardly anyone seems to BF to one and swap to formula.

you reported that comment amongst the sea of posters bashing extended breast feeding? Says it all.

Goodness- this turning toxic is not something anyone could have predicted.

A five year old isn’t a baby.

right!

I think when it comes decisions about when or whether to breastfeed, the vast majority of mothers do the best they can in whatever individual circumstances they are in and make a valid decision for their family.

There will be a few who avoid breastfeeding or stop early when actually it would have been easy to continue, perhaps for self centred reasons, but it’s hardly crime of the century and I expect they are outliers. Most women probably who start but then stop before 6m or a year probably wanted to continue but couldn’t for whatever reason.

Equally there will be some who go on encouraging it for their own reasons but again, outliers.

TLDR in most cases judgement isn’t called for.

You're right. I hope all these women saying negative things about the OP and that she has 'emotionally stunted' her children all breastfed for 2 years if they physical could. But Lord help us if we criticise formula feeding!

The majority of people who formula feed do not do so for the benefit of the child.

Off topic, but I completely disagree with this!

DT’s had formula from day one - my choice. Have grown up healthy and happy. No concerns that I made the right decision.

Not much. By this stage the milk is believed to be very highly concentrated in antibodies so they don’t need very much to get the benefits. (Although in my case this won’t always have been true as I’ve had another baby).

The majority of people who formula feed do not do so for the benefit of the child.

You really don't know this to be the case. Apart from medical reasons, some women need to go back to work very early - they can't breastfeed if they're not there.

In our society, prolonged breastfeeding tends to be a luxury for those who can afford not to work. And by prolonged, I mean post-six months.

Yes. I couldn’t successfully breastfeed and my baby nearly died and ended up on a feeding tube and in NICU. But clearly I put my own needs first by feeding her formula.

But all the ‘you can do it’ and ‘it’s selfish not to breastfeed’ rhetoric that I listened to was so helpful that I nearly starved my own baby. So yes, I’ll bash people who push breastfeeding to to point that babies end up hospitalised.

The latter.

Perhaps consider the context of the thread.

I did it for 18 months and that was enough.

I find older than about 3 really weird IMO.

They don’t need the milk so I don’t understand why you’d want to do it! I also think if their friends knew, they’re likely to be bullied. When a child can talk and definitely by 5-6 have grown up conversations etc, breastfeeding is just strange!

That’s very nice dear but if you read the comment I was replying to she was talking about breastfeeding in general, not feeding older children specifically.