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.

Can someone please explain what ' I stopped when I felt touched out' means. Apologies if this sounds ignorant. I've honestly never heard this expression.

Yes I’ve come to this conclusion too. There are quite a lot of us on this thread alone.

@BellissimoGecko Yes. I absolutely did. My comment was in the context of a 5 year old. Not a 5 month old. Totally different.

I take it as meaning fed up with being constantly pawed, as we are when we have young children.

I know it’s hard to keep up with the questions OP, but I’m genuinely curious about what you would do if your child was one of the small minority who remain able to latch despite losing milk teeth. Do you have a cut off in your own mind, or would you continue as long as your child wanted to, even if it got as far as secondary school?

Hi OP just adding a comment to say I am still BF my almost 5 year old and agree with everything you say!

• She drinks plenty of cows milk, BF mostly a little at night and maybe sometimes in the day at home. Never while out and sometimes have days with none at all
• expect to stop around when she starts to loose milk teeth/when she wants to stop whichever is sooner (likely within next couple of years)
• I would be happy to stop as soon as she is
• no issues with school
• BF at this age is very different to BF a one year old
• DH doesn’t bat an eyelid
• no effect on sex life

it’s a shame extended breastfeeding gets so much judgement and negativity, in my opinion it usually comes down to ‘western society says says it’s weird’, I have said it before, it makes no sense to me that milk meant for cows is seen as normal yet human milk made for them personally is not. If anything logic says it should be the opposite if anything out of the two, but the world is backwards in more ways than one 😂

Sure. But the OP literally did an AMA post…?

I bf both of mine and I went back to work at the end of maternity leave. I expressed milk in my lunch break and during the time I was at home. In the USA mothers go back to work much more quickly than we do here and some mums there exclusively bf too, that's why there are double pumps and bras to hold pump cups in place.

I’ve already explained this, this response wasn’t about the thread, it was just a phrase I love that matched that posters comments and energy. I have seen it used with regards to breastfeeding and formula feeding and I love it. It wasn’t about the AMA thread, I know the OP has opened this up for questions,, I just think it’s a great response when someone questions any feeding choices a mother makes. I probably should have written that on the post, that was my fault, it was just an excuse to use the phrase really.

I also went back to work at around 15 months with both. They fed first thing and then in the evening. No issues. Granted I wasn’t working when they were under 12
momths which would have been trickier.

Wow well done @TandemFeeder !!
You might want to Google Professor Rosalind Graham who is pro being guided by your child as to when to stop breast feeding. From memory her child was between 7 and 9 before she said she'd had enough.

For those who deem it weird, then I would just point out that most parents, when they stop breast feeding their children, give them the breast milk of other species in the form of cheese, yogurt and milk - mainly cows, and even as adults many of us continue to eat dairy which is really meant for baby cows. Even adult cows don't drink cows milk as they no longer need those growth hormones any more.

No shade to people who are unable to breast feed. Obviously dairy milk is essential then. It was just some food for thought :) xx

Personally, I think breastfeeding a 6 year old is seriously weird.

It's not the food, i.e. milk, that people are questioning, though. It's the delivery method.

I went back to work when DD was one, DH and I were part time for a while, she went to nursery from 15 months and eventually I went full time 2.5 years ago. She is almost 5 and still breastfeeds, never expressed, she was always fine and ate food and drank water with DH and at nursery.

I think the people acting all horrified should think about why it's completely acceptable and encouraged for their children to have milk from the boob of a different species (cow) but apparently not from a human, who makes milk that's actually nutritionally tailored to small humans and can also offer a nice cuddle and comfort with it. Like, really think about it. Isn't that kind of a weird stance? Is it because boobs are so sexualised in our society and we don't like to think too much about their biological function? "Natural" weaning age is up until about 7 I believe, so why are we pressured by society to stop years and years before that or else it's "odd" or "gross". Can anyone explain to me objectively why that is, if we take out the social conditioning?

Anyway OP, well done you! I wasn't too bothered about breastfeeding and actually had a terrible time starting out with severe pain and tongue tie etc, but something about the struggle made me want to carry on (brains are weird) and make it to a year. And then it slowly got easier and I thought, well, the World Health Organisation recommends feeding to 2 (and beyond), so guess I'll aim for 2. And now here I am still feeding an almost 3 year old, which I never thought I would, but I suppose it just feels normal for us. Ideally I'd quite like her to self wean fairly soon, but she's showing no signs of doing so (if anything, the opposite) so I guess we'll carry on a little bit longer!

My DD was waking every 45 minutes to an hour, wanting to be nursed back to sleep... 2 days postpartum, I went to bed with B cups and woke up on day 3 with rock hard Es! Hurt so bad I cried, and I had to empty them over a literal bucket, and put frozen cabbage leaves in my bra (which actually helped.)

I heard this isn't an uncommon experience, because of the rapid hormone drop following delivery... guess it's just another instance of women getting the shit end of the stick when it comes to reproduction

How are they holding up as so to speak?

I went back to work when dd was 9 months old, full time. I still breast fed her until she was 4.

At first, I pumped once a day at work. I stopped that around 12 months, but she continued to feed her on demand on the days I was with her. That continued for a few months, then we were down to morning, bedtime and during the night. By the time she was 4, she was just having a nighttime feed.

i didn’t begin to lose my milk teeth until I was 8. What if your child is 8/9, even 10 and hitting puberty themselves, getting close to high school age and still doesn’t want to stop and is able to latch. Would you keep going until they wanted to stop?

Do his teachers know??

Have a listen to Professor Rosalind Graham, @notwavingbutdrowning1 , she gives her reasons for the method being an advantage for those children who still feel they need it. Why I mentioned her. She can explain much better than I can. I am no expert. Just putting it out there for debate purposes :) xx

What does touched out mean?

Don't you worry that your child will remember when they are older? I think that's the thing that would stop me, well before age 3 when they can form lasting memories.

I went back to work full time after 12 months but fed until DS was 3. He just fed morning and evening by then.