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.

@BertieBottsout if interested why were you needing to visit LLL once your DC was older?

On what grounds?

I’ve posted this 5 times now but no response. I’ll have one more go then I’ll give up, I’m not meaning to be provocative , I’m actually curious, and this is AMA!

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?

I do wonder about some of these stats. Where do they come from and how accurate age they really? There’s one saying that only 1% of children are exclusively breastfed to six months. Yet I’ve known of quite a number of children who are. Great seems very low to me. I don’t think I’m that atypical.

There’s another saying it’s rare to get your period back before six months whilst exclusively breastfeeding. Again this does match the experiences of people I know at all.

This is fascinating - it's quite shocking to read that when they look at siblings who were breastfed Vs those who were formula fed (to account for family differences) there are no better health outcomes to those who were breastfed.

Also there's a line on there about kids who were extended breastfed getting iller than those who weren't. It's really interesting

I’ve heard it all now, are you actually comparing a child having comfort and a bit of milk with a dog shitting in the house?

Aren’t children designed to breastfeed until the drop their milk teeth? Once they drop them they cannot physically latch on?

If you look at what the OP is responding to she’s far behind. She’s quoting posts from about 4pm now, so she’s a while to catch up to the more recent questions. X

Because you think that is sexual?

I think you make a very good point actually and it is really important to teach boundaries and respect. Breastfeeding does provide a good opportunity to start teaching the basics of consent!

Exactly… give them the milk in a cup.
At that age, there’s so much more attached to breast feeding for the child. And so much more uncomfortable as a memory.

I don’t know any kids are school being fed, but the stat of only 0.5 percent at 1 is interesting because of my social group (university educated, older mothers), it’s very much the norm to bf until at least one. I don’t really know many people who formula fed and yet it’s obviously far more common so I do wonder if part of it is people who tend to make similar decisions re children are in similar areas (wanting the same school), similar careers etc?

I really don't think this would be an issue, the ability to latch is jaw dependent.
Children also self ween for all manor of reasons too.

It is very unlikely that a child would get past the jaw changes and natural weening reasons and still opt to BF. They wouldn't get milk once they lose the latch.

Even if they wanted to continue to nurse with no milk coming at this point it would be safe to say it would become painful for the mother who would then initiate BF stopping.

I can't imagine any possible situation that BF continues when child can't get milk and the mum is in awful pain
It just isn't going to happen

Sorry to hear this. From my understanding this more typically improves between six months and a year? This was the case for me. I can completely see why this would make you want to stop if it wasn’t for you though.

I posted a link to a research paper earlier that says in western countries people feed in secret which most likely skews the stats a fair bit!

I wanted to wait for my daughter to self wean but pregnancy tenderness and her seeming to lose the knack for it meant we stopped at 3. There have been times I've wished I still could, though, illnesses etc. I really don't think extended feeding is as odd as some on here are saying. Globally it's quite normal and it can be beneficial for emotional development, if anything.

What does your partner think?

I breastfed throughout my pregnancy then tandem fed. I got my first ovulation 3 weeks after giving birth and my period 2 weeks later

I waited til they'd graduated.

i always think of fthe woman who breastfed her dd even when she started school, and the dd had to have her teeth removed, she breast fed her to sleep, didnt clean her teeth afterwards, and breast milk is sweet.

the dd also has a misshaped over pronounced jaw, bit like a witch, which i put down to the extended breast feeding, such a shame

So because my baby finds comfort in a dummy or bottle, should he still have those at 5 years old?

I’ve already covered this but don’t mind repeating as I think it’s so important for people to realise that that level of self-sacrifice really isn’t required at all.

No I don’t do every bedtime. There are often nights we miss and DS has sleepovers with his grandparents fairly frequently. I’ve been abroad without him for up to two weeks. I’ve never expressed during these times as milk supply is generally resilient enough after a year for it not to necessary. I was in hospital
for four days after DD was born and that wasn’t an issue either.

@Wellthisisannoying

In many cultures all over the world breastfeeding older children is deemed as the norm

Where do you (and some others on this thread) get this information from? Can you name an actual present day country where this is seen as normal practice? Not anthropological studies from the 1950s of nomadic tribes, or vague romantic ideas about 'natural' cultures. Where exactly is this happening right now? I have never seen any evidence for this at all

BF is actually beneficial for jaw development. Bad jaw alignment is usually due to bottles.

But like anything there are always exceptions

even extended? @Leftrightmiddle