to be glad I can't remember being breastfed?

[retrocutie]

I just read this article in the, erm, Daily Mail. In it, a woman who is breastfeeding her 5 year-old and 2 year-old talks of her wish to still be breastfeeding when her kids are 10 years old. This makes me feel a bit uneasy. A child of 10 will remember being breastfed and I just think it is a bit yucky. Sorry. I am glad I wasn't still breastfed at that age. Some children are going through puberty at 10… I dunno, it just seems a bit, well, wrong somehow. At some point it becomes inappropriate, surely?

Not only that, but as is often the case in these families, the poor husband has been banished to the spare room so that the mother can co-sleep with the DC. Just seems a bit unfair. I feel more than a bit sorry for him.

AIBU?

Why can't everyone just mind their own breasts?

"I only said 3 as I've never seen any bf or say they bf after that age. As I said ds stopped before 2 and my niece around 3.

Can't imagine it would be very comfortable for mum either"

So you based your opinion on what?
Weird.

What a useless father in the article! I breastfed DS till age 4 and he would often cosleep with us because the varmint learned how to walk!! Really!!

DH would put him to bed and read a story. He'd have a cup of milk and then sleep. At some point in the night he'd pootle into our room and clamber into bed. He'd wake cheerful and happy at 6.30 with a request for his one bf of the day.

We are clearly perfect parents. (Or not)

Haven't read tft but in response to the op, I know someone who remembers being breastfed (they weren't even nearly ten!!) and said she remembers it as being 'like a thousand of the best kisses all at once'-always thought that was lovely :) Doesn't sound like a traumatising memory to me..

Itsmine Understood - it's not like this is in Infant Feeding! I'm only reading really as I'm intrigued by how strongly people feel about how and what you feed your own children.

Could I ask you though... What made you decide two years old is the cut off point for 'babying'?

I keep seeing the term "there's no need for it..." being thrown around but young children do need milk.

Breast milk is more beneficial than formula.

So what's the problem giving it?

Even if children don't need breast milk (I.e cows milk will do), there's a lot of things children have in their diet that they don't need aren't there?

I doubt sweets, crisps, chocolate, McDonalds aren't a necessity but I'm pretty confident a lot of children have them. So why is that ok tet having nutritious, necessary milk, isn't acceptable?

I'm guessing it's because it comes out of a breast? Dearie me, women using their breasts for what they are meant for??? What is society coming to......

I accept others choices, but I will judge people babying children once they are past 2yrs. Just give them a cuddle for goodness sake.

Huh? I really don't understand your point of view there. You don't accept others' choices at all. You're obviously really bothered by people feeding a child beyond 2yo. I don't get why it bothers you so much.?

For my three children BF finishes when it finishes - either when they have had enough, or I have had enough. That's so far any time between 16 months and 54 months.

It's no one else's blimming business. If I were abusing them it would be other people's business, but I'm not, and therefore, I'd respectfully like to ask you to butt out.

Threads like this make me despair.

The sheer volume of women stating that there is something, anything, wrong with breast feeding is just mind blowing. Women like this are one of the main reasons that we have little hope of equality. It's bad enough that our breasts have become sexual property according to men without you lot backing it up.

Breaking news. Tits are functional - for food, to further the species. Just because you wear a pretty bra, doesn't make it not so.

Oh. And i breastfed my first for 6 weeks and my 2nd for 10 days. Then i packed it in and gave them bottles, partly for medical reasons, partly because I was too selfish to carry on.

Yes it is really depressing isn't it. sigh

Formula comes out of a breast as well. Except we call it an udder, which makes it somehow other and therefore acceptable. It is a heck of a lot weirder imo to consider udder milk stolen from calves to be socially preferable to human milk made for human babies.

I agree that it is depressing that so many people, and mostly women on this thread, have internalised disgust for the biological norm.

Oh, and when will people learn that the Daily Mail just says things to get a rise out of people? It's a mild troll of a rag.

All this breast v. bottle has taken over from the original post.
I still can't understand why feeding at the breast could be an unpleasant memory. I still remember it with a warm comforting feeling. Not detailed but still very pleasant.

I was breastfed until I was four and I remember it VERY clearly!

YABU.
Extended bf wouldn't be my choice but how on earth do you have the time and energy to form opinions about other people's parenting choices which don't affect you?
Christ, society judges us enough whatever we do so we might as well not judge each other as well.
Get a life.

Miira here again, sorry to have taken so long to reply -it has taken me this long to find the time to read all the ten pages of comments (which I have now done). I'm not sure if anyone is interested anymore as it seems like yesterday's news, but I shall have a go at saying a few things. Firstly, I am really grateful for all the support for me and for natural term breastfeeding, there are clearly a lot more of us out there than they seem to give us credit for.

Secondly, I believe the feeding relationship between a baby and a mother is private and does not involve other people. Although in a balanced relationship there should be discussion and negotiation and compromise, I think it would really help everyone make an informed decision if all the health risks of formula feeding were clearly displayed and commonly known. Infant formula is not, in any way, comparable to breast milk, which is a live, constantly changing liquid full of many many ingredients which are impossible to replicate or synthesize. My husband has never been anything other than supportive of bf and attachment parenting, needless to say the daily fail have added their own chauvinistic spin to the whole story (including the stupid headline!).

That said, this whole thing did not start as BF vs. FF thing, the whole reason to get involved in a project like this is to try and spread the information about normal, natural term breastfeeding. Too many women are forced to stop bf against their will while their babies would like to continue by pressure from peers, partners, family etc etc etc Every Day. We live in such a FF culture that it is thought that "there is no harm" (or in fact that is what one ought to do) in changing to FF from 6mo but like someone said above....there is no evidence what-so-ever to show that natural term bf causes harm of any kind, physical or mental. There is a plethora of evidence to show that man-made substitutes, be they dummies, bottles or formula, DO cause harm, yet this is what we are supposed to be doing with our children?

The whole thing started by Zoe Archer contacting mothers on FB, asking if anybody was bf a child over the age of 3 and interested in helping her finish her dissertation (she is studying journalism at Nottingham University I believe). I offered to help and this was the finished article: trent.tab.co.uk/2015/05/22/i-still-breastfeed-my-6-year-old-and-shell-grow-up-to-be-a-genius/
Obviously, it seems she got a few of the facts wrong, Tara is only 5 and 4 months (I said it a wee bit wrong on the video!), not six and some of the "discussions and jokes", including the TEN years reference, was journalistic license. But this article lead to Sam from SouthWest News Service contacting me and asking if I were interested in having an article published -there was no mention what so ever of daily fail, in fact he made it sound like it was for a local paper, so I agreed. I was as surprised as anybody that it was in a national newspaper, especially the daily fail. In fact, even though the article that came out was much more positive, balanced and informative (and less obnoxious) than I had anticipated after finding out it was DM, I would probably had said no, if I had known it was for this particular paper as I do not approve of their approach to things!
Now I have been asked if there could be an article in one of the women's magazines (don't know which one), I've been asked to go on This Morning on ITV next week (I have potentially said yes, if we can sort out the logistics) and I have been interviewed for a paper in Finland! There are also articles in Spain and China....The whole thing has gone viral, absolutely! I am quite amused by the whole thing, given that it is the most normal thing in the world in a lot of places, yet here, in developed industrialised western countries, it is NEWS!? sighs

Few more articles
Metro (owned by DM): metro.co.uk/2015/05/29/mother-breastfeeds-her-daughter-five-because-it-increases-her-iq-5220987/?ito=facebook

www.telemundo.com/shows/2015/05/28/miira-dawson-amamantare-mis-hijos-hasta-que-tengan-10-anos-para-que-sean-mas?page=1

Western Daily Press (only just seen this): www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Poole-mum-Miira-Dawson-defends-breastfeeding-year/story-26590971-detail/story.html

The Mirror !!! (didn't even realise) www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-breastfeeds-5-year-old-daughter--5777488

Oh I forgot to say about the hubby situation. This is not something I really want to discuss, as I don't really see it benefiting anyone (whereas the bf discussion hopefully will) but I would like to say that he doesn't get home most nights until 9pm or later as he works late, so the whole bedtime story thing is bollocks. He is a very active dad and spends a lot of time with the kids in the mornings before he goes to work (most days not until lunch time) and he reads them a billion books then....

Can you let me know what day you'll be on 'This Morning' if you do decide to go ahead with it as it's something I would be interested in watching

This Morning being the televisual version of the daily fail.........

It is ^^

Nice. Say it's not 'a BB vs FF' thing then accuse people who FF of harming their children. You sound delightful.

Aermingers - I noticed that too

I haven't RTFT yet, but had a look at the article, and my overwhelming feeling was what a beautiful happy looking child the little girl is - breastfeeding or not her mum/parents are clearly getting it right.

I do wonder about the weirdness of ppl who question the motives of extended breastfeeder, it's definitely they that have the issue.

Personally I find breastfeeding beyond 12 months weird. Breast milk and breastfeeding is for babies...Once they cease to be babies then why are you doing it? When they are weaned and eating solids they are getting the nutrients from solids, and their immune systems are developed enough by then for "mothers protection' not to be a really strong argument in favour, so for that reason why would you carry on with it? Maybe it makes you feel better in someway?

Ok so I understand people might bite my head off here but I just think the idea of breastfeeding when the child is no longer a baby bloody weird.

You would find it weird seeing a 6,7,8 yr old drinking out of a baby bottle/sucking a dummy or using baby language....let them developed and grow up!!!

It always always makes me laugh when someone says it's more for the mother. Try telling that to your child who's trying to loudly climb into your top.