To ask for your thoughts on extended breastfeeding?

[awmamma]

Catching up on Teen Mom UK and watching the bit about Charlie telling Shannon it was weird to still be breastfeeding her 2.5 year old.

Is it really that weird?

Wittering on about toddlers swinging to and fro to stretch a boob is just a sideshow. In my opinion.
Who said that? Certainly not me.

@TabbyMumz - you did my dear, back on page 7 you said i find it weird and somehow not right to have a child, not a baby, hanging off your breast. Is it so hard to keep up with yourself?

Now, as entertaining as this has been, let's focus on interesting matters.

@ethelfleda - how are things going with your little one, still on nursing strike or over it?

Yes my dear, it's a phrase, which many people say, you have taken it too literally. It doesn't mean they are literally hanging down, pulling the breasts. That is your wrong misinterpretation. It also doesn't mean they swing from breast to breast, you made that up entirely.

You said "swinging to and fro to stretch a boob" nobody said that. At all. I used the phrase "hanging off".

I’m still waiting to hear from the science genius what is “not right” about it!

Sorry @TabbyMumz, I've never heard the phrase used before, it might just be you. It means the same thing and is ridiculous. I'm glad you no longer think babies pull down to stretch boobs though, at least you've learned something from the thread.

@ethelfleda - how are things going with your little one, still on nursing strike or over it?

@MRex
Thank you for asking - he is still kind of on strike but has actually tried to feed in the past two days. This morning was the first time he had tried properly, but something is stopping him. We are going to the docs in the morning as I actually think I’ve got thrush! Sorry for the TMI.
Also - his eye teeth are just about poking through so it could be that as well. I’m not sure what to think. Still expressing to try and keep some supply up just in case but not getting much off and not sure when to draw a line under it and say maybe that’s the end

Sorry to ‘derail’ the thread with my nursing strike woes!

Sorry@TabbyMumz, I've never heard the phrase used before, it might just be you.

Sorry you haven't heard it, it really is quite a common sarcastic phrase. I was quite surprised when I realised you thought it was literal and that you imagined then swinging from boob to boob, because that's not what it meant. It doesn't mean that they stretch the boobs with their weight swinging at all. I do believe extended breastfeeding causes issues with boobs, but I don't believe for one minute it's due to being stretched. I don't as you put it "No longer think boobs are being stretched as being pulled down" and not a learning curve for me as I didn't think that in the first place. Nice try though.

@ethelfleda - if you have thrush then you both do so best make it a double appointment. My friend's little boy was silly about feeding when they both had thrush, so perhaps that's it. Hopefully anyway, it's always good to know what something is when it can easily be fixed. I'm not looking forward to the canines, DS is only just finishing his 4th molar and it's been awful; so much ibuprofen, calpol and anbesol liquid. In his case he feeds more when he's teething (they're all different of course), the one thing that's had him not feeding was when he had an ear infection, so make sure the GP checks your DS's ears too. Let us know how you get on.

@ethelfleda great that he's had another try! The thrush might well be it, so keep offering and see what happens. Hope you get it resolved! I'm sure you know, but what you get with a pump is not necessarily your "full potential" as it were

We both went to the docs today
I’m having treatment for thrush and DS has a slight ear infection (also being treated)
GP thought it was a good opportunity to tell me that ‘it’s probably time to start weaning anyway’

Double whammy, no wonder he stopped feeding, he'll be back to normal soon I expect. Were you also given treatment for DS to take for thrush? You both need to take it at the same time or you'll paas it between you. (Your GP is a knob.)

Were you also given treatment for DS to take for thrush?

Was just going to ask this.

If you're finding the thrush really painful, I found hand-expressing a few drops before each feed really reduced the pain.

Your GP sounds ill-informed.

No, no medication for DS to take for thrush. She had a look in his mouth while we were there. I will call them up and check if he should have been prescribed something too!

Yes, he definitely should have been. Nystatin drops is the normal prescription I think.

I found this for you to read: www.stgeorges.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/48_Community+services+Wandsworth_Breastfeeding+with+thrush.pdf.

Thank you @MRex
I will need another visit to the GP then in that case!

@MRex
@JacquesHammer
Just wanted to say thank you. Thanks to you - I called the docs and the receptionist just so happened to be a volunteer bf support person! She managed to track me down a GP to sort a prescription out for DS so fingers crossed all will be well. Just got to try and keep some kind of supply up!

ethelfleda

That’s great news! Fingers crossed it does the trick soon. You can keep your supply up by expressing if it works for you.

That's good news, I hope it works quickly so you're both better.

I have breastfed three children for a total of, I think, 11 years in total (two of them together for a few months), so I'll have a nice, low breast cancer risk to offset my HRT should I ever need it. I also don't think my boobs are particularly saggy after 11 years breastfeeding and four pregnancies.

@TabbyMumz there is a hierarchy of medical evidence which is used when deciding which pieces of research should have higher weighting when it comes to writing guidelines/protocols for various treatments etc. The highest would be a meta analysis, which would be the evidence from several trials collated together. Then it goes down through randomised controlled trials (where double blinded is higher that single blinded), then things like case control and cohort studies (which is probably where a breastfeeding/saggy boob study would sit because you can't really randomise people to breastfeeding or not breastfeeding and you certainly couldn't blind it). Expert opinion is the lowest in the hierarchy and is only used really when there is no other good quality research (the Andrew Wakefield MMR and autism study was not good research because it didn't fit the design of any good quality research - it was kind of like a case control study, but without any controls and Andrew Wakefield was subsequently struck off by the GMC)

Your opinion, would probably go below expert opinion (unless you're an expert? Maybe a breast surgeon or an obstetrician?) and therefore the other research studies would trump it. Sorry

There is a sxhool of thought that "extended breastfeeding" is a biological norm rather than an anomoly. We are a society of premature weaners.
Many higher mammals brestfeed to term, even when food is abundant
Elephants, gorillas, all higher primetes feed until 3/4/5 years.

It's us Sapiens who consider ourselves "more evolved" who have chucked the nasty habit.

Great news, @ethelfleda! Hope you both get better soon and things get back on track!

None of your GP's business how long you breastfeed for! Wish they'd inform themselves better

It's us Sapiens who consider ourselves "more evolved" who have chucked the nasty habit.

I'm going to repeat myself again, but we haven't really chucked the habit, we've just replaced it with a subsitute - the breastmilk of a cow! I'm drinking some in my coffee right now And it's not like we think that cows milk has no nutritional benefits after 6 months - we give it to school children! Subsidised by the government!

And clearly, even some GPs don't see this double standard. I'm fairly sure if ethel had asked her GP if that means her DS doesn't need cows milk he'd say that it was good for growing children.

velocitykate
Excellent post!

Thank you Almostalwyn

And clearly, even some GPs don't see this double standard. I'm fairly sure if ethel had asked her GP if that means her DS doesn't need cows milk he'd say that it was good for growing children

I think you are correct there. I think she was very ill informed. She actually suggested more than once in the short appointment that is was ‘probably time to wean’ with her resining being ‘I mean, he will probably be starting nursery soon’
He has been at nursery since he was 1 so I have no idea how she reached that conclusion.
And guess what he drinks at nursery.... cow’s milk!