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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

How Long Do Ladies BF in the UK?

60 replies

CoachMom · 23/07/2010 17:28

Hi, I'm visiting from the US for the summer and have a question.

I was at football lessons with my son, while my 8 month old daughter was nursing under my hooter hider...haha! Anyway I was talking to a nanny of a little boy that was playing with my son. She ask me when I was going to stop breast feeding? She went onto say that women in the UK only BF for 4 months. After reading several threads on this board I think this nanny was full of it. She is right?

OP posts:
wastingaway · 23/07/2010 17:29

There is more breastfeeding and longer term breastfeeding on MN than in Britain in general I think.

Lavitabellissima · 23/07/2010 17:33

I'm not sure, what is it like in the US?

I keep watching a lot of US programme's with babies and I would say 80% of the parents I've seen formula feed. Is that acurate? or just tv?

jemart · 23/07/2010 17:35

NHS would like more Mums to breast feed their babies, I think it is increasingly being accepted that BF is best for baby but I'm afraid the nanny may be quite close to the truth

Shallishanti · 23/07/2010 17:38

wastingaway is right, our official guidance is exc bf for 6 months, but numbers acheiving that are very low, but there are little enclaves where 12mths is common

Snuppeline · 23/07/2010 17:45

I think the norm would be to breastfeed for the 'official' advise of 6 months, however, I followed the advise of WHO which is 1 year. In fact, carried on until my dd was 15 months and she had enough herself. I also used a 'hooter hider' in public!

StealthPolarBear · 23/07/2010 17:48

the WHO and the NHS advice is exclusively for 6 months and then alongside food for at least two years

wastingaway · 23/07/2010 18:01

I think people expect 6 months, from what I've picked up out and about.

Original poster
CoachMom · 23/07/2010 22:44

In the US it's all over the board...some people nurse longer than others but most doctors recomend nursing atleast one year. All though you would NEVER see someone nurse in public without covering themselves. I wish that would change. I've noticed women nursing without covers in public here in London, once in Canary Wharf; and once at Westfeild Mall...I found it quite refreshing.

In the states we start solid food around 4-6 months. My daughter started solids at 4 months but since I can't get her to take a bottle or sippy I'm continuing to nurse. I'm a SAHM so I have the luxury.

Thank you for your responses. I know it should not matter, but I wonder if people think I'm strange for nursing my 9 month old in public. EEEEKKK.

OP posts:
wigglybeezer · 23/07/2010 22:59

A rough guide would be how educated the mother is, the older and more educated the mother, the longer she would breastfeed on average. As usual there will be many exceptions to this rule.
Women don't tend to cover up (I've breast fed in church even) but for some reason, women seem to get most hassle about breastfeeding from older women on buses!
Most of my friends did at least six months, many kept going for up to three years.
I've been lucky and never met with disapproval (although FIL used to hide behind newspaper).

ShowOfHands · 23/07/2010 23:04

I am still bfeeding (dd is 3.2). Before I had dd (aged 26), I'd never seen anybody bfeed.

I think in the UK, most people start to bfeed, a very, very small minority are still exclusively feeding as they approach weaning age.

Bfing openly in public is the norm. Live nearish a city now and I have never seen a hooter hider.

lovely74 · 23/07/2010 23:21

I think most people see 6 months as the "normal" time to stop, and I've heard HV's coaxing mums to start weaning off the boob at this age. And certainly if you'd talked to me before I had my DS I would have said that BF a toddler was wierd.

But, now I'm a mummy, I see that people do actually carry on for much longer. DS is 9 months and I'll carry on till I go back to work (at 13 months) and after that probably morning evening and weekends for..who knows?
Mind you, he's just getting his first teeth so I may give up in the next few weeks .

14hourstillbedtime · 23/07/2010 23:25

CoachMom I'm English but live in the States, and I have to say we all breastfeed with our norks out, all the time .

And every single one of my friends with pretty much no exceptions? breastfeeds for at least a year.

But then, I do live in Berkeley!

QueenofDreams · 23/07/2010 23:27

Britain has one of the worst breastfeeding rates in Europe I think I've heard.
I fed DS till he was 16 months. I've never used (or even seen) a hooter hider. A friend from bf group is organising a picnic to help new mums adjust to feeding in public.

So although rates are quite low - I think it's probably easier to feed in public here in the UK than in the states.

pebblejones · 23/07/2010 23:34

I've just googled 'hooter hider', how funny, I have never even heard of them before. I tried to be discrete initially with a carefully placed muslin cloth, but my DS kept pulling it off so I gave up. It took a while to build up the confidence, but now if my baby needs it, he gets it, wherever we may be!

KittyTN · 23/07/2010 23:37

What on earth is a hooter hider?

I occasionally drape a muslin if feeding in a very busy place - assuming I've remembered to take one out with me!

KittyTN · 23/07/2010 23:41

OP - DS1 BF just over 1 year. He stopped by himelf.

DS2 is 5.5 months and still BF. I think he will BF for longer as he is much 'keener' than DS1 ever was! Let him lick/feel a piece of carrott yesterday. Will probably start baby led weaning soon.

CakeandRoses · 23/07/2010 23:44

As others have said - the percentage of bf past about 6 week is very low but I don't think that most people would say that anything past 3m is odd, even tho it isn't the norm. From my own experience, I'd say that bf in public til around a year is 'acceptable' to most people but I think this varies massively from area to area.

I bfed ds til 14m but it wasn't necessary to bf in public after around a year so I don't know if people would have started raising eyebrows if they saw us bf after a year.

Also, the nanny may not have meant anything negative when she asked when you were thinking of stopping. I was asked the same but by friends that I knew didn't see any issue with bf. Likewise, I've asked women the same - really, just out of curiosity because it is unusual past the newborn stage.

moajab · 23/07/2010 23:47

I breastfed DS1 dor 11 months, DS2 for 22 months. DC3 is still feeding loads at 18 months, occasioanlly still in public, although not as much as a few months back. I've never had any hastle, never used, seen or even heard of a hooter hider!

Original poster
CoachMom · 23/07/2010 23:50

Hooter Hider= a very cute apron that goes around your neck for BF in public. It has a great little wire that holds the material away from your babies head.

14hourstillbedtime-I live in North Carolina it's in the southeastern part of the US...somtimes refered to as the bible belt. No exposed boobies there!!!

OP posts:
llareggub · 24/07/2010 00:10

All of my NCT mates bf for at least 12 months. I carried on with DS1 until he self-weaned at around 2.9 years. His younger brother is still feeding at 15 months. I feed out and about and don't cover up and have never felt the need. I'm old enough and confident enough to cope with negativity but actually never have.

Because so many of my friends bf I guess I think it more common that it is. Formula feeding not so common where I live now but very common where I used to live.

KittyTN · 24/07/2010 00:27

I would imagine that if you are visiting tourist areas you wont get any trouble feeding in public with/without a hooter hider.

The only negative comments I've ever had whist BFing in public have been from my own aunt A militant spinster!

Have to say though, that since they are not commonly used over here you may get some interest because of the hooter hider!

14hourstillbedtime · 24/07/2010 01:41

CoachMom ah, NC! I hear you now... DH went to Texas for Grad. School and he often tells me tales of how it's Different Down There, too

PosieParker · 25/07/2010 10:38

Coachmom, sorry to say you're wrong and the UK does have a lousy bf rate, usually tied to wealth, age and area.

jemjabella · 25/07/2010 10:42

Snuppeline - minor correction, the WHO advice is to breastfeed until 2 (not 1) and beyond for as long as mutually desired.

As has already been said, the UK has a terrible breastfeeding rate. Formula is very much the "normal" way over here. I'm still breastfeeding my 8mo old though, and happily do so in public.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 25/07/2010 11:06

It depends how you mean the question. On "average" a baby in the UK is breastfed for well under a week (only 35% of babies are being breastfed at one week) so in that sense 4 months is unusually long, but there seems to be a big demographic divide; of my friends with children around the same age as DS I can only think of one who formula fed (after a nasty time with mastitis and abcesses). If you're in the group who do breastfeed for a reasonable amount of time then I think 6 months tends to be seen as the target, and a lot of women do switch to formula after that. But it's not unusual (in a fairly specific sense of "not unusual", admittedly, given low breastfeeding rates in general) to breastfeed to 12 months. After that I think the tuts and comments from others tend to get more obvious.

I bf DS to 38 months and DD to about 21 months (both self-weaned), but I didn't feed them in public after about 7 months as they were just too distractible, so very few people knew I was doing it.

The nanny really does seem to have been fll of it, though. I could see "women in the UK don't tend to breastfeed" or "women in the UK only BF for 6 months", although either of those would obviously be a generalisation, but I think she's pulled 4 months out of a random bodily orifice...