How do you read this? 'Last breastfeed'

[nymphadora]

In the one year assessment page of the red book.
I read it as they expect you to have stopped.
Dh thinks I'm being over sensitive!

Dd3 is only 5 weeks so not relevant yet but I was planning on still feeding her then & I now take it as a challenge!

yes, i think they assume you would have finished by then. i presume they collect this info for statistics (x% bf for y months etc)

i did notice this in red book and was desperate to be asked so i could say 'oh about an hour ago on the bus here' or something. however, ds2 just had his 2 yr check, he is 3 next month and i weaned him last month. no talk of bf.

Well my HV did ask recently at my one year check and I did tell her I was still bfing.

She didn't fill anything in though. (it says bf until ....months.)

Whatsmore, none of the boxes have been ticked in the immunisation section where you are supposed to be asked if you are totally/partially/or not bfing at all. hmmmph.

Is that in the book?!

Maybe I should read it ...

we haven't had a check since 8m.... when I booked in as pg with DC 2 though they did ask if I bf DD and I got to say, yes I still do

LOL, I remember going for DD2's 8 month check (s months late due to us being out of the country) and being asked how much milk she took. Didn't know, as BF. Actually the HV seemed pleased .
I fed for 13 months (wish I'd done longer, knowing what I know now, but that's hindsight for you).

I've filled in all the tick boxes and also included a smiley face next to them.

I figured I would encourage myself if nobody else.

Dd3s book doesnt have an 8 m check in. Just 6-8 weeks then one year

at mrsgordonfreeman being encouraging.

I am seriously peed off by the stats gathering. Here they are only interested in the 6 week mark, at which time I was mix feeding so that's what was recorded. Now I'm EBF again and nobody cares, for stats purposes that is. I'm guessing my situation isn't common, but it does make you wonder about making assumptions about b/f rates based on the 6 week stats.

Mine has 6-8 week and then just health checks with no dates, these say any breast milk yes/no.

I would say last breastefeed just means when the most recent one was, not that there should be no more. Could easily write this morning!

Mine doesn't have a one year assessment page, but I don't think we have one year assessments here. It has a page which says "_ Year assessment" so I guess it's flexible. HV has filled it in as DS had 2 year check last week.

Although I am a bit as on the "How I relate to people" page there are all these milestones to fill in:

-Stares at yours face
-Moves eyes to watch you
-Smiles for special people
-cries when you leave the room
-Holds up arms to be lifted
(All fair enough, but the last one:)
-Usually sleeps through the night

? What on earth relevance does that have to relating to people?

I have my book in front of me as taking DD to clinic today.

In the health check section, we have 6 week and 3 month checks which ask if bf is total/partial/not at all and then asks for how long if no longer breastfed. Then no health check forms until 2 years where qn is not asked

The early vaccinations ask total/partial/not at all. The MMR one asks if the child was breastfed at all at first birthday, so at least seems to imply it is possible :)

dc3's book says 'date of last bf' whereas dc2's says 'feeding any breastmilk yes/no'. Dc2 is 4years,dc3 4m.

Thanks for reminding me to get the red book out, we're off out for vaccinations this afternoon.

DD 15 months now and when we went for her MMR jabs I was not asked if she was still breastfeeding, which by the way she is. Then I went to weight her two weeks after and HV told me to stop breastfeeding her at night because she does not need it at all and that I should be cutting her feeds (she is currently having 4 breastfeeds) as she should have enough with her food intake.

She keeps waking up at around 3am when I breastfeed her and goes back to sleep till 8am. I have tried to stop her night feed a few times but we have always gone back after her being ill as it always helps her to settle. I don't know if she needs that feed or not but what I am sure is that nobody goes more than 12 hours without eating (at least I am not able to do it) so I think if adult people don't go 12 hours without eating anything why would a child.

Not to sure how interested HV are about breastfeeding when they cannot be bother asking mums if they are still breastfeeding. THen they complain about low breastfeeding rates which it does not surprise me having in mind there is very little real help out there

Some good points here. I was a bit at 8 wk jabs when nurse asked whether dd was bf/formula/mixed and I said she was ebf - nurse seemed really surprised and delighted and was very congratulatory. I live in an affluent part of London so thought this was a bit weird - surely bfing to 8 weeks isn't uncommon? :(

Very nice 'n' all - especially as we had lots of problems at first - but I'm not sure it's helpful to treat women as though they're doing the exceptional?

I found this the other day... bit lengthy (!) but I was interested in the summary bit at the beginning.

According to this, "In 2005, 45% of all mothers in the United Kingdom were breastfeeding exclusively at one week, while 21% were feeding exclusively at six weeks."

So not uncommon but probably still deserving of praise - take it while you can get it, it won't be long before people say oh just wean her as the golden answer to any problem or complaint you might have!!

So while I was waiting for dc3's 16w jabs(she's 20w) i had time to read all of the red book. In the hv section it says 'date of last bf' in the one year check page, but in the vacs section it says 'bf at all at one year?'. Neither the hv nor the nurses ever tear out their carbon copy so these stats are never gathered.

I think more that most people will have stopped by age 1 year. I would fill in the day of the last breastfeed - DD's was at 6 months, DS1 at 5 months and DS2 still feeding at 7 months but its winding down.

Not round here they won't, at our village toddler group about half of the regular mums bf beyond one year. I'm unusual in that I gave up at 8m with dc1 and 10 or 11 with d2.

Based on the study I mentioned earlier, 18% of babies in the UK were bf at 9 months, which is actually higher than I would have thought. Unfortunately the study only goes up to 9 months so they don't have figures for 1 year.