Extended breastfeeding a SN child.. Will it ever stop?

[folkiemum]

I wanted to post here in case anyone else was in this situation because when I was struggling it was hard to find many others who had my experience.. Some of you may even remember my posts..

My dd2 has severe learning disability and I was wondering ( when I posted here a couple of years ago) how on earth I could ever withdraw the breast while she needed it for comfort at least and possibly nutrition at times..

Anyway.. this story has a happy ending coz I just stuck with it.. enjoying the fact that I could connect with her in this way and that she got so much comfort from this closeness with me..

I have name changed to avoid all the possible judgey comments but I'm proud to say that she self weaned.. without any distress and all by herself decided it was time to move on.. She has clearly reached a developmental stage at 5.5 years that enabled her to tolerate separation and find other sources of comfort and I am very proud of her. It is the end of an era and there's sadness in me of course but I'm glad I stuck with it and had faith in her ability to lead the weaning process and she did it! Eventually! Now for some new bras!!

Fantastic. You are both stars.

Wow, that's great news - kudos to you for recognising your daughter's needs and going with them for so long, and to your daughter for being a big girl! You must be proud.

How lovely, well done both of you

Well done folkiemum and thanks for posting your story, I'm sure it will be useful and reassuring if somebody else is in the same position you were.

A lovely post. Well done. Your daughter is lucky to have such a great mum :)

Well done, you've given her the best start and it's great you where able to give her that support. :)

Well done you, for putting your daughter's needs first! Fantastic.

Congratulations! Have and

It's a pity you had to namechange though, although I totally understand why. I just like knowing who all the other BFeeders are.

Well I'm not officially a b/feeder anymore..:) - but also I don't really post on this board these days anyway.. I wanted to just pass on any hope if anyone comes along needing some encouragement.. It may not always work out in this way, but I think it's worth others knowing that even when it looks as though it would be pretty impossible - self weaning can happen - out of the blue!

Thanks for the lovely replies all! I'm very proud.. of us both!

Lovely to read folkiemum!

Fantastic - you should definitely be proud of yourself. :)

Fab - that's a lovely post. Thank you for sharing. :)

Good on you. Great gift for your daughter.

Just wanted to say congrats too, OP.

At the recent ABM conference there was a speaker with a child with DS. She said that children with SN can BF for longer than children without SN for the reasons you mention (although many children, SN or not, love to BF to 5 or older).

You've done a wonderful thing to give her that support - well done and be proud. I hope sometime you feel you don't have to hide what you've achieved :)

Maybe if you feel you can, an article for the NCT, LLL or ABM's newsletter would be good to support others in your situation? You can be anonymous if you prefer.

That's a great idea OCC.. I'd love to do that.. Will check out how to go about that.. Thanks for that .. :)

If you need any help PM me. I am a member of all so can dig out the contact details.

Fantastic well done you!

absolutely lovely! Thanks for sharing with us.

Wow! Well done you and well done DD. what a lovely thing for you to have given her and for the two of you to have shared

You brought a tear to my eye OP. What a wonderful thing.

Well done. That's amazing. Now for some nice new undies for you

I remember your posts I think. Just wanted to add my congratulations too- your determination and bravery to go against the flow in our anti-self weaning culture are inspirational.

Well done :)