What are rh advantages to b fending after 6 months? Coming under pressure to stop

[Fevrier]

Lots of people are suggesting I stop breastfeeding now as it will improve my sleep. It's true that my son only slept through when I weaned him off the breast at 10/11 months.

My DH wants us to get some sleep and his friend has a paediatrician who says thebenefits of b feeding drop off after 6 months.

Is this true?

I am happy to keep b feeding and would need convincing to stop before 12 months. Although I realise there is truth in the sleep issue! Have successfully improved her sleep recently but am up 2 or 3 times a night still (she is 7 months). And of course it's getting hard to feed her in the day as she's distracted and not that interested in feeding - she's pleased with solids and wants to see what her brothers doing at all times!

Actualy there is no evidance that giving formula increase sleep so on that grouds there is no reasion to stop BF. A recent study actualy showed that BF mum's actualy get more sleep then formula feeding mum's.

There are many benafist to carrying on Bf past 6months and 12months. Not just for baby but for you as well, the longer you feed the lower your risk of ovarin cancer and breast cancer.

Have a look hear www.nct.org.uk/sites/default/files/related_documents/Reasons%20to%20be%20Proud%20FINAL%20WITHOUT%20BLEED.pdf

The kellymom website acutaly only shows the advantages to feeding after 12month
www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html

I breast fed for 2 weeks. Up all night every night (I know this is normal) I then had to stop due to medical reasons and after one day of formula DS slept through from 9.30 - 5. And then has slept 8-10 hours a night since 6 weeks old.

But I don't agree there is no benefit. Breast has always got health benefits weather 6 months to 16 months.

Benefits of breasfeeding for the child:

"Studies have shown that a child's immune system doesn't completely mature until about 6 years of age, and it is well established that breast milk helps develop the immune system and augment it with maternal antibodies as long as breast milk is produced"

In studies ... "the babies breastfed the longest did better in terms of both lower disease and higher IQ"

BF babies are less likely to get

• gastrointestinal illness
• upper respiratory illness
• multiple sclerosis
• diabetes
• heart disease

"One study that dealt specifically with babies nursed longer than a year showed a significant link between the duration of nursing and mothers' and teachers' ratings of social adjustment in six- to eight-year-old children (Ferguson et al, 1987). In the words of the researchers, 'There are statistically significant tendencies for conduct disorder scores to decline with increasing duration of breastfeeding.'"

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Benefits for the mum:

breastfeeding reduces the risk of:

• breast cancer
• ovarian cancer
• uterine cancer
• endometrial cancer
• rheumatoid arthritis

breastfeeding

• protects against osteoporosis.
• has been shown to decrease insulin requirements in diabetic women

(Sources - www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html and www.kellymom.com)

The World Health Organisation recommends breastfeeding until 2yo.

You may find this page useful handling criticism about breastfeeding

I got lots of people "encouraging" me to stop feeding DS, particularly as he was a really big baby so people thought he was older than he was.

I found it really wearing. I got shy of BFing in public, until I saw a woman feeding her 2yo on the bus. She was so confident, and didn't seem to care less about other people. It made me feel that even if I was feeling a bit uncomfortable, knowing that the act of feeding in public might give other people confidence too helped me be brave enough to ignore the negative comments!

I did stop feeding in public eventually though. Still feeding DS who is 3.2 however! We're winding down now (just feed at bedtime, and even then not every night, and when he's sick). I've been especially glad to be able to feed and comfort him with BF when he's been sick. I didn't set out to do extended BFing (had never heard of it!) but it just seemed the most natural thing to do.

if you want to BF then other people have no business telling you what to do! They're asking you to stop doing something that's actually beneficial to your baby's health and yours. It's so ingrained in our culture though, some people really do have some suspect ideas about BF!

Just wanted to echo what everyone else has said- that there are loads of benefits and no evidence to show that formula will get you any more sleep (sorry!)

Are there any breastfeeding groups like LLL or Baby Cafe nearby that you can contact to ask for support? It sounds as though you could do with someone to chat to about this.

Sorry you are coming under pressure to do something you don't want to do. :(

Thanks everyone.

Sorry, just to clarify - I don't think it's formula that will help her sleep but the absence of the comfort of the breast - just because that is what happened with my son. But then again he was walking and that helped him sleep.

DH was v supportive of me b feeding my son but he hears from everyone how I have done the good stuff already and how I don't need to carry on. All he is interested in is having a better rested wife and family.

But I know how useful breastfeeding is when children are unwell. Had plenty of experience of that with my son.

And I was breastfed myself til 2.5 and I slept with my parents til 4, so breastfeeding is very much from my culture - but it's not our country's culture is it?

Good idea to go to la leche league - but I can't really take a 3 year old along can I? As well as the baby.

Taking a toddler should be fine, I take my 3.5 yo with me and there are lots of other toddlers (some still BF, some not) at the meetings I go to. You will probably meet people that do things similarly to how you were brought up and hopefully hear some good tips about how to cope with nights.

How do you think your DH would feel about reading more evidence about BF past 6 months?

I think my DH would be v happy to read the benefits of longer b feeding. He's an open minded man!

I have tried co sleeping but it made her wake hourly to graze and she woke me every time in order to latch her on. Maybe it's better to cosleep from the off if you are going to do it? I don't want to go down that route again as it exhausted me.

I can't think how else to help with the sleep! Bed sharing didn't help and she sleeps more in a cot so despite my best intentions I am doing things differently to how I would instinctively do it....

Co-sleeping might take a few nights before you get used to it (or you might not.... ). Is there space for a 3 sided cot next to your bed?

I did cosleep for 2 months but am afraid it made her wake much more often as she got used to feeding all night... Every hour. And no space for a bedside cot....

Shame but I just end up with her in her own cot and that seems to work better.

Feels a pity but the less natural way suits me with this particular baby.

I suppose in a few months I could try to night wean rather than an off the breast altogether.

Thanks all for your thoughts.

Just wonder if there is any evidence of benefits of breastfeeding past 6 months

Perhaps look at it the other way - are there any benefits to ceasing bfing and starting formula feeding? Bfing is the way human young (and all other mammalian young) expect to be fed so there wouldn't be 'benefits' to continuing to bf, in the same way that there are no benefits to using your kidneys but there are drawbacks to having dialysis (except of course where the kidneys aren't functioning and then dialysis is blinking fantastic).

If you don't want to bf any more then don't, but if you do then every day you do is one more day where your baby/child gets what their body expects to receive. Formula is the intervention not the norm so really you are looking for evidence that formula doesn't do any harm from X age not that bfing has benefits.

This might be helpful. Don't forget there are benefits to you too! Lower risk of some cancers and osteoporosis.

Yes, there is lots of evidence of the benefits of BFing past 6 months.

All the benefits listed in my post above are evidence-based.
Also the links to the KellyMom website are links to evidence based stuff.

What a strange thing for a paediatrician to think - ask him what he thinks happens to human milk after six months. Does it lose its antibodies? Does it start to lessen in nutritional value? Does it suddenly become less suitable for human babies - maybe it changes so it becomes more suitable for some other species?

It's actually not strange. It's a bit shocking. I thought you had to be intelligent to be a paediatrician - you know, passing exams in children's health and all that sort of stuff :(

I like that idea tiktok - humans need cows milk after 6m (but tinkered with a bit), so perhaps we could do a swap with the cows? We have their milk and they can have ours, after all it's no good for human babies older than 6m there has got to be a species out there that wants it......

Hi fevrier

I might have misunderstood your question, but in case I haven't I thought I'd reply.

Not sure if our children are similar, but I also felt that I needed to break the feeding to sleep link in order to help my DD sleep for longer.

We did this around new year time, DH took over the bedtime routine and feed, and it was definitely a success. If I could have expressed she would have had BM for this feed, but by this stage I wasn't able to get much so we moved to formula for that feed. I have no illusions about formula helping her sleep better, having experimented with it before. In our case I just wanted her to go down in her cot awake after her final feed, and we really couldn't achieve this without a DH and a bottle.

I'm not sure if this was the kind of experience you were looking for? DH also took over the nights, and did successfully wean her for a time. Her sleep has improved, however I always think it is difficult to isolate specific actions parents have made with their impact on baby! I often think babies just do things when they are ready, regardless of what we try out. I'm just listening to her chirrup to herself in her cot now, so we clearly haven't solved everything!

Thanks everyone.

I think you've answered my question! I'll keep on breast-feeding and crochet circle, thank you for your sleep help... I'll try something along those lines in a couple of months. Sure you are right that we never quite know what sorts out sleep... Our actions or the baby.

So my answer is yes I will keep breastfeeding because human milk is the best food for a human baby - nutritious and full of antibodies.

Sorry threeleftfeet, I realise you gave me evidence - my following post should have said wanted not want evidence (if you see what I mean).

And truthsweet, you are absolutely right- that's the way to look at it. What benefits come from stopping? I can't get it back if I do and it doesn't bring us benefits of sleep.

It's sad how breastfeeding older babies is not the norm. I'm lucky with my family culture at any rate. But I still feel the odd one out in my area and never see breastfeeding out and about.