How to celebrate EBF for six months?

[FreelanceMama]

Yesterday I had an email from someone congratulating me for having breastfed my baby for six months (come 25th July). I hadn't thought about it much until then but actually it's pretty mind-blowing that my little boy has eaten/drunk nothing but breastmilk for half a year. It's not always been easy but I do think I've been lucky compared to some of my friends' experiences.

It didn't occur to me to celebrate it until the email came and now I'm wondering what would be an appropriate way to do so? We'll be starting baby-led weaning soon so I'll be carrying on for the foreseeable future but I'm always up for some form of self-indulgence . Especially as I'm practically teetotal and limiting caffeine while breastfeeding!

Any ideas? Either genuine or comic. So far, I've thought that my partner and baby should feed me for a day - breakfast in bed, lunch out, takeaway...

Perhaps Maples.

OP I'm not of the opinion that you shouldn't celebrate in your own way, even though I've no doubt been labelled as a daft ff who has ishoos, I do but I wouldn't begrudge you your celebration. All I was trying to do was point out that posts like yours will naturally come under criticism by those who didn't or couldn't ebf. And FWIW I don't think you are smug, again just trying to point out how posts like this can come across, albeit unintentionally, so.

Sorry if I offended you or anyone else for that matter.

i didnt and couldnt run a marathon. so all the people who did complete the marathon shouldnt celebrate that they have so as not to offend me???

freelance, well done you. breast feeding is hard work. its all you and there can be restrictions on what you eat and drink. i like the idea of a nursing necklace. in fact ive gone and ordered myself one after seeing that link!!!

Man, who wouldn't see 6 months exclusive bf as a fantastic achievement (and to be a boring statistics geek, and one with a PhD in infant feeding, less than 1% of women in the UK manage to exclusively breastfeed to six months BlackSwan, so perhaps you were a little hasty in your dismissal of FreeLanceMama's positivity).

To celebrate, if you're feeling flush new 'milk holders' are always a joy - I love anything by HotMilk. And chocolate, obviously.

Seriously, everyone is so easily offended these days! I didn't EBF my first - delivery was very traumatic and for a variety of reasons, establishing bfing was very, very hard and so he had formula from 9 days old. I had all sorts of ishoos about it. I developed a TREMENDOUS guilt complex about it for what felt like an eternity (but was probably a few months) in that way that first-time mothers are prone to do in those heady days of first maternity when the days are long and there's too much time to think.

I'm on dc2 now and he has been ebf'd for four weeks, and I am currently somewhere between thinking it's amazing it's happened so easily this time and is going so well and wondering if I don't give him a bottle soon will I never have a night's sleep again/be ablle to go get my hair done/get out for some time with dh. Oooooh the selfishness!

There are benefits and pitfalls to all methods of feeding but it is pretty cool that you can look at your baby and think that they are just a little baby mammal, surviving on your milk. I think so anyway, yet have never been near an nct group, have no moral or theoretical aversion to formula or particular passion for bfing.

I just read this thread and thought - not to put too fine a spin on it - that some folk need to get the fuck over themselves. It's nice to be grateful and celebratory of all the good things in your life and for many people bfing is a joy. I'm not sure I'm one of them yet, but hey ho, it's no skin off my nose if someone else wants to post something obviously light-hearted and positive! What in God's earth is wrong with the original post? It seemed quite jokey to me!

Oh my. How terribly awful that someone would like to celebrate something that is important to them and has made them happy! Nowhere in the OP post did it say "aren't I bloody fantastic please worship at the feet of my mother earthliness" ffs..
OP I hope you do do something lovely for yourself. There is little enough joy in the world.
If I had managed to produce bm at all I would be dancing in the bleddy street to make it to 6 months EBF and think that anyone who does actually does deserve to congratulate THEMSELF if they feel like it.

fdl - now that I don't really get - what is emotional about a baby starting to shove solids into her mouth? Or why is there a need to try to console yourself?

some people are a bit narcissistic, a bit gauche, a bit earnest, a bit sentimental. it's not a crime, but will create a stir i guess.

all babies were nourished in utero. all babies nourished outside, some breast, some formula. some mothers wait til over 6 months to wean, others do not. so what?

while breastfeeding can be hard (and a shock) let's face it, for the majority after 8 weeks it's fairly syraightforward and i don't really understand what's 'hard' about it. yes, mine never slept through, yes, i've been co-sleeping and feeding a teething one year old through the night, but i don't regard that as hard particularly, just normal really.

oh, nct comment was a jokey one. i am not one of life's joiners so they are not for me, but cringe at the thought of not only breastfeeding fr 18 hours a day, but meeting up with others to discuss it! yes, the irony of me answering on this thread does not escape me.

good luck op. you haven't done anything wrong but you know us brits, self congratulation does not sit easily with us.

also, why ask how to celebrate something, if that was the intention of the op? isn't celebrating such a personal thing?

or is it usual to get a t-shirt printed, or the last ebf shitty nappy bronzed? or a lovely black a white photo of your scratched chest?

Wow i hope some of you ladies are there to congratulate Bradley Wiggins if he wins the tour de France, i can see it now.
"Yes yes dear its nice that you won, but really anybody can ride a bike can't they?"

The op isn't suggesting she runs around with her boobs out shouting i fed my baby for 6 months with these, she just wanted ideas for a private celebration for something she has done well.

as far as comments of "well why should she celebrate for doing something that lots of people do" well lots of people turn 40 everyday and we celebrate it, why? all these people have done is not die before they're 40. (sorry that's a bit crass).

Well done OP.

I havent read all 6 pages!!! ( crime i know)

I though That the latest research indicated that 6 monthe EBF is not the best thing for baby? Iron levels etc....

I fed mine for 12 months but they were weaned when they asked for food (3 and 4 months).

No, that isn't the latest research Babyrabbits...

It certainly is not the latest research....BabyRabbits, where have you read this latest research??

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/14/six-months-breastfeeding-babies-scientists

When i last fed a lo.

I think to be honest that its very dependent on your child and allowing your child to lead feeding is in mho the very best thing that you can do.
Saying that my dd ebf was on the 99 centile fom birth. So probanly a lot hungrier than the average weight child.
She went crazy at every meal time and bf all the flipping time :-)

I'm not saying it's not some kind of achievement. I have fed for years, through pregnancy and beyond, and yes, it comes as a sacrifice and was mentally tough going to start with. But that's motherhood.

It was the toe-curling tweeness of the OP that amused me.

But I am the first to admit that I am deeply unsentimental. And yes, I had to ask my three year old what to do on my fortieth as it was her birthday too. I don't get a say anymore.

Oh, and tiktok, if I did come on here and ask how to celebrate not owning a pram for 4 years I think I would be (rightly) derided as a total pillock

Babyrabbits, I knew that would be your link, or a link to another newspaper article.

That is not 'research'.

That is a newspaper article, reporting (badly) on a review, which speculates that the public health advice (worldwide) that the best health outcomes are seen in babies breastfed for 6 mths followed by solids, is too rigid. In fact, public health guidance in the UK and in other countries includes the advice that individual babies may need solids sooner or later than the 6 mths 'deadline', and any HCP who knows their job would not regard it as a blueprint for every mother and baby. But generally speaking, if we need a benchmark, then 6 mths is ok.

Whatever - it is not 'latest research'.

otch, if you wanted to celebrate not owning a pram for four years, I wouldn't post anything to undermine you....honest :)

It's called being tolerant and allowing people to take pleasure in things, and express it, too.

Celebrate how???? Sorry, your post put me in mind of those hideous "pink" parties they hold in the states for girls who've had their first period.

I exclusively fed my 3 for 18 months+, and yes, it was an achievement of sorts, I suppose, but really, a public "celebration" never entered my head.
Feel proud, but do it quietly, fgs.

maples, it was 18 months ago, and was part of a whole raft of articles across the UK press about the review piece in the BMJ.

Whatever. It's not 'latest', it's not 'research' and it doesn't even say that ebf to 6 mths is not the best thing.

OP has gone, I gather, because of negative and unpleasant comments, For the record, she was not asking for suggestions for a public celebration!