% of women who bf past a year

[minicc]

My sister sent me a link to a Bbc news article re:bf rates in the uk. (she also said how special I am to have ebf for 6 months let alone feeding at all at just over a year) Anywhoo, does anyone know what % of women still feed at 1yr? No agenda, just curious. Thanks

[DuelingFanjo]

I am still breastfeeding at 23 months. DS eats food but he prefers milk so when he's with me he choses that over food. I wish I could have taken part in the survey.

[CaroleService]

14m and 20m here.

[WheresMyCow]

I breastfed until DS's 2nd birthday, although it could probably have stopped a little sooner because he wasn't really that bothered in the end but I wanted to get to his birthday.

I did carry on getting him weighed, but past about 5/6 months, even though there was a space to write it on the form they never even asked was I still feeding.

[minicc]

Ah thanks mess! polishes halo and hands round kit kats to fellow weirdos

[JollyJock]

Still feeding at 19mo here. Plan was 6 mo, then 1 year, then 18mo. Now it is 'before (unconceived) dc2 is born'.

I would have guessed 1% at 1 year. I only know two other than me, outwith LLL group.

[mummysmellsofsick]

Still feeding more milk than food at 12 months. Especially when he's got a cold he stops eating altogether and just has milk. We go through the whole weaning process again every time, back to milk then milk & fruit, then fish & veg... Then another cold... I thought bf babies were supposed to have extra immunity, can't imagine how many colds he'd have if I wasn't bfing

[BertieBotts]

Jelly there's some stuff about the methodology of the survey in the files of it (probably one of the appendices) - suffice to say as a sociology student who has briefly studied survey methodology, it's pretty good as they go and therefore should be mostly accurate. It isn't collected through health visitor contact but via a postal survey so less likely for people to lie etc as well as it's anonymous (I never told my health visitor that we co-slept because I'd done my research and didn't want a lecture!)

[BertieBotts]

If we're reporting lengths BTW

More milk than food until about 22 months (that was fun ) and DS is still hanging on for the occasional feed at 4. Out of our NCT group of 8, 4 got to somewhere around a year and 2 of us out of the 4 carried on past that - I think the other stopped at around 2, but maybe she's still secretly feeding too

[ShotgunNotDoingThePans]

I managed 14 months for DS1, 17 months for DD, and 30 months with DS2, which was 10 years ago so I really was a weirdo! Didn't self-wean, though, which I slightly regret as it would have been lovely for the DCs.

Just got to the stage where I made the decision for them each time - although that stage became later with each child.

[Xenia]

Over a year with all 5 (and worked full time). They all stopped by about 2 or 18 months. I would have been happy to carry on.

UK rate as so,eone said above is about 3% over one year. We have the worst breastfeeding rates in Europe here.

[stopgap]

We're still going at 15 months. Our paediatrician was surprised, but of my eight mum friends, six are still nursing past a year (this is NYC).

[poachedeggs]

I was horrified to read that only 1% manage 6 months EBF. I know things are improving but it's hardly a poorly publicised guideline.

Fed both of mine beyond 2 years (still feeding DD for now, who knows when it'll stop? !)

[RosannaBanana]

I fed DS the longest of all my peer group- 15 months. Hoping to feed DD until around 2 years as per WHO guidelines!

[MarzipanAnimal]

I don't think the 'ebf at 6 months' is a particularly useful statistic given that the advice is to start solids at around 6 months and when your baby shows signs of being ready. Plenty of BLW babies will start eating a bit before 6 months but I wouldn't consider that as a 'failure' to stick to the ebf guidelines

[BertieBotts]

Exactly Marzipan. It's better in that case to look at the chart where EBF drops off - you'll see that there's a shift over the past 20 years or so to later and later and quite a big shift when they did change the advice, it's now much less common for people to stop EBF before 4 months and a much higher proportion than that 1% figure suggests are EBF by 5 or coming up to 6 months.

[Kelvinator]

This really surprises me. I would have guess 10-15%

Mixed feelings really as I have been trying to stop bf DS since he was 6 months, He never took a bottle, I found his crying too stressful to try harder and dont have much friend family support, so couldnt hand him over to anybody so they could try.

He is 17 months now and I am desperate to stop, I have gone back to work part time and I feel so guilty as I see it as an escape from him.

One reasons I initally wanted to stop was to ttc (have not got my period back) but now I am having doubts about having any more DC as I dread bf them but I know I couldnt live with the guilt of formula feeding them.

Feeling very selfish and a failure of a mother tbh

[showtunesgirl]

I asked this question last week when the new report was published.

I have JUST entered the feeding at over a year old club.

[FivesAndNorks]

There aren't any decent stats and the numbers are so small few conclusions can be reached about it.

" poachedeggs

I was horrified to read that only 1% manage 6 months EBF"

Me too, yet I suspect its not helped by the guidelines about introducing solids no later than 6 months and the all important window of opportunity for successful weaning.

[Woodlands]

Yes, when I read the survey I saw that 12% have not introduced any other milk by 6 months (the 1% figure refers to those who have not introduced any other milk OR solids). As someone said above, 34% of babies are receiving some breastmilk at 6 months. I don't think the survey gives a percentage of babies still receiving any BM at 12 months, does it? I think 1-3% sounds about right. Much much higher here on MN of course! And in real life I'd say maybe 20% of the mums I know have BF past a year, but that's quite a middle class older mums group of people.

[nethunsreject]

The 'exclusive till 6 months' also rules out all the people who have given the occassional (or even one off) bit of formula. I have met many people in my work as a bf counsellor who have bfed for a very impressive length of time, but have perhaps been advised (rightly or wrongly) by medical staff to top up here and there, os to give a one off feed if their milk was very slow to come in.

Still pitifully poor bf rates. Not mums fault - bloody marketing bastards, poorly trained health care professionals (some are great though _ don't get me wrong!) and general lack of support network.

[FivesAndNorks]

No i don't think it does. The question is how is/was your baby fed at 6 months I think. So excl bf would still be an option even if the baby had a bottle of formula when tiny.

[CanIHaveAPetGiraffePlease]

Its not what I'd think of as ebf though. Lots more people are just bf and haven't touched formula - but happened to have tried banana or a breadstick as well. I think that's a bit misleading. 34% still bf at 6 months is a better statistic.

I bf to at least a year as can then do cups of milk as well without a formula stage. No 1 weaned off about 18months. No 2 still going.

[ISeeThreadPeople]

Did somebody say kit kat? Chocolate? Yes please. Probably should have a non-nestle badge of extended bfing, yummy though they are!

DD was bf exclusively till 6 months, self weaned at 3.4yrs.

DS exclusively till 6 months, still going strong at 14 months. Will let him self wean too.

Am pleased the recent stats show an improvement.

[FivesAndNorks]

Nethuns, please add conflicting advice to that list which is giving me the rage.
Completely agree. The vast majority of women do their utmost to do their best for their babies, and many want to breastfeed. Many of those stop before they want because of lack of support and /or culture of bottlefeeding. Passion about improving bf rates should never be confused with wanting to dictate how individual women should feed their babies. On that, thryre best placed tojudge. Doesn't change the fact that nationally we need to improve.

[Kelvinator]

Are poor bf rates really down to "bloody marketing bastards, poorly trained health care professionals (some are great though _ don't get me wrong!) and general lack of support networkconflicting advice"?

I must live in some sort of vacume then, I hear this all the time on mumsnet and read about poor rates in the news but my bf experience was so very different and not at all affected by the above.

I got given info about bf from my midwives, I chose to bf and I did.

I went to nhs bf class when pregnant which gave me some idea of what to do, looking back with hindsight it wasnt very helpful but it did give me some basic understandings of which I had none to begin with.

It took a lot of time to work out what to do in the early days but I didnt need to consult anyone about it fortunately.

Early problems and anxiety I did have were sorted out in part because I was stuck at home with terrible back pain after labour and couldnt do much except for stay in bed and feed DS.

I never even considered using formula until he was 6 months as that is what the guidelines were and I chose to follow them.

I really think blaming "bloody marketing bastards, poorly trained health care professionals (some are great though _ don't get me wrong!) and general lack of support networkconflicting advice" is a bit patroninsing to mothers who make a concious choice to ff.

(This does not apply to those who have had difficulties bf and who really struggled to make it work and didnt get support they needed. Of course these mothers exist as well, but I am just saying that there are plenty of others who make a deliberate and informed choice to ff)