Why is bf past one year so uncommon?

[BimbaBirba]

Rant alert!
I stayed with DS at nursery for his first settling in session today and all the nursery workers were truly that I'm still bf! And even more when I said that he never had a bottle and never tried formula.
They looked at each other and sneered, then I heard one ask a colleague, who has children, how long was it ok to bf for? She replied "about 7 months". So I said that actually the WHO recommends at least two years. Her face dropped, silly cow (probably she's never even heard of WHO anyway)
So I'm left wondering why on earth it's so "weird" that a little boy is still bf at one?
I'm quite annoyed too!

I suspect returning to work at one year is part of it. I bf dd until she was 18months and my mum fed my much younger brother until he was 3. I remember it I was mid teens. And yet I still find it odd when I see a large toddler bf in the day despite the fact that intellectually I have no problem with it!?!

I think there are a variety of reasons for stopping at a year. I stopped at a year with my first two and I wouldn't if I had my time again, first time to ttc and second time because I needed to take steroids for my asthma and my GP (!) said, "do you not think you have done that long enough?"!!

My third self weaned at 20 months, much to my disappointment! :(

I was back at work at 5, 7 and 10 months respectively and I just fed them mornings, evenings, weekends, days off.

Haha, Nickel babe, my recorder was the same!

Interesting that women stop because of TTC - it hadn't occurred to me that that was a benefit of my periods coming back at 8 months, but I suppose it was, in that I got pregnant twice while still BF.

I'm still BFing DS at almost 16 months although he has dropped down to just the bedtime feed. I only know 1 other person who has bf past 7 months round here. Most of my friends told me that once I got to 6 months I'd "have to stop" and they all went cold turkey!

I do get a lot of comments from mil who never understood bf anyway but I just ignore. DS is happy and so am I. He does enjoy cows milk so it suits him to have it during the day as he can still be on the move while drinking :)