Bf Health Benefits duration?

[dummylover]

Hi - can anyone with knowledge on bf health benefits please help? I have been looking for information on what health benefits are attached to different bf durations. I have found one resource online but it doesnt really answer exactly what i want to know.

I am planning to ebf until 6 months after which i am returning to work. I am not able to express enough/do not wish to go down the expressing at work route so ds will be having formula during the day. I have recently been contemplatjng keeping up morning and evening bfs though up until he is one or possibly older if i want to, rather than stopping altogether at 6 months. I was wondering if this would be of much nutritional benefit though if he is only getting two bfs a day? I have read that bf up to a year or more brings life long benefits, but would this still apply with what im proposing?

What health benefits would two bf a day bring after 6 months?

Thanks

I think that there is some information on the Kellymom website and this fact sheet may help a little.

www.nct.org.uk/sites/default/files/related_documents/Breastfeeding – how long information sheet_6.pdf

(Sorry on iiPhone which doesn't seem to do proper links).

There are nutritional and immunological advantages to breast milk no matter what the age of your baby. There is a dosage effect, in that an exclusively breastfed baby is less likely to suffer from x than a mixed fed baby, but past 6 months, when the vast majority of babies are mixed fed (mixed feeding here being with solids rather than formula) this gap narrows, and I would suspect has not been assessed.
Most studies simply look at exclusive vs mixed vx excusive formula at under 6 months (where mixed either bf + formula or bf + food) and past 6 months at bf + food or formula + food. I suspect there's very little difference at 6 months; I mean some (not many) bf babies drop down to food + two bf's a day fairly early on, so the formula could just be considered as extra solids intake.
It sounds like you've not actually given birth yet; concentrate on getting to 6 months, then see how you feel then :)

Hi - thanks very much for your response and the info, that is a very good point about some bf having dropped to only 2 feeds anyway, so presumably purposefully giving only 2 feeds a day would offer some long term benefit still.

I have given birth already and have been ebf my ds for 13 weeks now! Ive got to a stage where im really starting to enjoy it and time is flying now so am just starting to look to the future a bit more and consider my options.

Sorry - thanks scrivette, thats brilliant ill have a look!