Experience (good or bad) of Extended Breastfeeding

[dragonflymama]

I'm currently EBF dd2 at 4m & plan to bf until at least 12m. I bf dd1 until 13/14m. I planned to stop around the 1 yr mark (as cultural norm), but had to for medical reasons. I'm very pro the benefits of b/f and better informed this time so considering trying to feed to around 2yrs, provided dd2 wants to. I'd be v grateful if anyone can share their experience - good or bad. Main concerns are feeding older child in public (whilst I'm v happy with public feeding of a baby, I feel less comfortable about a toddler & associated hostility), how often a 1-2 yr old will feed (morn & night fine plus occasional extras e.g. sick, hurt etc) combining feeding with returning to work 3 days per wk. many thanks!

[dragonflymama]

Ps - I admire anyone bf'ing when pregnant. My last pregnancy was tough (shock as first preg was a breeze!), I could hardly manage to feed myself & growing babe, let alone an older child! Might have dream figure if i had between giving calories to older child, growing babe & random pavements (!). Lol.

[chanelly]

I am still breastfeeding my 26 month son. I only breastfed my daughter (first child) for 3 months. My son never gets sick, my daughter always used to. I've found there are so many benefits for you and your child.

I still breastfeed in public, I even breastfed my huge boy whilst talking to two male police officers recently! If you BF in public I would say please don't be shy, our children need to see that it is a natural thing. If anyone commented (very rare, mainly friends or family) I would ask them how there enjoying the cows lactation in their tea? And did they know that the calf is taken away from it's mother right after birth so the mother can be hooked up to a machine for the rest of her life? And did they know cows milk is allowed a certain amount of puss in? Ect, that always stopped negative comments.

Downfall... Little hands creeping in to your bed at 4am pulling your top down and helping themselves. Seeing how happy and cosy they are.... Priceless.

Best of luck xx

[NoComet]

DD2 stopped BFing in public around 18 months. She got too tall to feed on a cafe chair.

By two she wouldn't ask, she knew she didn't see other DCs feeding. I never said anything, I don't tend to care what people think of me. DD2 does.

For that reason, I'm not allowed to say how old she was when she stopped BFing in private. Suffice to say it was after she started junior school.

And all of it was GOOD and cuddly and magical, except the bit a week or two in when my nipples cracked and the bit when she was 4 months old, feed 24/7 and still didn't put on weight and refused to take a bottle. However, she discovered food and started growing again and BFing returned to being lovely and stopped being stressful.

[bonkersLFDT20]

DS1 BF until he was just over 3 and DS2 until he was just under 4 1/2.
Didn't plan to, it just happened.
I never BF an older toddler in public, partly because they can get so distracted it's not very efficient but mainly because by that age it was down to BF for nap, bed time and in the morning.
With both I was able to go out for the night or away on business trips with little drama as by that stage they know Mummy has to be around for mummy milk! Worse bit was engorgement (nothing like expressing milk into the sink when you're on the other side of the world to make you miss your kids!).
I WOH and this didn't cause any problems at all, in fact I loved that we had this way to connect after a day apart from each other.