why breastfeed a toddler?

[workstostaysane]

i'm hoping to bf till a year or so. dd is now 7 months but after reading some threads am just wondering why people bf toddlers. surely they get all their nutritional needs from a well balanced diet by then? why continue?

And some recent research (courtesy New Scientist) -as a mother, breastfeeding for 2+ years reduces the incidence of heart attacks in later life by 19%.......
Me I just carried on breast feeding because there never seemed to be a good reason to stop - DS self weaned at 4.2yrs

ok ok. so i won't get breast cancer or rheumatoid arthritis, but isn't it kind of wierd when yr out in public and your walking talking lo lunges for your boobs?
just asking..obviously i'm kind of inclined to carry on. just feeling like its a little wierd..

Workstostaysane, if you decide to carry on bfing and you are not comfortable with it being a public thing, you can negotiate with a toddler. I know some people who only breastfeed in private, or at bedtime, or whatever.

However if you're wondering if it will feel odd to you to be breastfeeding your older child, the answer is no, not really, it mostly feels completely normal, because each day, they are only a day older. If you had to start off feeding a 3 year old I think that would freak most of us out But as part of a continuing process the age of the child being fed doesn't really register - it's just "my child, who wants me to feed him / her".

As for nutrition, that's a bit of a red herring, I think. It's great to know that breastmilk passes on such health benefits for both mother and child but breastfeeding an older child is about soooo much more than nutrition. It has so many emotional benefits.

It's also the easiest and most pleasant way to calm a tired, tantrumming toddler - and it calms you down in the process, as well. I personally would do it again just for that reason alone!

wtss, dd3 is 2 next week and still breastfed. i havent breastfed her in public for months, its usually mornings only in bed. HOWEVER if she was ill and i had to take her out for whatever reason then i would breastfeed her in public if she wished or if she needed more fluids.

misdee! No way is your dd3 two already????????
Hope you and Peter are well btw.
(sorry for hijack)

Mainly because I got to stay in bed for an extra 20 minutes in the morning.

I don't think the 'walking talking toddler lunging for your boobs' thing really happens for most people. Children are very well able to learn that they only get breastfed when they're at home, for example, if that's what the mother feels comfortable doing. I breastfed dd until about 2.8, but she never attempted to pull my top up when we were out.

i know emkana, she isnt a baby anymore. astill dinky though, she was holding her 12-18months trousers up today as they kept falling down a bit.

I want to carry on feeding my LO as long as he wants but the thought of putting my boob between the teeth of a tantruming toddler scare me.... he only has 2 teeth at the mo (hes 8 months old!) but when he starts getting stroppy, which he has already started doing if he doesn't get what he wants he gets really mad and thrashes about... think I'd end up with no nipples!!!

Sparky I wouldn't try to put your nipple in while they are still tantrumming! But the offer is often enough to calm them down, or at least to put you both back on an even keel after the dust has cleared a little.

Have read this with interest and agree totally with tatties first post would have said almost the same thing.
My dd is 20 months old and b/f 3/4 times a day and once in the night still sure fire way to get her to sleep comforts her when ill etc and I will stop when she starts losing interest no sign yet though.

*misdee she sounds like my dd4 she is sat here in a cosy 9-12m babygro that fits her just fine at 20 m ol

yes she is now wearign a 12-18month babygrow with room to grow. she is so teeny.

ok then.
what about if you want to have another lo?
tandem feeding anyone?

Lemonaid that was a top drawer post!

I fed dd1 until she was 19 months, and like the op I planned to feed dd2 until she was 12months...but she is almost 11 months now and that has completely gone out of the window, I think I'll feed her as long as she wants, she is very sweet.

We are trying for no.2, and I'll keep an open mind. If tandem feeding works, fine, if not, we'll take if from there.

Have to say, I haven't fed ds outside of the house for a long time. Wish I was brave enough to but any comments would only upset or annoy me, but more than that, I don't need to. I feed him 3 times a day and that's it. If he asks for a feed at another time, I just say "no".

And I'm another one that wonders what that "boobie" term is about. Curiously, ds asks for "milk"

Never did tandem feeding but now I think I could (if DD could contain her jealousy). BF a toddler is quite different to feeding a baby.

For DD(2.9) its not so much food as a bit of a treat and its a great way to end the day. She just has a quick one at bedtime - a kind of digestif for the day.

I never meant to do it for this long but now I'm not quite sure how to stop.

Maybe when she's 3 .....

I fully intended to stop when I went back to work, but ended up expressing and breastfeeding night and morning. Stopped expressing at 12 months, but have happily kept up with bedtime and morning feeds.
DD is now 20 months and I just don't know when I will stop now - it has been such a good thing when she had chicken pox recently and was really off her food. She is pretty distractable, if we are out and she asks for milk, I just tell her that is for when she gets home.
And as Alarkaspree say, I get at least 20 mins extra in bed (such a relief at 5.45am) .

It's such a persoanl thing, and up to you and you alone. I get so enraged when people (either other mums or worse still...men) tell me when I should stop the most natural thing in the world. Or when people say it's wrong...the only reason being it makes THEM feel uncomfortable.

I fed my daughter for two years and was quite happy doing so.

Am still bf at 17 mths intended to stop at 1 year but carried on when went back to work pt just am and before bed feed and it works fantastically. Now 9 wks pg and finding bf still okay, no soreness yet but still seem to have the same amount of milk and my daugher is still loving it. We are just going to see where we get to, she might wean, i may get to sore or we may end up tandem feeding. It stills feels the most natuaral thing in the world. For the person who asked about asking for it in the day she never gets in in the day and never asks for it since i stopped the day feeds when back to work

in the words of calpol, medised and all the other adds for medicin for young children..."the immunesystem is not develloped fully until around 6 years of age"....seeing that a child will always get the immuneboost via bf...it makes sense to do it as long as possible

Why not?

I just wanted to add, although negotiating with your child to only feed in private works well for a lot of people, it isn't the only way. I breastfed whenever I felt comfortable, and also places where I didn't feel entirely comfortable, but felt that the alternative (a shrieky PITA toddler) would have been less desirable than the possibility of a few people being a bit surprised.

I breastfed ds near the stage in the Albert Hall once and the timpanist nearly missed his cue because he was staring so much but I think that was better than having to remove ds noisily, or letting him carry on fussing about.

I think unless some people are breastfeeding toddlers in public then it is never going to socially acceptable. Many people simply don't know it is a normal or even possible thing.

When ds was around 1yo, I started to get quite self-conscious about feeding in public. Now he is nearly 2yo, I really don't care - just feed him anywhere really and it doesn't bother me. He is of the non-negotiable type

I agree Franny, I never see people feeding toddlers out so think it's good to do it if you feel comfortable.

I totally agree with you F&Z, I'm just not brave enough to lead the charge. This is slightly irrelevant but I am also veggie and don't drink and I just feel that I have had enough conversations over time where I feel I have to explain or even justify something that I choose to do that just isn't anyone else's concern.

I just feel that, especially given that b/f is such an emotive topic, that it's easier just to avoid yet another discussion

Yes I used to worry about it and ask people if it was ok, LOL

Once you get past about 18 months and they are really HUGE you just have to brazen it out

I thought I would die when ds kicked off at my group once and I had to bf him (age 3) whilst reading a story with all the parents and children watching

nobody batted an eye