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?

lol pops, similar sort of conversations here. but there is now someone i know who feeds to 13months or there abouts.

dd3 has been telling me that breastmilk is yuk the last few days tho

Reading all this makes me that DS has given up his final bedtime BF at 17 months.

I really wanted to carry on longer, but you can't force someone to BF. He just stopped latching on, or would latch on then come off straight away and just ask to go to bed.

But reading all the health benefits of BFding for longer I really regret that he's weaned himself now.

I also think that ds2 could be heading towards the inevitable (veiled cheers from me...)
Since we cracked the whole night feeding thing, I have been trying to keep him to morning and evening feeds only and tbh he hasn't asked much. My mum, who has always been indifferent, started asking the 'when will you stop feeding' thing the other day.....

Because my (disabled) two year old would/could not drink from anything but me. I breast fed him on and off all night and offered him other drinks in the day, which he refused. Finally forced him off the breast which sounds cruel but my nipples were virtually getting bitten off. A couple of days of semi-hydration and he started to drink haphazardly from a wide neck feeder.

If people want to breast feed their toddler that's fine by me. Not that they need my permission anyway.

"concerned that i would be continuing for my satisfaction rather than hers."

workstostaysane, this really does not happen, believe me. You can't force a child to breastfeed who does not want to. My ds has just self-weaned and tbh I would quite like to carry on, but he is adamant "I am too old Mummy"

bf infants under 1 just do not self-wean - they don't unless forced to

so you can be sure that if your 7 month old continues to bf, she is fulfilling HER biological/psychological needs not YOURS

If she were say 3 - 4 years old and wanted to give up that would be very normal too

i think a great many more women bf toddlers than we are aware - they will talk about it on MN but not freely with any one in the street - which is understandable given the negative image of bf toddlers in the UK

Yellowrose, while I agree with you that children under 1 don't generally wean, it is quite common for children around this age to have a nursing strike or lose interest in breastfeeding, which is interpreted as their desire to wean, and so breastfeeding often ends at this stage. I don't think it's fair to say the mother has 'forced' weaning in this situation, just misinterpreted a natural stage.

Both of mine self weaned at 15-16 mths
My simple answer would be
because they both wanted to feed.
Why would it be any better to stop just to swap the breast milk for cows milk
I'm sure cows milk is perfectly ok for over 12 mths but if you're already breasfeeding, you have no need to change unless either one of you wants to.
Hard to imagine cows milk can provide a " more balanced diet" than ones own mother though Whatever the age...

I still tell people that i am bf lo who is 17 mths and am 9 wks pg. I feel really proud. Most people are really postive some dont say negative things but i can tell in their body language that they dont agree that i am still bf. Know one other person who is bf their lo who is older but i think in my circle of friends i am quite rare for stil bf at this age although most of my friends iwth babies do bf but stop at a year which is still amazing to bf to a year. It still seems so good for her that why give her something else when i have the real thing that is best for her when she wants it

Why I am still bf my 17 month old:

Because it means I can eat chocolate without putting on weight.

Because it's very relaxing to me and to my dd.

It's easy and convenient.

Because my dd recently spent three nights in hospital with a febrile convulsion and very severe diarrhea, and breast milk was the only thing she could keep down, and whilst she still needed a drip, she didn't need potassium added to that drip as long as she was breastfeeding (potassium in a drip is very harsh on the veins and can cause pain and swelling on the arm with the drip).

mamaduck...I know the feeling...with es I wasn't really to bothered how long I fed and wasn't to bothered when I was adviced to stop when he was 4m (have since of course found out just how crap that advice was and how stupid I was to follow it, but shan't beat myself up about it, now, lol) but wiht ms and ys I realllly wanted to bf for at least 2-3 years if not even let selfwean...however, things never turn out the way one wishes...admittedly with ms I did end up weaning him off actively...but he was a lil bugger...when he was 9 month old he bit me for 30 days at every feed (hot summer, lots of feeding, so roughly 10 or more times)...always towards teh end...he found it hilarious, I didn't find it as funny, as he had just gotten his teeth and it really hurt...I tried all the tricks of Kellymom, and nothing worked, and I just didn't enjoy it anymore...even though I missed it so much...with ys we had some Nursing strikes but no serious biting until one time and I was so shocked at that time, I pulled away and cried out in pain (I know wrong) and after that he would NOT feed anymore..he was 13 month old...he is now 2 1/2 years old and I stll miss it (not enough though to have another Baby, lol)...but well, sometimes there is nothing you cna do about it
And agree you can't force them to feed...always annoys me when those anti- extendet Bf people say it's the mothers wish and they are forcing the Kid, and how selfish one is...almost wish it was working that way, lol!