How long did you breastfeed for?

[MonkeyBusinessxoxo]

Just that really, some people say to do it for 6 months then wean and some say 2 years, so I'm wondering what the average was and when most people found it "normal" to stop feeding and start the weaning process?

I want to BF for as long as possible but have no clue what's considered a normal amount of time to do it for!

6yrs, 5yrs and 4.5yrs and counting.

6 months will be normal in some circles, 2 years normal in others, child-led weaning normal in others. I never cared what was 'normal', so non of that bothered me. If you do care, then you'd probably get a more helpful picture by looking at your own social circle.

3 1/2 years.

About 3 1/2 years. I was well happy when it stopped

Just about 4 years and still going at 1 year with no end in sight.

One year. I stopped when I returned to work. But most of these mums posting fed for way over the average. You're not going to get a good idea of what the average is from here.

9 months. I stopped when she cut her first tooth as she was a bugger for biting! Tbh I only went that long because she refused to take a bottle. Brestfeeding for me was very painful and never, ever easy.

DS1 - 5 yrs
DS2 - 4 yrs

If I'd done child led weaning I think they'd still be going now at 8 + 6

I breastfed my twins for 11 months

18 months with each. DS I'd have happily fed much longer, my milk dried up when I was pregnant. DD I forced to stop, she was still up 3 or 4 times a night to feed and she bloody bit all the time.

20 months and DS is showing no signs of wanting to stop anytime soon.

As pp have said, there's no normal length of time. Do what feels right for you and your baby.

3 years 10 months with my youngest 7 months with my eldest. Do what feels right for you.

Still bfing at just over 2 years.

10 months with my first. I got pregnant again and morning sickness made breastfeeding just about the worst thing in the world to me.

12 months with DCs 2 and 3.

DC4 is only 4 months old at the moment but I plan to wean at 12 months again.

Breastfeeding beyond 12 months doesn't appeal to me for a myriad of reasons, and they're eating meals and snacks by then.

23 months and 4.5 years.

Isn't the average less than a month in the UK though? Do whatever works for you, don't feel compelled to BF until they are 2 if it isn't working for you. I've seen so many women beating themselves up for stopping unnecessarily, it's madness.

Waited till they were old enough for cows milk (12 months).

My first two were probably more like 13 or 14 months when they actually had their last feed.
DC3 was weaned slightly earlier so I could piss off to New York for 5 days, flying out the day after his 1st birthday!
Can't remember for DC4. I would have started the process at 12 months,

Agree that you won't get anything like the average here so please don't feel intimidated or pressured. My DS is 18mo and is bf twice a day (morning and night). I stopped bf-ing him on demand at around 7 months as he was established in solids. I'd quite like to stop, purely because it would be easiest for me to be away for bedtime. I haven't done anything about it though!

I'd take it as it comes, OP. People's BF experiences can often be quite different to what they had planned, and sometimes this disconnect can lead them to feel really bad. I've had friends determined to BF until a year who ended up barely managing a week (due to having problems they simply couldn't overcome ) and then there's people like me who wanted to BF but wasn't hung up on it who end up going for ages!

Dc1 - 6 months
Dc2 - 5 months
Twins - 9 months
Dc5 - 21 months

The more kids I had the more I learned about the benefits, mainly thanks to the internet.

One year per child. They were fairly close together so I didn't fancy bf while pregnant. Also the dc seemed to lose interest in it at about 1 year old.
Normal is however long the child & you want it to be.

4 months.

Still going at 3 years.

DS1 19 months, stopped when pregnant as was only doing the bedtime feed by then but was crippled by sickness and had to stop.

DS2 currently 7mo, as long as he wants but in my head I have 18mo as a sort of target.

The right time to stop is when you want to.

2 weeks dc1
26 months dc2

Ds1 2 years, ds2 2.5 years, ds3 is 2.5 years and still has a feed to sleep at night.
There is no 'normal. You go with what works for you.

Both daughters stopped feeding at just over 4 years old. One day they just couldn't latch on properly so that was the end of the breastfeeding.

20 months for DD1. 13 and counting for DD2. Planning to stop around the same time as with DD1.