Why breastfeed past one?

[Lovingit81]

Really interested in people's opinions on this.

My boss (and let me stress a 'friend' as well, in the loose sense of the word) was chatting to me the other day. I have recently come back from my second maternity leave. DD is 14 months and I'm still breastfeeding her.

Boss asks me when I'm going to stop feeding. I reply saying I'm not sure. We have a rhythm going and she loves it and so do I (usually). I fed my DS until he was 18 months and weaned him gradually so I could get my periods back to get pregnant again. I told her I'd like to get to 18months. I told her it was great for them, a great way of bonding. I have a strong breast cancer hereditary link in my family and like the fact that the longer I breastfeed for the better my chances of not getting breast cancer. My DD finds it very comforting and I love that. It feels right.

I mentioned that the WHO recommends feeding until at least two years and she launched into a discussion about how this was only for developing countries. We had a slight argument about it (although both were reserved as we were in work) and then moved on.

She is a very defensive person with a lot of troubles in her life but she is usually a very good boss, good person and a reliable friend albeit someone very much involved in her own world ( a my way or the highway type of person).

So please tell me your opinions. If you breastfed past one year why did you do it and what do you think about the developing countries comment?

Presumably bf for as long as possible is far more important in regions where water isn’t guaranteed clean, where infectious diseases kill huge numbers of children and where food may be in short supply. However the breast cancer benefits to the mother and some less immediately life-or-death benefits to the child still apply in the UK. If it works for you to continue then why wouldn’t you? I didn’t breastfeed past 8 months because cluster feeding in the evening became too tiring and restrictive and the costs started to outweigh the benefits. But if I hadn’t experienced that downside then of course I’d have carried on.

These advantages include a lower risk of gastrointestinal infection for the baby, more rapid maternal weight loss after birth, and delayed return of menstrual periods. No reduced risks of other infections or of allergic diseases have been demonstrated

This is the who findings for breast feeding for the first six months, none later, but they recommend mixed up to two, the risk of infection is contextualised based on the situation of how else the child would be fed ie developing county or less than hygienic home environment, and the periods and weight loss is really about whether that's important to you.

So depends really if you feel you can feed your baby safely, in the uk for example many are competent at sterilisation, and weight loss and delayed periods aren't such a big deal,versus the benefits of formula feeding ie shared feeds with the father, being able to split care with the father, not have to express, more simply go back to work, etc.

So it really is down to the individual, but your boss isn't far wrong, but it's also none of her business.

I'm still feeding my 14 months old son to sleep and whenever he wakes during the night (easily 5-10 times per night) and honestly I'm ready to stop but he's not and I know he's going to go ballistic!!!