what made you give up bf?

9 replies

crapcook · 03/12/2007 15:06

DS is 12mths now. He is bf first thing in the morning and before he goes to bed and has soya and some dairy in between.

A lot of people don't have started to ask if I am still bf and I take great delight in telling them that I don't think we are ready to give up yet. DS LOVES it and I'm not irrititated by it and don't actually mind doing it so don't think it has come to it's natural end yet.

All of my friends gave up months ago so don't really have the support there anymore. I used to go to a great breastfeeding group but the last time I went, DS was 10mths and all the other mums had newborns and were sat next to each other talking newborn chat.

So please, someone with lots of extended bf experience, come on and tell me how great it is/why I should carry on etc etc.

I don't really know what it is that has made me think about this today tbh. Perhaps I have just noticed that bf isn't the norm in most 12mth olds.

OP posts:

Original poster

crapcook · 03/12/2007 15:08

My post doesn't tie up to the question in the heading lol.

Please share your experiences of why you gave up bf or why your nearly gave up bf and what made you carry on.

OP posts:

Jennster · 03/12/2007 15:10

I stopped when I got pregnant again, but only very slowly. Dd was 14 months. I might have still been doing it otherwise. DD now 22 months, ds 4m

ziggyf · 03/12/2007 15:12

hi crapcook

Just wanted to reassure you that at the bf group I go to there are loads of women who are still bf after 12 months. My DS is 8 weeks and is by far the youngest at the group. If things get better for me, I intend to bf until DS is ready to stop

ziggy x

rebelmum1 · 03/12/2007 15:12

I gave up for work reasons and regret it although I needed to work. My dd was intolerant to formula and it had a negative impact on her health. So keep going it does make a difference.

Jennster · 03/12/2007 15:13

Oh and I nearly gave up unwillingly when dd was 6 months and I was sick in hospital for a week. We perservered and I got my milk back.

LadyOfWassail · 03/12/2007 15:13

I only gave up because DS started biting and didn't stop, and it got too sore to even express. Other than that I would have kept on going - he was 10 months as far as I remember. That answers the title but not really your post, sorry

terramum · 03/12/2007 17:22

DS is bfing happily at 3.4 years old. I don't have any desire or need to stop him or slow him down (he is still fed as & when he asks to & I still offer him 'boobie milk' if I think he might want/need it, just as I did when he was a small baby). I am happy to let him self wean, how ever long that takes, but am aware that he might wean prematurely should I become pregnant with another baby.

Feeding him now is different but no less fabulous than when he was little. It's been great for tantrums and the times when he couldn't calm himself down or got frustrated with something. Its also very reassuring to know that he gets lots of goodness from it, especially during the handful of times he has been under the weather, but also normally when he has times when he doesn't eat much or has fads & phases with solid foods. He still feeds to sleep some nights so bedtime is a dream on those nights - get him changed, brush his teeth & then settle down in front of the tv to feed him. On the occasions he doesn't fall asleep on the boob he simply gets up & sits on me or DH & goes to sleep that way. I guess some might find that quite restrictive if they wanted to be out & about more in the evenings, but I haven't found it to be so as I am happy to be at home...plenty of time to go to the pub when he is older . On the rare occasion I do go out in the evening he is happy to settle without milk sometimes or waits up until I get home...it's gradually got easier as he has got older. The only problem we are having with bedtime now is carrying him up the stairs to put him in bed once he is asleep - at 2stone 7lbs he is a fair weight!

There is a common misconception out there that weaning from the breast needs to be mother-led - it doesn't! The child will eventually wean themselves without any prompting from the mother or restrictions on their feeding. When they do so varies from child to child. Anything from 18 months-2yrs right up to age 7 is normal, but most children self-wean between 2 & 4 according to some sources (the world average is 4 btw).

If you are happy breastfeeding then carry on & ignore the doubters. It's none of their business whether you are feeding or not, and tbh unless they have actually experienced feeding an older child have no right to comment ...especially as it is actually normal for humans to breastfeed beyond infant hood

You might find this link interesting:
www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/index.html
...and I would highly recommend the LLL book "Mothering a nursing toddler" if you are breastfeeding an older child.

FromGirders · 03/12/2007 17:28

I can confirm what terramum just said. I bf'd dd until she was practically three. But, from 18 months old (it might even have been earlier) it was only one or two feeds per day, and in the last year she didn't even feed every day. We continued because she still asked for "mummy milk" and I enjoyed the cuddly time with her and didn't feel like stopping her.
Also, when she had a really bad tummy bug at two and a quarter, she couldn't keep anything down other than breastmilk. Even water came back up, and I'm sure she would have been iller if she hadn't been able to breastfeed.
There are loads of other reason here www.promom.org/101/

LiegeAndLief · 03/12/2007 19:21

I am still bfing ds at 16 months - the rest of my group of friends have all stopped because they are pregnant again (yes all of them!) but we all bf until at least 12 months, so you are not so much of a freak . I have stopped doing the night time feed as I wanted to be able to go out around Christmas and leave him with dh, but we still do one feed in the mornings and we both enjoy it. I can't see any reason at all to give it up.

Flip