Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

what age did you stop breasfeeding?

124 replies

Flumpity · 22/12/2007 18:56

my daughter is just 7 months and i still breastfeed her in the morning and mid-afternoon with a bottle at bedtime. but i'm getting a lot of people expressing surprise that i'm still breastfeeding. I didn't think 7 months was particularly old or counted as 'extended' breastfeeding, but then, most of my mummy friends i've met since having my baby (she's my first) all stopped at 6 months so i'm feeling unusual. wondering what age anyone else stopped?

footnote - baby still loves it, but she's too distractible to feed anywhere that isn't very quiet anymore so i tend not to be able to feed her easily in a cafe etc like i could when she was tiny! also wondering if anyone else found this?

also, she's on 3 good solid meals a day with sips of water with them.

thanks.

OP posts:
chocolatecoinmumofdj · 22/12/2007 23:38

thats ok

I have been not just browsing but posting on other parts increasingly cos for a long time i didnt feel i had stuff to chip in that was snesible/ worth saying so i just browsed and learned along the way (and I did have stuff to sell) but now I realise you just have to fling yourself in to a thread and im loving it

CantSleighWontSleigh · 22/12/2007 23:39

I haven't. Dd 22 months and still going.

chocolatecoinmumofdj · 22/12/2007 23:40

well respect to you holly I am glad there are some brave women like you about I may well join you

MulledWino · 22/12/2007 23:42

Hey ho indeed! Certainly wasn't meaning to be rude! But the die is cast and I am now a Campaigner Agaisnt Public Breastfeeding (apparently! ) so feel free to hurl manner of accusations!

(No don't really; I'll retire elsewhere if you like. But thank you for your point further down about how toddlers pull off and expose breasts. I was a very experiences bfer/had learned all about discretion but I bet most of the town had seen mine by the time I finally got DD off them thanks to her wandering attention. It was with great relief that DH and I finally weaned her off by joint effort. I imagined that there might be other parents feeling similarly, but there either aren't, or else they are far to frightened to suggest that they might like to give up on the public feeding. Can see why!)

chocolatecoinmumofdj · 22/12/2007 23:47

nobody but dc and dh would want to see my norks believe you me! I sadly have saggy boob syndrome

night all bed beckons me, interestig thread

youcheaplousyharpsichord · 22/12/2007 23:48

MW I think you are projecting wildly
just because you only ed while it was "necesaary" and wanted to give up and didn't want to feed in public is of really very limited relevance. i.e. that is how you felt. that doesn't make it right. it is just your point of view.
other people feel differently.
tolerance is the key I think, and being a bit open minded and at the end of the day minding your own business and respecting other people's choices.

mehdi · 22/12/2007 23:49

well done holly my ds is 22 months and still has milk i dont care what small minded people think about bf in public if my ds wants it he can have it and if people are offended by it or in some sad pathetic way think it is sexual then more fool them. We pride ourselves in this country in having freedom to do as we please. So if people dont like it dont look. My ds makes my day when after he i

chocolatecoinmumofdj · 22/12/2007 23:49

ps, I am not into hurling accusations sooo boring and goes against mumsnet ethos IMO though you cant beat a good debate! I am loving sharpening these skills on mumsnet- havent used them since school and oh that was some time ago now !

NowTheHollyBearsABero · 22/12/2007 23:49

No Mulled, I don't think anyone has cast you in that role, really. It's just, as Hunker pointed out, the objections you were raising are typically the same ones anti-bfers tend to trot out, and many of us have heard them in more or less hostile contexts far too often. And there are some women whose confidence in bf they will have seriously undermined.

MerryPIFFLEmas · 22/12/2007 23:50

16 mths ds1
16 mths dd

both self weaned (sadly IMO)
9 mths ds2 and no signs of stopping HOORAY and as for what folks say
nobodys business but my own

youcheaplousyharpsichord · 22/12/2007 23:50

oh and dd1 three and a bit, hard to say really she just gradually stopped. after about 18 minths she wanted only to feed at home/bed time/nap time.
dd2 I am still feeding and she is two and a bit. her needs are very different and she does ask to feed in public sometimes.

MulledWino · 22/12/2007 23:51

You may be right Harpsi. I can't rule that thought out. She was biting through my nipples in the end; almost had one OFF I kid you not, so my experience of extended bf was not a good one. It was painful and enforced because I was convinced she wouldn't/couldn't drink from anything but my norks.

chocolatecoinmumofdj · 22/12/2007 23:51

I am planning on feeding ds2 for as long as he would like me to and look forward to seeing how long this is! (had to stop at 16m with ds1 cos i needed medication I now think maybe Gp could have given something else poss)

mehdi · 22/12/2007 23:51

my life better when he finishes his milk smiles and kisses his mummy. This part of their lives last such a short period of time that i am bloody well gonna make the most of the special mummy baby time

manchita · 22/12/2007 23:52

Mulled wino- funny how these things happen isn't it? I have b/f both of my dc until 18 months and I don't find anything you have said offensive, I think you were just commenting on how you felt really. I don't know, there are so many people who are anti b/f I don't know why you have been jumped on!!
Anyway...IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Pannacotta · 22/12/2007 23:52

MW I felt uncomfortable feeding DS1 in public after about 18 months (or earlier even) but I do think it's odd to suggest that todders don't "need" to be fed in public, as it's not really an issue of need.

IMO the ideal scenario would be that it's totally accepted to b-feed a toddler in public and then none of us would feel the need to hide away the fact we are feeding older babies, after all it's not something we ought to be ashamed of!

youcheaplousyharpsichord · 22/12/2007 23:54

sorry to hear about the biting.
lots of mums and children love bf. nothing to do with need.
we just like and and we think it's good.
we do hear the same old arguments over and over it can get a bit wearying

NowTheHollyBearsABero · 22/12/2007 23:54

MW, my friend is having quite a similar experience with her ds, who has DS and Hirchsprung's. She is a committed ebfer, but is weaning him (he is 2) principally because the biting is just getting too much. So nobody is saying anyone's reasons for weaning are invalid - they can be very valid indeed. But others' reasons for continuing (and the manner in which we continue) are too

manchita · 23/12/2007 00:05

Sowe all agree-let's party!!!

chocolatecoinmumofdj · 23/12/2007 00:08

I agree yay lets party (I hate all forms of animosity)!!!

manchita · 23/12/2007 00:09

mumofdj what are you drinking?

chocolatecoinmumofdj · 23/12/2007 00:10

tea

manchita · 23/12/2007 00:12

And water for me. Hey, who needs alcohol to be fun?

MulledWino · 23/12/2007 00:12

Mulled wine anyone?

Mulled EBM even?

chocolatecoinmumofdj · 23/12/2007 00:14

nah make mine a big fat calorific hot choc please with cream

I need the calories Im feeding