Extended Breastfeeders - come and tell me some nice stories!

[Swaliswan]

DD is 7.5mo and I'm trying to decide whether to give up BF completely before going back to work when DD is 9mo or to mixed feed or to go over to FF. Before I had DD, I always thought that extended feeding was 'a bit weird' and swore that I would never feed DD if she could ask for the other side or whip my boob out in public. Now, I find it hard to imagine giving up Bfing her despite a rocky start and would love to have her tell me that my milk is better than chocolate! I think that channel 4 has a lot to answer for WRT my previous opinion about extended BFing. So, please come and tell me the truth about extended BFing

I fed till 16 months, I wish I had gone on longer but was having trouble with mastitis at that point.

I intend to feed Ds2 as long as he wants me to.

I am heartened by your story. Well done for overcoming your initial problems and finding BF so wonderful

it is really nice to snuggle up and feed when you get in from work. you don't need to bother with fomula or bottles at 9m, she can just have more food when you aren't there and milk when you are.

it is really nice to snuggle up and feed when you get in from work. you don't need to bother with fomula or bottles at 9m, she can just have more food when you aren't there and milk when you are.

It's the best thing for solving baby and toddler existential crises, as in putting their world back together.

It's the original isotonic drink as a gp told me once, so ideal for a sicky child, even if it comes up again.

It really does help when the child has a cough and wakes in the night, they just feed back to sleep each time, it solves a tickly cough.

Sounds like you have lots of good reasons to continue to BF but no good reasons to stop. Seems like a nice easy decision to me.

I'd say definitely keep the morning and evening feed going as long as you both enjoy it. For the day time feeds, you only have 3 months at work before you can start using ordinary cows milk during the day so you just need to decide whether to use EBM or FF for 1 or 2 day time feeds for those 3 months. Personally I used EBM sometimes topped up with FF and found that worked well.

Good luck with what ever you decide

DS is 19 months old, and I've been working ft since he was 4.5 months old - he has only had formula the first 3 days he was in SCBU as a preemie and needed topping up due to very low blood sugar. I could never imagine still bfing now, but then you aren't suddenly feeding a toddler, just day by day your baby gets bigger.
It is really nice to reconnect when you get home, and of course theres far less feeding in public as they cut down to morning and evening.
Expressing at work is a really good way of actually getting a proper sit down break when you go back - didn't realise this until I stopped expressing !

Hi,
I work 2 days a week and dd gets ff at nursery. I was never very good at expressing but I still try and save all the little bits up.
DD is 9 months and we love bf, especially first thing in the morning as she loves to cuddle up; and in the afternoons we feed and play at the same time.
I was the same as you, I thought extended bf was a bit strange, now I can't imagine not doing it, I'll keep doing it as long as she wants it. I was in the feeding room in John Lewis yesterday and a couple with a young baby started talking to me. The woman was really impressed with bf at 9 months and said she hoped to do it that long with her ds but the guy looked at her really shocked and said "But you'll want your life back". It's so funny because thats the way I thought, now I can see you can have your life just the way you want and give your dc the best start in life.
Good Luck

I'm still feeding DD2 at 21 months and love it. Only feed her in the mornings (she's an early waker so I get added snooze time) and at bedtime. Sometimes in the day if she's really tired/poorly but not as a rule.

If I'm not here she's fine with cow's milk and my boobs cope well by this point. DO and I had a naughty weekend away and didn't express at all (or maybe a drop in the shower?)....picked up the girls and got a 'Mummy!!!Booby!!' welcome.

I weaned DD1 onto formula at 8 months and regretted it BTW.

HTH

I'm still feeding my dd and she's 19 months. She now only has her morning, naptime and bedtime 'booboo', and can go all day without the naptime one if we're busy or I have to be somewhere without her.

I've had a few comments from friends who think it's weird ('she's getting too old' 'she'll go on feeding forever if I let her' etc) but I know she still needs it. I'm happy to feed until she doesn't want it anymore.

Like others have said, it's great for when she's ill and won't eat anything, and it's great for the closeness. I didn't imagine I'd be BFing this long, but it's been great and I know it's helped to make my dd such a calm, loving little one.

So, yes, keep the morning and bedtime feeds when you're working, it'll be great for both of you

Oh and just thought I'd say, please keep bf your dc, if only to annoy my Dad who told me a few weeks ago that only - Lesbian, Feminist, Hippies BF beyond 6 months, he's such a well educated man

I agree with most of the comments here and would add that if you plan having another baby in the not too distant future and are able/inclined to breastfeed them both, it is a unique and wonderful experience. Most importantly, I have found b/f-ing a fantastic way to maintain a close relationship with my toddler whilst caring for a newborn.

I fed both my eldest until they were 2 1/2, and tandem fed for 10 months, as there's only 20 months diff in age between dd and ds1. I found it really rewarding, and soooo useful having a nursing toddler when my milk came in with ds1! Now feeding ds2, with no plans not to continue for however long he wants to. (not got to cross that bridge for a long time though...he's only 5 days old!) wish he'd wake up for a feed though...he's been asleep for hours and my boobs are like rock!!!!

Ignore any neg comments btw. It's your decision (and your lo's!) to feed for however long you want to.

My ds has just self-weaned - he was 3.9. I was only ever going to feed him for 4 months. That became 6 months when the NHS started saying it should be 6 not 4, not long after he was born I think. Then I thought I'd carry on until one, when he could have cow's milk. I always said I wouldn't feed him when he could walk and talk because I thought that waas "weird". Well, I slowly realised that my own pre-conceptions were wrong and we just kept going. It was good for him and I had no problems doing it. He was never ill (he still has never been to the doctors at aged 4). He liked it and I liked it. I didn't think it fair to remove something from him forcibly and everything I read said it was better for it to be the child's decision.

Ebf is lovely. I'm tandem feeding ds1 (2.8) and ds2 (nearly 4mo). I've been finding it tough, as ds1 still wants milk quite a lot, especially since ds2 came along and on occasion I've wished he'd hurry up and self-wean, but just now thinking of him sitting on my lap drinking his 'mama milk' and so happy has made my heart feel all melty and put a lump in my throat.

(Oh, I can lay down rules with him now - if he wakes up very early in the morning and wants milk I can say 'not until it's light' and he'll accept that. And I insist he asks nicely.)

Thanks to everyone who has posted. Maybe I should explain that it's not quite as simple as just feeding in the morning and evening for us as I work shifts in the local hospital so for three days a week I will miss one of DD's feeds The other thing is that we might like to try for another baby fairly soon and BFing while pregnant isn't a great idea for me as I have a history of miscarriage and premature birth both of which can be brought on by BFing during pg.

DD can drink from a cup and those breastflow bottles but chooses not to when I'm there (haven't tried when I'm not there yet but she got wise to the fact that I was giving her milk from another source very quickly ). I think that it is likely that I will have to make sure that she has some milk when I'm not there but I need to choose what type of milk and if I am going to continue to feed her when I am there. She has just started to drop her last night feed (woohoo!) much to my relief as some days when I'm working I won't get home until 21:30 at the earliest and then will have to get up at 05:30 the next morning. It did cross my mind the other day though that getting up at 4am to make a bottle is soooooooooo much more hassle then getting DD into bed with me for milky snuggles.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks really. Please feel free to add any more nice stories as I love hearing them and you don't get the chance to talk to very many EBF mothers. Even my family who are very supportive of my BFing are very naive about extended BFing.

I just thought that I would let you all know that I have requested to change my job at work so that I'm not working shifts (many reasons including not being able to manage childcare). I'm really pleased because it means that I will be able to continue BFing DD as I won't miss any of her feeds. I'm hoping to get to a year so that I don't have to keep buying ridiculously expensive formula! After that I'll think again about whether to stop or not. All of your comments have helped me to consider what I wanted to do.

Thanks to you all x

Swaliswan - I bf ds1 through pg, despite history of multiple miscarriage and bleeding from the placenta. AFAIK bf is not implicated in mc or prem birth in a healthy pregnancy. Look at www.kellymom.com on this.

look here

I always thought that extended bf was weird but ds is 2 now and still being fed at night time. Its the only time he will have a cuddle