whats the longest anyone has bf for? anyone still doing it with lo's at school?

[prettylovebird]

ok i know dd is only 7 months,but, i want to bf her forever, and just wondering what it will be like when shes at school or preschool

Would you post a similar first post on a racism issue in order to get a rise?

yup maybe depends on post though some things are wrong/right some are open to debate and personal opinion....

I guess then we are never going to come to any sort of agreement to any extent as we are so far apart in our thinking.

Not read all the posts, but suspect similar views from other threads on MN.

surprised to hear you prettylovebird asking this question when your baby is so small.

well b/fed ds1 up to age 6 although he started to stop around about age 5. the last year he slowed down with gaps of days, then weeks and finally months. dd is 5.9 and is quite different, wants it every day but of course its very private. doesn't affect her in any way. its just something we do together, bedtimes. also still feeding 2.5 year old ds2. I think dd gets a bit jealous of her brother and being a middle child gets left out ... so its her way of making sure she gets my time... ds1 has SN so she often gets a rough time from both brothers. dd started school in August last year (we start later in Scotland). sometimes she does rush in and want booby but becoming less and less now.

I really don't care what other people think as they actually have no idea what they are talking about (unless they do it themselves of course). However do keep it private just because there is so much negativity about school age children.

Anyway been b/feeding continuously now for 8.5 years and have no idea when I will finally stop. all kids are extremely healthy and I scoff (privately of course) when I hear of friends kids down with flu/ear infections, stomach bugs etc.... none of mine have ever had antibiotics.... I could bore you more but said enough.

wasn't going to read them but here I am reading them.....

duchesse - you said "A fair proportion of the extended b/f children I've met had some kind of speech defect" Just wondered how you had met these children, how have you managed to find a 'fair number'?

also children's mouths don't really form properly till they are about 7 so lots of them (bfed or not) do have speech defects till around this age. don't forget also that around age 6 baby teeth start falling out so this affects talking.

Of course nutritonally not needed but antibodies are useful (immune system doesn't develop properly till around age 7) and the thing is its FREE, and you don't have to heat it up, cook it or prepare it in any way and its healthy as well.

I used to be a pretty anti-establishment NCT group- homebirthers, extreme (home) VBACers (after 3 sections in one friend's case), extended breastfeeders, unassisted birthers, feeding other people's babies, etc... So there were quite a few around.

I knew that would get deleted. Well done MN! Honestly, no irony!

Okay, I have to say I don't whip my boobs out at the merest wail from a child. It has its boundaries. I don't even feed ds2 in public now, mainly because I don't think he needs it.

What I do find though consistently is the finger being pointed at breast feeding if something is wrong with a child. Under 5s have plenty of problems with sleep, behaviour, food and so on - we all know it. BUT if it is found that the child is breast feeding then it is automatically assumed that this is what is causing the problem. No-one even bothers to look further. All children have these problems, if it were down to breast feeding then what about the vast majority of children that don't breastfeed (over the very young age of about 6 months). I think because there are such a tiny proportion of children b/fed over age 2 then they are subject to severe scrutiny and every part of their behaviour/development is analysed. I would bet that if you asked a nursery and school teacher to pick out someone in their class who they felt was still b/fed they wouldn't be able to do so. they are just normal kids and we are not all lentil weaver extreme people. OK some people are but these are the ones who are just brave enough to say I am giong to do this and I don't care what others think. Because they are visible then we assume that all older b/feeders are like that. but there are plenty of 'closet' ones like me around too.

I notice there is a prog on this week on GMTV about extended breastfeeding. No doubt it will be sensationalised.

What did I miss?

"For example, I would find it v strange if a parent chose not to potty train a child and just waited until the child was 'ready', even if that meant the child was still in nappies aged 6"

Well actually I don't think that is strange. I have 3, the first of whom I potty-trained before he was ready because I thought he should be, and the second and third I left till they were ready. First time round took months before he was dry during the day and nearly a year before he was dry at night. And within a few years he had started to soil himself regularly. With the second and third the training was completed within a few days with the minimum of accidents and no stress at all. And they were 'ready' at around 3 yrs of age, not 6. I'd be quite surprised at any child who wasn't keen to get out of nappies and be like other children well before 6.

Indeed, children are ready for stages of development at completely different ages. Potty training can be anywhere between 18 months and about 4 years.

We tend to think of a child who potty trains early as being 'clever' but they may just be slow in this area and be able to speak very well for example. Am currently training ds2 who turns 2 1/2 tomorrow and its going really well and he is dry most nights. dd trained early at just past 2 but 3, nearly 4 years down the line she still has pull-ups at night (again v common) although thankfully seems to be getting drier.

Children want to be toilet trained simply because they get to an age where they don't like sitting in their own poo. Why do we draw analogies between getting rid of our waste products effectively and something completley different like breast feeding????

Eulalia - completely agree that children reach all the different developmental milestones at wildly varying ages and in no particular order.

Here in France I have read/heard repeatedly that children must be weaned off the breast before they can potty train or learn to talk as if it is some kind of gospel. I am very pleased to be able to demonstrate that my daughter has learnt to speak fluently in two languages while breastfeeding and is getting out of nappies because she rationally understands why she should wear pants and use the loo, not because she has been "trained".

Eulalia, what is GMTV and when is the program? I would love to watch it.

looks like it's on wednesday at about half 8. called "extreme breastfeeding" thought that was doing it while snowboarding!
think i'll watch too

oh & they have a poll "Do you agree with women breastfeeding their children after the age of two?"
only options were yes/no, there wasn't a "sod off what business is it of yours anyway" box.

What a stupid poll - how can you 'agree' or 'not agree' with it? It just is !

Have you seen the results?????

Yes
12.67%
No
87.33%

exactly!
Of course they mean do you think it's right that women should breastfeed their children after the age of 2.
It was 12% yes

I breast fed my dd until she was easily about 18 months!
Don't like the idea of past 2-3 max really? don't know whay?

Ah, well, I guess if I'm gonna be disagreed with, I like to make sure I'm REALLY disagreed with

I wonder what Lorraine Kelly's take will be on it, does anyone know if she breastfed?

Talking of famous breastfeeders, another famous person's breastfeeding comments seem to have slipped by the by, sammy winward mentioned it in Hello but that snippet is the first I've seen of it.

Hmm, apparently "TV presenter Lorraine Kelly labours under the misguided belief that babies should be fully weaned as soon as their first teeth appear."

fair enough chocolatemummy
I personally wouldn't like to bf another person's baby or have anyone bf DS (as on another thread), suppose we all have what we're comfortable to do and not. I don't have a sister though, and most people on that thread are talking about bf their sister's DCs and vice versa.
I'm not even an extended bfer either, I just like to gat involved!

what did she say about it?