'Will you still be bf her when she is 5 '? Why is this ok when she is only 6 mths old ?

[lilyloo]

My dd is now 6 mths old and it seems others think i have done my bf now.

However i would like to carry on as dd is my last dc, i enjoy it and so does she.

She is piling on the weight , not sleeping but hey ho ! I feel like we have done the hard bit and can now enjoy it but it seems to some like there is something 'wrong' with me to carry on.

What do i say to these comments ? I stopped with ds at 6.5 mths partly through feeling i should so don't want to be made into doing it again!

I too breastfed for 13 months and loved it everytime.
I can't possible imagine having changed to formula before DD was ready to move onto cow's milk.
Why would I want to deprive her of such a natural food source while she still needed for no reason. I was with her, I was producing enough milk and I had no reason to change.
I fully intend to do the same with DC2.

I think it's really sad that people feel they have to stop earlier than they want because of social or family pressure.
It should be an entirely person decision and people should encourage it, not question it.
Maybe the people who question it don't realise just how long babies need to drink milk for...?

crokky

Oblomov but i know that all of my friends/ family who have bf have all given up by 6 months !

I don't even know a single person that has recently bf. And I know atleast 20 women with young children.
Not good.

I know lots of people who breastfeed, toddlers and all, we are out here, honest. keep on going girl.

i always smile and say yeah hopefully!

then they dont know what to say lol

welldone you and enjoy, my dd is 12 months nearly 13 and ive been told its time to stop THAT now.

i just say im doing it till she self weans at WHATEVER age.

Hi - haven't read all but just wanted to add my experience for what it's worth.

BF my dd til she was well over a year and am still b/feeding DS who is nearly eight months. Think that there's loads of pressure (peers, work etc) on women to stop BF after six months. And lots of people I know have stopped earlier with DC2 simply because they're too exhausted to continue.

But if it feels right, then stick at it for however long you want to as a) it's good for your baby and b) it's no-one else's business!

I bf ds until he was about 13 months. Was a nightmare establishing it in first place but, once he'd got hang of it, it was just so much easier than faffing about with bottles, plus (as we'd had such a horrendous start) I was keen for something to go "right". Loved the closeness of it, loved the fact I didn't have hassle of sterilising stuff or - if we stayed out longer than expected - worrying that didn't have enough feeds. Didn't occur to me that anyone might think it odd, because it wasn't. If anyone else had a problem with it I certainly didn't pick up on it - and it would have been there problem, not mine. Think most of my friends gave up by about six months, but so what? It's so not a competition.

...their problem, even. (Can tell I'm tired as spelling ends up like Cod's).

And punctuation goes to shit, too.

lilyloo - i am feeding my ds2 atm. He is 6.5 months. (not much sleep here either at time ) and he is piling on the pounds too. I feed on demand and at the moment he gets eailsy distracted and i end up feeding him mostly in bedroom. I feel ever so guilty for giving him so much time that i feel i am not giving my older child enough. However my ds1 had me or 8 years and was bf too.

My mum assumed i was stopping bfing when starting weaning but she is trying very hard to be supportive! albiet she is trying to drag me around shops for hours on end thinking it is good for me

I tend not to be offended by people- most of them really are just surprised that you are still bf'ing, so I try not to be defensive about it and answer their questions. A lot of people (who haven't bf/ gave up early on due to problems) think that bf'ing is tying, tiring and time-consuming- actually, I think ff is more tying (you need to have the facilities to make up/ heat bottles- bm is always ready to go), tiring (rolling over and whipping a boob out in the early hours is far easier in my book than making up a bottle- Once with dd1, I decided DH could do a nigth feed, but by the time he had gone downstairs, prepared and heated a bottle of ebm, I had gotten fed up waiting and fed her!) and time consuming (I have enough to do in the morning without making up bottles! There are lots of things I can do at the same time as bf'ing now, so it is actually a time-saver!)

My MIL ff her 2, and has been intrigued/ wary of my bf'ing, but she was impressed at how "handy" it was when we all went to the beach. And also impressed how discrete it is.

I gave up with dd1 at about 8 mths- she kind of lost interest. With dd2, it happened earlier, at about 7 mths. But when I look back, I think maybe I was a bit quick to give up- the old "6 months" thing was there in my head, and I assumed because they wanted less feeding during the day that they didn't want bm. With ds I am keen to go to at least a year. He is 8 mths, and eating solids with gusto, so only feeds morning/ night/ before his lunchtime nap, so it's really no hardship, and nobody else's business. He is likely to be my last too, so I want to enjoy him as long as possible. The fact that it is also free appeals to my stingy side, and the convenience of it is paramount. I'm quite happy to explain to people why am I am doing it- it is a nice opportunity to challenge a view that they might hold without any real knowledge. I'm ashaned to say when I was bf'ing dd1, I did think it was a bit strange seeing toddlers bf'ing, but I have learned a lot since then!

I BF'd DS1 'til 7.5 months and stopped because I thought I ought, thought he'd sleep etc. He didn't sleep and I found FFing very binding and restrictive. All that sterilizing and that's when the rules were laxer.

So I BF'd DS2 'til 13 months and when people raised eyebrows I said "Oh I'm just lazy and like going out all day long".

Which was true.

Awen good to see you still about hows lo ? Would be nice to see you back at post natal thread if you got chance for catch up
Jooly lot's of similair reasons for me wanting to continue !

I actually got comments for the reverse, that i wasnt breastfeeding for long enough!! Bad support and inaccurate guidance meant I was bleeding daily and becoming so tense when feeding it was frightening my dd (3) to the point where she was crying at the mere lift of a top, i was crying in pain frustration and sadness and ds was crying because he was bloomin hungry. When I decided to stop at 6 weeks I was made to feel almost guilty by some people for not giving it a better shot, not feeding ds as long as I fed dd ( which was 4 months) etc. How I could have tried harder I dont know) . Now I am proud that I tried and gave him some of my milk and extremely happy that now I am not in excrutiating pain all day I can concentrate on enjoying being a mummy.

I find there are always people who like to offer un asked for comments about your parenting choices it drives me absolutely mad, i always bite my toungue and dont retort, but after reading some of these posts kind of wish i'd said something now.