Nell McAndrew article on extended breastfeeding

[treacletart]

here

tracletart - I like her in the yogurt ads.

I don't see how you can blame page 3 - they've only been publishing topless women since 1970. Do you imagine that the attitude towards boobs was completely different prior to that?

Personaly I'd have thought showing boobs - even in a titillating sense was still better than not showing them at all.

ABetaDad, I was ttc for a year while bfing ds3. Nothing happened. Then I stopped and was pg within 2 months. I would never advise anyone to use it as a contraceptive as it is know to be unreliable but it certainly stopped us from conceiving!

Welldone Nell!

I'm amazed by people who think bfing is somehow more acceptable if it's done from a cup or bottle.

Recently there was a huge fuss in the local paper about a woman who'd bf (a baby not even a toddler) during a service at the cathedral. Someone suggested she should have expressed and given the baby a bottle as seeing a baby being bf might upset anyone who'd lost a baby/ been unable to conceive. I just can't get my head around how it would upset anyone more seeing a bf baby than a bottle fed one.

FWIW DP is quite happy to sit and watch me feed DS but when I'm using the pump it makes him quite uncomfortable. Even if the logistics of taking bottles of ebm out weren't so difficult I worry more about DP than any random strangers opinions.

Funny enough, I will feed in front of anyone but hate pumping in front of other people, even dh! Think it's the visibly elongated nipples......

Thank you so much to all of you on mumsnet who have shown me so much support. I feel reassured that I am doing what's best for both me and most imortantly, my two and a half year old son.
I must admit I feel less alone now knowing that there are so many other women breastfeeding their toddlers. I knew you were out there somewhere but I hadn't realised where to look! Nell McAndrew

Is that for real? Not a weird, kind of 'nice' troll?

Well if it is you Nell, well bloody done for the piece and indeed for coming on here to thank us.

We hope you'll stay (though doubtless changing your MN name might be a good idea now!)

Am I the only one to have noticed then?

Wilf, the rest of us are used to minglin' with the stars.

Nell - if it really is you, then welcome

Sorry for cynicism - lots of people use pretend names on here!

Och even if it is a troll, it's very nice, so let's be lovely to yr anyway.

Hello yorkshirerunner!

yorkshirerunner, it was great to see these articles. Before I joined MN, I had fully BF my eldest two kids, the first for 4.5 months (as was recommended then) followed by partial BF for a year. With the second, I stopped completely at 5 months because of work commitments. I really regretted it and funnily enough, now he's the child with the least resistance to illnesses...

But I was still a bit about extended BF. When I had my third son though and found MN, I shattered a lot of my own preconceptions about extended BF, and now feel entirely comfortable still feeding my 19 month old.

So I think getting out your story to the widest possible audience is a fantastic achievement and will have made a huge difference to all the secret BFers and those on the fence.

To be honest, I'd quite like to stop BF soon (ROFL at the idea that women do it for themselves) but for the facts that I'd quite like DS3 to have as much resistance to the millions of nursery bugs going round as possible and, er, his ABSOLUTE INSISTENCE that we carry on. I could force the issue, but why would I, when it's doing him so much good.

BUMP!!

really???!!! COOL!

I LOVE Nell McAndrews...and ow I love her a little more

Yorkshirerunner - if it is you, i'm glad you've found this thread! Well done for making breastfeeding sound so normal.

I've been thinking about this - I was really squeamish about the idea of feeding a toddler before I had dd, but I think it's because you see these complete walking talking little people, and can't imagine just picking one up and feeding them - what you don't see is that it's just the same wee person who you've always been feeding from birth, iykwim?

I stopped feeding dd at 20 months, which I would never have imagined, and I am sure never have got to without MN - dd wasn't too bothered, and I was finding myself increasingly irritable about it. She's 2.5 now, and I can't imagine feeding her, but now I know it's just because I haven't been feeding her for the last 6 months, so I've no longer got that link in my head, not because I think there's anything wrong with it at all. So yes, thanks MN from me too!

Really?

Hello

Yorkshirerunner - you are very welcome to join us on the extended breastfeeders support thread!

Yorkshirerunner - also want to say thanks for your article, which I loved. And for demonstrating that it's not just hairy faced, birkinstock wearing, lentil weavery, yogurt knitting types like myself who breastfeed their toddlers. I'm sick of bf being portrayed as something faintly disgusting (grrrr at 'feeling like a glorified milking machine' comment from other article in the Daily Mail). Thank god for the likes of you, Elle MacPherson and Salma Hayak demonstating that long term breastfeeding is not necessarily synonymous with grey feeding bras and unshaven legs (except in my case actually ).

OK she wasn't an MNer but she is now - I was almost right!
Hi yorkshirerunner

< am coming over all star struck>