Plan to breastfeed DS until he's 1 - DH does not agree - Am I going mad????!

[Dawnchorus]

DS is now 6 months old and has successfully started weaning. As I now work from home, my plan is to keep on breastfeeding until DS 1 year old. DH strongly anti-this. He thinks we should be putting DS on to formula. I resist, pointing out health benefits & hassle of bottles (never mind breastmilk is free...) He says he doesn't know anyone who's breast fed beyond 6 months, that he's worried I am overly attached to DS and I didn't do same for DD... (DD, now 6yo, was breastfed until 8 months - suplemented with formula bottles from 6 months - when I dried up having gone back to stressful work 4 days a week). DH also wants to give DS bottle. I said I would express so he can give bottle. But DH wants to go down the formula route. DS not co-operating in either direction refusing bottles of both expressed milk AND formula. Anyone else had similar issues? Feel I am going completely mad....

Sorry, what I meant to say was you could remind him that your DS would mainly be on solid food by then anyway, so it wouldn't be a big a part of the day taken up and there are so many benefits to it, it seems silly not to if you can.

Sorry - got called away - what I wanted to say, is what others have already said, by 11 or 12 months it is just a bed time feed, or possibly a morning and evening feed. Once they can run around, and are eating meals, they really aren't looking for breast feeds during the day.

My ds will probably end up having to have some formula from 9 months but that's only because I'm going back to work then, and I intend to continue to try and breastfeed him morning and night for as long as I can when I go back, but definitely to a year. I loathe and detest the work involved in using formula/bottles. I think it's more time consuming and more hassle - when I was made to use top ups with this baby I found myself scrubbing bottles and hearing him cry, and thinking how ridiculous it was not just to sit down and feed him (and mumsnet or read at the same time but you don't have to mention that to your dh).

Twelve months old is still a baby really. You are not going mad at all. Persevere and do what feels right for you.

Another point is that, quite apart from the health benefits to your son, the longer you breastfeed for, the lower your chances are of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, endometrial cancer, osteoporosis, or rheumatoid arthritis. If there was a pill you could pop that would give you that range of health benefits your DH would want you to take it, and here you are with all of them available for free if you just keep breastfeeding.