Please can you help re-assure my DH about my choice to BF DD until she is 1.

[columbosmac]

Please can you help re-assure my DH about my choice to BF DD until she is 1. She is currently 10.5 months.

We live in France where BFing past 6 months does not seem common and if this happens it is often mixed feeding.
For example at 9 months DN was bf in the day and had a bottle of milk and cereal at night.
Follow-on milk is also the norm.

We discussed whether to go to formula when she was 6 months and decided not to, he said he was happy with whatever I decided as I was the one doing the feeding. Now he doesn?t seem so happy about it and I think it may be because other people have been giving him helpful advice.
I know he just wants what is best for our DD so I hope you can help me reassure him that what I am doing is okay.

These are his worries;

That she will be/is clingy. She is actually very sociable and happy to go to other family members and even complete strangers, but of course I am her main focus as I am the main carer.

That if we gave her a night bottle of milk and cereal she would sleep through. She can and has slept through. If she wakes in the night she is easily settled with a BF, though at the moment I can tell it is more comfort than for food.

That because she doesn?t sleep through her temperament and motor development are affectrd. She is a happy and very alert baby. She only just started crawling but has been standing and walking with help for a while. She never went through the roll round the room phase.

I would like to say I do not think there is anything wrong with our child. If you can also explain other benefits that would help too.

Thanks.

kellymom on criticism.

i could go on for ages about how the bf relationship changes as the baby grows. you can already point out how feeding a 10mo is different to feeding a 6mo and a newborn and how dependence on you is still there but different / lessening.

there is a whole support thread on this topic for extended bfers which you may find helpful.

night waking are still common at that age and there is no reason why a bottle of formula would make her sleep better - i tried stuffing ds with porridge at bedtime around that age and it didn't make any difference!

i expect as she starts walking etc will become more physically tired and a new sleep pattern will emerge. try taking her swimming to expend a bit of energy.