at what point does bf become extented bf?

[Booyhoo]

ds is 8 months now and i am starting to get those comments. you all know what they are, i dont need to say them all again.

is anything past 6 months considered extended?

12 mo imo
that's when they could have cows' milk

Some people say after 12 months, some say 2 years due to WHO guidelines. I considered myself extended bfing after 12 months

i started getting comments when DS was 1 - but i much prefer calling it "natural term breastfeeding". Extended seems to imply we are forcing it. My DS is 3 and will not stop even though i would quite like him to, and will have a new baby in 2wks or so - but hey ho - anything for an easy life!

IMO, extended breastfeeding would be breastfeeding beyond the time that the child wants to/is physiologically capable of breastfeeding. Which is probably vanishingly rare, if not impossible.

So 'natural term breastfeeding' would describe bf to the time that the child self-weans.
'Curtailed breastfeeding' would be stopping anytime before that.
Just another way of looking at it.

More conventionally, the WHO recommend exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months, then to continue until at least 2 years- so I suppose anything after that could be seen as extended.

i live in a backward sort of place so the comments dont surprise me but i just wondered what was considered extended.

i do like the phrase 'natural term breastfeeding' though. i shall use that in future.

I tend to consider it after 12 months, just purely because if I was bottlefeeding that is the age when I would be aiming to wean the baby off formula and bottles. Though now I think about it that seems backwards, to compare breastfeeding with bottlefeeding as if that was the one to emulate!

i know, ff seems to be the norm here and people compare how bf stacks up compared to that rather than the other way round.