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Original poster

Views on if there's an age limit to breastfeeding in public

313 replies

Mud · 14/04/2005 20:02

I am totally for breastfeeding for as long as you are able / want to do it. So have no issues with extended breastfeeding (probably would put a cut off before 3 though)

I do however think that once a baby is no longer reliant on breast milk, and is totally weaned (probably around a year when it progresses to being a toddler) that it becomes a far more private affair between mother and toddler and should remain in the home (morning and night feeds)

So at what stage does a baby no longer need milk during the day? I think from a year. I think from a year is too old to offer a breast in public. And think especially if a toddler can walk, talk, pull up your top and accept a beaker then I think that's too old to breastfeed in public

your opinion is?

OP posts:
paolosgirl · 14/04/2005 21:15

Anyone tried their own?

binkybetsy · 14/04/2005 21:16

Can anyone answer my post I think it's a little way back now, gosh this is speeding along!

SenoraPostrophe · 14/04/2005 21:16

mp - I always think that.

marthamoo · 14/04/2005 21:17

Yes, I tasted my own - it's sweet, not like cow's milk.

bundle · 14/04/2005 21:17

i don't know what age i'll stop breastfeeding bb.

binkybetsy · 14/04/2005 21:19

Can you envisage what reasoning may be behind the decision when you make it?

Gobbledigook · 14/04/2005 21:19

mp - but the mother can keep on producing the milk indefinitely so where do you draw the line? You aren't still drinking your mother's milk are you? So to me, once a child is eating a normal, balanced, adult diet there is no need for breastmilk just as there is no need for you or I to drink it.

If you don't stop at 2, why stop at 3? and if you don't stop at 3, why stop at 4?

When you stop, why is it?

bundle · 14/04/2005 21:19

no. when i finished with dd1's bf it wasn't a planned, conscious decision, but actually one that we came to jointly

hunkersneakymunker · 14/04/2005 21:20

I'll stop when DS wants to. It interferes with my life not a jot, he isn't unhappy when I'm not there, when I am there, he nurses for a few minutes every now and then (maybe three or four times a day) and then he goes off to whatever he was doing. I don't pick him up, force him up my top and make him suck - does anyone seriously think you can MAKE a child breastfeed?!

marthamoo · 14/04/2005 21:23

I stopped bf-ing ds1 just after his 1st birthday - but he stopped too, we just kind of petered out. I was happy to do it as long as we both wanted to.

Ds2 was only 8 months - but that was complicated and to do with PND etc. I'm glad I did 8 months but did feel a little guilty that I didn't keep going as long as with ds1.

Original poster
Mud · 14/04/2005 21:27

actually Aloha dictionary definition of INfant is under a year

Definitions of infant on the Web:

baby: a very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk; www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

The word Infant derives from the Latin in-fans, meaning unable to speak. It is commonly used as a slightly more formal word for baby (the youngest category of child). A newborn infant is known as a neonate (neonatal) after the final stage of gestation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant

An infant is a baby. www.enchantedlearning.com/dictionarysubjects/people.shtml

A child under one year of age.
www.dhss.mo.gov/NewbornHearing/Glossary.html

OP posts:
Bittie · 14/04/2005 21:28

No, it should go on as long as mother and child are happy with it...

I fed my son until he was 14...

morningpaper · 14/04/2005 21:30

GDG: once a child is eating a normal, balanced, adult diet there is no need for breastmilk

Well I think my daughter will be about 24 before she reaches this stage.

I'm not suggesting we all suckle from our mothers until we are 50, but it's far more logical than preferring the milk of another species!

GeorginaA · 14/04/2005 21:30

Mud: bollocks to that

The only dictionary is the Oxford English

infant: 1. a a child during the earliest period of its life. b Brit a schoolchild below the age of seven years. 2 a thing in an early stage of its development. 3 Law a minor; a person under 18.

binkybetsy · 14/04/2005 21:30

Bloody hell Mud, look at you!

GeorginaA · 14/04/2005 21:31

(sorry, I'm a word pedant)

hunkersneakymunker · 14/04/2005 21:32

And where's Moondog, that's what I want to know!

whatsername · 14/04/2005 21:34

I fed dd until she was 16 months, it never occurred to me that anyone would have a problem with that (although I don't know anyone else who fed that long). I was pleased to be able to do it. Ds had a cleft lip and was unable to bf, I fed him solely on expressed milk for 10 months but was always disappointed that anyone watching would assume I was bottle feeding.

I think it's lovely feeding long term, and I think Bobbybob feeding at 25 months is admirable. I'd had enough at 16 months, I wanted my body back (and I'd had people questioning me about why I was continuing since she was about 3 months old), but I think it's wonderful to have the desire to continue. Personally, to me, the cut off is probably around the age of 3, but accept that probably says more about me that about those who continue longer.

I don't get the argument 'but it's not about nutrition by that point' so what? Does it have to be solely about nutrition? I'm not up on the recommendations, but someone said that the WHO recommend feeding to around age 2. Fine, but why does that mean you have to stop once there's not that nutritional need. It can't hurt nutritionally, but bf is a wonderful calm, relaxing bonding time, what's wrong with that?

And bringing the sexuality issue into it??? My tits belong to me, noone else and I decide what I do with them. I always wanted to bf, but before ds, I never used to like anyone touching my breasts. I don't mind now, but there was certainly no sexual motivation in feeding.

GeorginaA · 14/04/2005 21:35

To the topic on hand. I have no idea. Ds1 was fed for 8 months and he stopped by himself. Ds2 is now 11 months and feeding morning and night only (just stopped afternoon feed because he wasn't really interested). Don't know how I feel about other people extended feeding while I'm there... thought I'd be uncomfortable with it, but just realised on reading this thread that an acquaintance at toddler group still feeds her toddler at the group as and when and I hardly notice it properly - so it obviously doesn't bother me then, does it?

No idea when ds2 & I will stop... I should imagine he'll dictate to me just like his brother did.

I do attempt to make him laugh so he falls off though...

hunkersneakymunker · 14/04/2005 21:36

Whatsername, the WHO recommend feeding until at least two. And not just in developing countries, for those of you who want to tell me how wonderful our Western diet is...!

hunkersneakymunker · 14/04/2005 21:37
GeorginaA · 14/04/2005 21:39
jollymum · 14/04/2005 21:41

Ok, morningpaper, back to the original question. When is it appropriate to the babies of one species to move to drinking the milk of another species? Supply and demand is {I'm told} the criteria for breastfeeding. Does that mean that if my child is still suckling my milk at age 10, becuase I am one species and a cow is another, that it is inapproriate at any age for him to change?

SP-your little one is still little. I think the original question was getting at the fact that the person may have seen toddlers trying to feed and maybe this makes them uncomfortable. I would be happy, personally speaking, with a cutoff point of about 1 and a half(ish) but that's my opinion and I would be talking about feeding in public. Privately, people can feed as long as they like but IMHO, i get a slightly weird feeling the older the child gets. I have a friend that fed her daughter (and it seems be to mostly boys that need the extended feeding, shoot me down if I'm wrong}but this girl was three, at nursery with mine and as they came out together, would talk to her mum about her morning and what she'd done. This little girl was articulate, worldly wise etc but when we went to her house, or for a coffee straight after nursery, would ask for "booby". I was embarrassed, so was my daughter and guess what, so was her mum. She would make every excuse under the sun about her being "under the weather", "not sleeping well" etc but truth was, if she said no, and she did occasionally, this little wotsit played mery hell. She screamed, shouted and literally ripped my friend's top off. That's wrong, it's not nice nd the child needs to grow up, fast. Life's not like that, we all have to change and her poor mum was mortified. I'm not taliking about breastfeeding littlies and I don't think the original question meant to upset anyone who has the time, and tenacity to carry on feeding longer than most women would probably admit to wanting to, if they had the chance,. It's those "late" feeder that make me, personally, feel uncomfortable.

whatsername · 14/04/2005 21:43

My God this has moved on since I typed all that.

On GDG's theory, if you don't stop at one week, why stop at 2 weeks, or 3 weeks??? Careful, you might still be feeding when baby is 35.

I have tried my breastmilk too, you have to, don't you?

Oh, and a confession, I always fed dd to sleep. Nightmare, dont do it. It was part of the catalyst for giving up bf, actually - the fact that she didn't sleep through until she was 18 months...

binkybetsy · 14/04/2005 21:44

My reason for asking was because I would (perhaps wrongly) assume that if the topic in hand is feeding older children in public and most of the posters say they do a morning and evening feed, I don't see where they older child and the public feed fit together.

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