please can someone clear up once and for all how extended breasfeeding is viewed from a child protection point of view?

[StealthPolarBear]

Is ebf initself considered a concern? Is there any official guidance?

Well, you know stealth, it's because beds are for having sex in. So if you're in bed with your toddler, you might be tempted to molest him. Or something.

I blame Queen Victoria for all this. Silly mare.

Sorry- I looked too high up for the name - that last post was for whatstheetiquette :)

I'm a SW and wouldn't be concerned by extended BF.

I also wouldn't bat an eyelid at guinea pigs in the house - I used to have 5 and would actively encourage them to be house pets!

When we coslept the sofa was the passion place once kids asleep upsatirs. Does this mean that we should not have sat on the sofa with the kids :o

We cosleep but have sex in the spare room where there is a double bed and the kids are asleep in our actual bed in our bedroom. Is that OK with SS?

I'm really bothered about that sofa sitting, eaglewings. Whatstheetiquette, I think that's probably ok, as long as your parents in law never sleep in that bed (just imagine... shudder)

I am loving overusing italics shamelessly in this thread :)

ok I see

but goodness me, what a sad phrase "appropriate personal boundaries" applied to little children.

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4008144

the above link has the framwork documents that the SW should be using to assess each case along with the questions they should use.

There is no mentioon of extended breastfeeding on any of them!

I would never in a million years thought co sleeping would be an issue, my 4 year old often sleeps in my bed when he isnt there his 9 year old brother maybe. Last night my 15 year old slept next to me in bed. Some rare night they are bloody all there, then i have to go and sleep somewhere else as there isnt room. I would fume if someone came to my house to tell me that was not right. Makes me cross to think about it.

There is mention that the "Childs bed is clean and safe" and that there is a "Bedtime Routine in place" so i guess a SW can not assess if the child is co-sleeping as its the parents bed (just a guess)

There used to be an organisation called Nursing Matters that offered support in cases like this, does anyone know what happened to them?

I find this thread weird. There must be more going on than just attachment parenting.

I breastfeed a toddler on the 0.4th centile. Although we didn't co sleep I had my toddler in a bedside cot. My health visitor wasn't in the slightlest bit bothered. Her view was that she would not make the same parenting decisions as me and saw breastfeeding a toddler as personal preference.

She was quite happy with my parenting. She was more fussed about the fact that I was/ am extremely skinny. Was was worried in a sweet kind of way about my toddler waking up four times a night for breastmilk.

Surely if all the extended breastfeeders or co sleepers were refered to SS then SS would collapse.

Well I suppose it's where you draw the line. The thread that sparked this was about a 7yo. I wuold hope that even the thickest of social workers would realis that bf a 2yo is normal. What about a 3yo? 4yo? 5yo? Beyond?
BTW I do not intend this to be a social worker bashing thread. All the ones I have come into contact with have been fantastic, very dedicated and obsessive about doing the right thing for the child and family. However, the subject of extended bf never really came up.
When I had DD I saw the other HV at our practice a cople of times. She mentioned that she co slept, didn't bat an eyelid when she saw me bf 1yo DS, it was nice to experience! GP also was supportive - when seeing DS for an ear infection at about 2 made it plain that he did not think there was any reason for me to stop bf.

Why though? What do they get out of it?

God this is so depressing. Looking at those lists - BF to past 2 , washing everywhere , sauce splashes on hob, I cannot see what on earth is unusual about any of them? I remember you mentioning some nonsense about socks Trinity as well, which seemed equally bonkers.

I couldn't be more bloody ordinary if I tried, except I did BF past 2 which is relatively unusual IRL but not on Mumsnet but this sounds like I should be getting a referral pronto, WTF? I do do less housework than your average bear but I do some/enough, depending on your POV of course.

The seven yr old - didn't look at the thread, I just thought it is very unusual, when I saw the thread title.

What strikes me though, those issues would not warrant taking the children away in a million years. SW just want to see that you are doing what they ask, being compliant above all else. Even if being compliant means doing something pointless that they have decided they want you to do. To show willing

I don't get it. And I am an HCP, have made referrals to SW in the past, am related to a SW, but I still don't get it.

Well me too. ATM the house is OK but there is usually piles of clean washing everywhere. Splashes on the hob. Sometimes the kitchen floor could do with a clean. Sometimes the bathrooms could. Sometimes all those things coincide. I have never thought, and still struggle to believe that they would actually be points of concern. However, I really would like a definitive answer from someone - I do appreciate te answers from SWs on this thread but surely there must be a regulatory body? I suppose it's probably NICE and maybe Ofsted.

not in the slightest MM. No.

I'm shocked that SS are interested in these things - round my way they are so overworked that a child has to have a knife to its neck before SS get involved (I'm in education).

I understand there is an element of damned if they do and damned if they don't but it seems that they are such a law unto themselves its scary.

Yes agree. But baskets of dirty clothes which are in appropriate places, and mountains ahem backets of clean clothes waiting for Godot to be folded aren't.
No, not at all. I mention in one of my first few posts that I agree why ebf might be taken into account. But on its own, or with a few other AP-type behaviours (co-sleeping, vegan etc) surely it cannot be?

wonderstuff, as I said, I don't want this to turn into SW-bashing. But ebf is one of those things, unlike swearing at a child (e.g.) that most of the population have an opinion on, once exposed to, and many I suspect, think eww.
SWs won't be immune from that. So what guidance or overseeing is there to make sure that this doesn;t turn into a marker of abuse.