Why do people breastfeed past 1year old?

[Mommabear20]

Not a bashing thread, I'm genuinely interested in peoples reasons!

My DD was formula fed and once she was a year old and could drink cows milk, she stopped formula completely and no longer uses bottles at all.

So my question is, if you have breastfed your DC past 1 year when it's no longer needed for their nutrition, why do/did you continue?

I fed dd until she was nearly 3. I didn't plan it that way, but she wasn't ready to stop so we didn't. In any case, breast milk is nutritious and breastfeeding is quite natural, so I was happy to carry on for as long as she needed to.

@Lalliella

I think the question should be turned around. It should be: Why stop giving your child the milk of its own species and instead give it the milk of a different species?

Indeed!

I don’t want to force my child to stop giving her something that comforts her to give her the breast milk of an animal.

I bf DD for 18 months because

1. It's not needed but still beneficial. WHO recommends bf for 2 years

1. Habit

1. It was the only way I could put her to bed (I know how silly thst is)

1. She refused to eat solids around the one year mark. So bf was her only nutrition

1. She d always refused drinking from a bottle so formula was never an option. At age one she didn't like cow's milk either.

We enjoyed it. It’s lovely bonding time. Nothing sweeter than lolling in bed feeding while your little one looks intently at you. It helps them get to sleep. It has health benefits. It’s less faff than a bottle even if it is cows milk.
I only stopped at about 16 months with each as wanted to try for the next child and have no libido while breast feeding.

[quote Lifeisnteasy]@grey12 the information is out there & we need to trust women to make the right decision.

I think a lot of women have problems understanding some women just don’t value bfing as much as they do 🤷🏼‍♀️[/quote]
Breast IS the best but not always the right choice for someone. I think as a society we're starting to agree on that

But the truth is unfortunately you can't say that everyone is educated

a. The WHO recommends breastfeeding up to and beyond two years.
b. My business.

@bitemyarsenic

because the overall health benefit of bfing is negligible so nothing to worry about

800,000 baby deaths and 20,00 maternal deaths from breast cancer alone would be prevented worldwide each year if the majority of mothers BF ( Lancet 2016)

1000 of those baby deaths are from D&V in the US.
You are completely ignorant in saying the benefits are neglible.

Yes because formula isn’t made up properly and conditions are not sanitary in many countries.

The lifetime benefit to an individual is indeed negligible.

I know that annoys people.

Because:
We both enjoyed it - a lovely quiet time
I'm lazy and it was easy
It's still of benefit to them
I spent part of my childhood in a country where women often bf until the child was 3 or 4 so it didn't seem odd.

@Lifeisnteasy there are always loads of threads on mumsnet which tediously argue over which is best, bf or ff. this isn’t one of those threads. It’s not comparing bf and ff at all. It’s literally a response to a question about why people choose to feed after 1 year. I can’t think why you would choose to come on to this thread and attack and contradict people when you have no personal knowledge or experience of the subject unless you had some kind of underlying bitterness or regret.

Because we are mammals it's kind of what we are supposed to do?

(I didn't - I stopped at about a year for practical reasons around return to work etc, and supply issue).

In a purely "natural" situation really what would probably stop bf is the return of fertility and a subsequent pregnancy. I know people do tandem feed but in the natural world it's pretty unheard of for mammals to do that.

I think we should be asking the question, why SHOULD you give up rather than why should you carry on.

Breastfeeding is the default not the other way round.

Why should anyone have to explain or justify carrying on with a natural thing?

Honest the real question is 'why the hell not'?

The whole premise of the OP sets up the idea of breastfeeding beyond 1 year as abnormal or unnatural. I think we should be unpicking that more.

I bf my 2nd til 19 months because she wanted to. She weaned off bf naturally herself.

[quote JanuaryPinks]@Lifeisnteasy there are always loads of threads on mumsnet which tediously argue over which is best, bf or ff. this isn’t one of those threads. It’s not comparing bf and ff at all. It’s literally a response to a question about why people choose to feed after 1 year. I can’t think why you would choose to come on to this thread and attack and contradict people when you have no personal knowledge or experience of the subject unless you had some kind of underlying bitterness or regret.[/quote]
Who am I ‘attacking’?

PP asked a question and I answered it. And I’ve been witch hunted ever since.

Because she would lift up my top, flip my sagging tits out of my bra and get involved. I would often wake up to find she was lying next to me suckling away...it was a mission to finally make her stop when she turned 3!!

But you didn’t “answer it” - you haven’t done it yourself. All you’ve done is go through other people’s posts and argue with the reasons they gave for why they continued to feed past 1 year. Like, why do you care about this if it’s not something you did personally?

[quote Lifeisnteasy]@grey12 the information is out there & we need to trust women to make the right decision.

I think a lot of women have problems understanding some women just don’t value bfing as much as they do 🤷🏼‍♀️[/quote]
Eight out of 10 women stop breastfeeding sooner than they want to.
www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/about/breastfeeding-in-the-uk/

Fine but the second point isn’t relevant to a 12 month old and certainly isn’t kind to women who tried but couldn’t bf.

Oh yes, let’s not forget, in this thread SPECIFICALLY about why we choose to breastfeed, that we must be kind to women who didn’t. FGS. This isn’t about people who couldn’t or didn’t. Can there be no conversation on this subject without it being edited to take into account the feelings of others, who in this case, are irrelevant?

It was easy.
He fed to sleep/naps. We also co-slept and he would settle easier.
It was comforting for him and a lovely time to cuddle.
Went til 2.5. I was very over it by then and a few necessary days away from home broke the habit.
He was having cows milk too from 1 so I felt it was the best of everything. They might not need it for nutrition but I guess they get useful antibodies etc still 💁‍♀️.
I was also quite a bit older than with my first, more confident and comfortable myself in breastfeeding I.e. out and about so it did sort of just carry on naturally. I always vowed I'd stop when teeth came in but it was never an issue!

Lifeisnteasy Who am I attacking

For instance, you were not nice to the person you chose to quote - you added nothing but a laughing emoji under her comments. She was sharing her sincere thoughts about what she loves about breastfeeding. Your post was deleted.

I've BFed three children past 1. I was aware of the health benefits to mother and baby, but they were nice additions rather than reasons to make a particular decision.

DC1: wanted the comfort for upcoming medical procedures she had coming up / had had a very tricky start to BFing and didn't want to waste all that time and effort / had a very positive comment from one of DC's doctors about it doing her lots of good.

DC2: convenience (sleep, refreshment when travelling), bonding, calming her down.

DC3: bonding, extra antibody protection during the pandemic.

Hello I breastfeed both my sons for a total of 7.5- 8 years!! so one was 4 the other was 3.5 when they stopped. If you would have told me that before I would have thought I was a mad woman. However for me it was something that was a bit selfish tbh in the beginning, tantrums solved, night waking solved, thirst solved, comfort solved etc. It was easier in many ways than dealing with them at 8 and 5. It got to the point where i was sick of getting my boobs out so when it ended it was time. With my first I completely relactated as I lost my milk supply because of a traumatic birth so when it was up and running after weeks of double pumping and hourly feeds, I was happy to continue as it was so hard. However its something that I never really shout from the roof tops as people can be so critical if you breastfeed or formula feed and don't do it or do it too long or too short so i think mums cannot win which is so sad ...Would I change it? no not at all am I glad to wear a good bra? yes !! xxx

@Orphlids

Fine but the second point isn’t relevant to a 12 month old and certainly isn’t kind to women who tried but couldn’t bf.

Oh yes, let’s not forget, in this thread SPECIFICALLY about why we choose to breastfeed, that we must be kind to women who didn’t. FGS. This isn’t about people who couldn’t or didn’t. Can there be no conversation on this subject without it being edited to take into account the feelings of others, who in this case, are irrelevant?

Doubling down on the unpleasantness there?

Because it didn't bother either the babies or me and it had no ill effect on anyone, including judgemental women on MN threads.

And also, it was nobody's business but mine.

And the thread isn’t about why people choose to bf. It’s why they don’t stop