When should I stop breastfeeding

[Tiegs]

Hi everyone
My baby has just turned 1 and I have been breastfeeding exclusively since he was a newborn . I'm not sure when is the appropriate time to stop breastfeeding.
I have people asking me questions like " don't you feel weird that he has lots of teeth and you're still breastfeeding " or don't you think he's too big to still be breastfeeding .

My answer is no why should I need to stop if it'd still good for him .

My question is when did you stop breastfeeding or when do you think is the perfect age to stop breastfeeding ?

The appropriate age to stop BFing is when one of you want to, it's really not up to anyone else.

WHO recommend a minimum of 2 years. We did just over 2.5 with both of ours. By we I mean me and the DC, the relationship is between you and your baby, it's not for anyone else to decide.

Just coke put with some stock phrases like "it works for us" and smile.

There’s no perfect time for everyone, just what works for you, whether that is 3wks or 3yrs. It’s completely your decision and you’ll know when you feel the need to stop.

Thank you he still enjoys his milks and I still want to breastfeed him as long as he wants
Thank you for the reply

It's up to you, I breastfed until 3 years 4 months and stopped as by then I was completely fed up with it.

Thank you I don't know why people tell you to stop at 1 it makes no sense to give him cows milk if I can still give him my milk

I fed until 2.5 years with my eldest two - the only time to stop is when either your or your little one wants to! Breastmilk doesn’t lose nutritional value!

Both of mine fed until about 2y9m, although it was just once a day by the end. I went with distraction/don't offer don't refuse towards the end with both as the first time I was pregnant and didn't really want to tandem, and the second time I was just ready to have my body back after more than five years being pregnant, breastfeeding or both. No issues either time and I have no regrets.

The advice to swap to Cow's Milk at 13 months is only the advice for babies that are FF. If people are telling you this is the advice for BF babies then it just shows how little they know about feeding babies

*12 months

Oh okay thank you

Okay thank you

But that’s what I mean, for some people it makes perfect sense to stop breastfeeding at 3weeks, or 1yr, or 5yrs (or never breastfeed at all), despite being able to provide breast milk still. It really doesn’t matter what others are doing, people make the right decision for them and their family and people should be chastised for when they want to stop breastfeeding whether it’s day 1 or day 1000. Every persons decision is right for them and nobody should be made to feel guilty about it.

Stop breastfeeding when you want to. The WHO recommends after 2 but this is often very difficult to achieve due to work and various other lifestyle factors. You can also balance this with the fact that we have access to clean drinking water, healthy food, and modern medicine so our babies probably won’t benefit as much from term breastfeeding as babies in developing countries. However this doesn’t mean there aren’t any benefits to natural term breastfeeding.

Mine were fed to 18 months and 3 years. Mostly because I’m lazy, and it was a convenient parenting tool. It’s a completely personal choice and not something anyone can answer for you.

Entirely up to you OP! My DDs were in full time childcare at 1 so it was a feed in the morning and then a feed before bed.. so nobody would have seen it to comment on me stopping breastfeeding.

I think I stopped at around 18 months with DD1. I had a couple of nights away coming up and she wouldn’t settle without a feed so we phased it out. She was fine after a few days. DD2 was earlier I believe.

Whenever either you or baby want to stop. It was about 14/15 months with both of mine. They were only feeding overnight by then, they ate and drank well in the day otherwise. One went through a very painful biting phase and I was done. The other had a 2 week hospital stay, which was sometimes with me overnight, sometimes with dad so it just naturally stopped then and he was fine about it.

But that’s what I mean, for some people it makes perfect sense to stop breastfeeding at 3weeks, or 1yr, or 5yrs (or never breastfeed at all), despite being able to provide breast milk still. It really doesn’t matter what others are doing, people make the right decision for them and their family and people should be chastised for when they want to stop breastfeeding whether it’s day 1 or day 1000. Every persons decision is right for them and nobody should be made to feel guilty about it.

I don't think there's any shaming in this thread. Everyone seems to be saying you stop when you want to, that would include day 1, day 3 or never starting

You should stop either when your son has had enough of breastfeeding or when you have. The world health organisation recommends breastfeeding until 2 years and beyond, but milk isn’t strictly needed past one year so you could stop now if you decided that was best. I exclusively breastfed my son for a year (alongside solid food after 6 months). He was still breastfeeding loads at a year old and was pretty glued to me as a result so I started giving him cows milk in a cup a couple of times a day. You don’t need to do this but I found it helped him to stop being so reliant on breastfeeding. He’s 20 months old now and still breastfeeds 2-3 times a day which is manageable for me.

Any time you feel you want to.

I’m aiming for at least until 2 due to the WHO recommendation. If anyone asks when I’m going to stop I just say the WHO recommends at least two and then don’t really have a conversation about it as it kind of shuts down discussion.

Well done for feeding your baby this long. It’s totally up to you as to what feels right for both you and baby.

For me it’s the only way he settles for sleep so I will need to carry on for a while yet.

it should be when one of you are ready, I waited until my little one was ready and got some looks when out but didn’t let it phase me. I miss it now and I know she does too so just live in your breastfeeding bubble and don’t let anyone influence you or make you feel uncomfortable x

Mine went through the biting phase at seven to eight months, I tried all the gentle ways to get LO to stop and it didn't work - so that was the end of breastfeeding!

I think many women stop at a year because they may have taken a year of maternity leave and going back to work makes continuing to feed trickier.

From the OP’s friends! It sounded like they were judging her for not wanting to stop yet.

Agree with everyone else, there is not ideal age to stop, it depends on your circumstances and what you want to do.

So long as both you and the baby are happy, that's what matters. Although there IS an age at which it'll become weird (I mean, no one expects a ten year old to BF...) but when exactly that age is, well, everyone's got their opinion on that. And no one's opinion matters but yours when it comes to your baby.

I stopped at 2y1m with my twins as was 6m pregnant and it hurt. I would have gone longer until they wanted to stop if not. As people have said the WHO recommends beyond 2 years and research has shown that a lot of children if left to self wean do this when they lose their milk teeth - so around 5.

When questioned I think either tell people you are not currently looking for opinions on your boobs or that you expect to stop before your child starts university as the commuting would be expensive. Or you can be more polite and say you're not currently looking for advice and leave it at that

And anyone who says you are doing it for you, has never tried to feed a distracted 10m old as you definitely can't make any child breastfeed who doesn't want to