how long should/did you breastfeed for?

[demi]

we all know breast is best in that it provides the exact nutritional needs for your baby, along with those essential antibodies to boost your little one's immature immune system, providing much needed protection against all the viruses and bacteria in the outside world.

but how long do you feel, as a mother, that you should continue to provide this nutrition and protection in the form of breast milk?
when do you think you reach the point of it not being socially acceptable any more, if at all?
do you feel you were forced to stop too soon out of embaressment?



i breast fed my daughter until she was 2 and a half, by which point i was only feeding her at night before she went to bed, and in the morning when she would come into our bed and help herself while i was still sleeping

i remember after she was about 1 year old people were commenting on the fact that i was still breastfeeding, and as time went on this happened more often and untimatly led to me not wanting to breastfeed in public anymore out of shame.
but i continued to breastfeed her because i knew it is in her best interest health wise and i also think it is an important bonding experiance.
before i stopped breastfeeding her she was only sick a couple of times, even though i had colds, and once the flu, on many occations. she was getting my antibodies which were protecting her from the illnesses which i had. and if she did develop symptoms they were no where near as bad or as long lasting as mine.

i know i gave my daughter the best start in life by breastfeeding her for this length of time and i am doing the same just now for my son.

for me though, i think by the time they go to nursary they should be weaned off breast, so that would be by 3 years old.
i know there are some mothers who continue for much longer.

what's your opinion?

[JuzaMum]

In some ways it depends where you live. If you have no safe water supply/low quality or little available food I would say for as long as practically possible. I believe WHO guidelines are now 2 years. Socially acceptable becomes what the majority do so in some cultures breastfeeding at 5 is OK, in others 1 year+ is a bit creepy.
Personally I breastfed my youngest son until he self weaned at 14 months - I wonder if me being pregnant had any bearing on it. My daughter is nearly 9 months and we will see how things go - she won't be feeding at 5!

JuzaMum

[happyhippy]

I breast fed my two daughters both for two years,and that was quite a long time ago,they're now 22 and 25 yrs old!I did'nt set out to feed them for 2 years,it felt felt right at the time.Ignore any negative remarks,and do what suits you both.

[demi]

In some ways it depends where you live. If you have no safe water supply/low quality or little available food I would say for as long as practically possible. I believe WHO guidelines are now 2 years. Socially acceptable becomes what the majority do so in some cultures breastfeeding at 5 is OK, in others 1 year+ is a bit creepy.
Personally I breastfed my youngest son until he self weaned at 14 months - I wonder if me being pregnant had any bearing on it. My daughter is nearly 9 months and we will see how things go - she won't be feeding at 5!

JuzaMum

yes iv heard that if you get pregnant while you're still breastfeeding your milk changes and your child tends not to like the new taste and as a result self-weans. i imagine this is a natural trate, so you can focus your energy on the new baby.
but iv also heard of women feeding an older and a younger child at the same time. probably not at the exact same time, just feeding them both one after the other.

[fifi folle]

no, in some cases it's baby on one boob and toddler on the other! lol Tandem feeding is quite common among extended breastfeeders (considered over 6/12 months depending on who you talk to).
There is no "should" when it comes to duration of feeding, apparently the age for weaning in nature is between 2 and 7 years (ref: http://www.llli.org/ba/aug94.html). I hope I am confident enough to BF my son when he is bigger, but we are also considering a new baby so I guess he may well self wean if we do get pregnant.
I think the UK recommendation of BFing for 6 months has confused people, they think they only have to BF for 6 months, rather than the UN recommendation of 2 years.
Any breastmilk is better than none though :-)

[Helsbells]

I am pregnant and hope to breast feed, my plan is to breast feel exclusively for 6 months then start weaning. For me if the child has teeth I feel that it is time to stop breastfeeding because they are able to have solid food. Also I am not sure I want my children to be able to remember being breast fed or be able to ask for it because to me that seems weird. I might need to go back to work after 6 months so wouldn't be able to breastfeed throughout the day so practicality comes into it too.
That's my personal opinion and I think everyone should do as they feel is right for hem and their child, no one should pass judgement on anyone else's choices it's all personal to them.

[demi]

I am pregnant and hope to breast feed, my plan is to breast feel exclusively for 6 months then start weaning. For me if the child has teeth I feel that it is time to stop breastfeeding because they are able to have solid food. Also I am not sure I want my children to be able to remember being breast fed or be able to ask for it because to me that seems weird. I might need to go back to work after 6 months so wouldn't be able to breastfeed throughout the day so practicality comes into it too.
That's my personal opinion and I think everyone should do as they feel is right for hem and their child, no one should pass judgement on anyone else's choices it's all personal to them.

i am in no way having a dig but,
if you stop breastfeeding at 6 months you will have to bottle feed with formula until your baby is 1 year old and can go onto cows milk. even though he/she will start on solid food, they still have to have milk as the main part of their diet.
i doubt your kids would remember being breast fed, unless you feed them till there in school.
when you stop they soon forget about it. my daughter was 2 and a half when i stopped and after a month off breast my boobs became inannamate opbjects to her.
even if you go back to work you can still breast feed mornings and evenings and either express milk or use formula to give to the caregiver for during the day.

its up to you what you do, and certainly breastfeeding your baby for the first 6 months of its life is providing the best start to your little ones life. i think if you make it to 6 months you might have changed your mind by then and want to continue. its so much easier haveing milk on tap without having to boil kettles, steralize bottles and mix formula at 3 in the morning. plus its such wonderful bonding time between you and your baby. when you breastfeed it releases hormones which make you all nice and relaxed.

[JuzaMum]

Hi Helsbells

I guess the thing to do is play it by ear when baby comes - it is rarely how you expect. I just wanted to say teeth have no bearing on breastfeeding or weaning. My youngest son had all his teeth before I stopped breastfeeding him and never injured me at all (he teethed early). My daughter was 7 months before the first tooth appeared but it didn't stop her tucking into my food and eating solids well (we are baby led weaning).
Also you will find your new born baby will 'ask' for milk - just non-verbally, so I don't see how mums can stop before their child is able to ask.

JuzaMum

[Helsbells]

I would breast feed exclusively for first 6 months then start weaning, so would still be breast feeding for some time after that. I have to admit I am not very knowledgeable about weaning and when to feed babies what etc, I have basically read up to how to give birth in the books and can't read past that!!
I did imagine that teeth would cause a problem, i.e. biting!! But obviously this isn't the case which is good.

[demi]

I would breast feed exclusively for first 6 months then start weaning, so would still be breast feeding for some time after that. I have to admit I am not very knowledgeable about weaning and when to feed babies what etc, I have basically read up to how to give birth in the books and can't read past that!!
I did imagine that teeth would cause a problem, i.e. biting!! But obviously this isn't the case which is good.

with my first i also just read up to the giving birth part as that seemed to be the most dramatic part and i assumed the rest would just come naturally. however, id like to give you some advice which i wish id new about before giving birth to make things easier for breastfeeding.
breastfeeding does not allways come naturally, as i had assumed. if you dont get the position right your in for a tough time with your nipples, in that they will scabb up and crack and bleed. ( it is not my instention to put you off breastfeeding! )
read up as much as you can on breastfeeding and the problems that can go with it so you know what to do and you will hopfully be able to prevent painfull nipples. although some degree of discomfert is inevatble in the beginning within the first week, even if you do it right.
i had a horrible time with my first, i was increadably engorged and she couldnt latch on because, as the midwife put it, my boobs were like inflated baloons which were impossible for baby to get a hold of. so my daughter was just sucking on the end of my nipple and was quite happy there as i had so much milk it was spraying all over her face! so i had to express milk before ever feed, which was excrusiating as by this point i was cracking and bleeding. expressing the milk 'deflated' my boobs to some extent and she was then able to latch on properly ( the actual nipple should be at the back of her mouth and her lips should be arround your areola, with most of your areola also in her mouth. she should start with short fast sucks for the first few seconds until the milk starts to come out properly then she will change to long sucks and you can clearly hear her gulping unbetween each suck, and then inbetween every other suck as your breast starts to empty )
i had to top her up with formula because she lost too much weight and they kept me in the hospital for a week because of this.
once i got home ( and my mum had gone out at 3am to get a hand expressor from the supermrket as ifound out the hard way i couldnt feed without ecpressing first) things improved and after a few weeks i didnt need to use the expressor any more and probably after about 4 weeks my nipples had compleatly healed up and breastfeeding was completly painless.

with my second baby i knew what to do and it was ssooooooo much easier!! i had him feeding right away while i was laying on the bed with him laying beside me ( most comfy lazy position ) i still had a bit of discomfort after a few days, but it takes a bit for your nipples to toughen up, and after a week it was fine and no bleading or excessive scabbing this time!

so my advice to you is to make sure you watch lots of videos ect about how to latch on propperly so you can avoid the painful experiance that puts so many women off breastfeeding.
and just remember if it is soar, it will get better, just keep at it and you will soon be enjoying the wonderful connection between mother and baby

[Helsbells]

Thanks for the advice Demi, I have been to two NCT training sessions on breastfeeding and I know that my hospital has a drop in for breastfeeding advice that runs every day so if I have any problems I will go there.

[MClan]

When I was pregnant I honestly didn't realise that you were still supposed to bf past 6 months. Looking back I was very badly informed. Breastfeeding is not the best. It is normal standard nutrition. There is nothing 'special' about it. It's just that the substitutes don't have a patch on it. I bf all my children (and am still breastfeeding my youngest). I was pregnant with my second child when my daughter was 5 months old. U continued to bf and ended up tandem bf my two children. Yes it's perfectly possible to feed them at the sane time. It was great. A bit of quiet for me and no jealousy. Once I returned to work full-time I continued. I then became pregnant again whilst bf my two older children. I continued to bf and work and eventually 5 months in they decided to stop. Once my youngest was born my daughter decided to have an occasional breastfeed and only 2 days ago aged 4 and 3/4 she wanted to have some. I wasn't bothered. I still breastfeed my 2 year old in public. I don't whip them out, most people dong even notice. but the biological norm for weaning is around 4. I went back to work full-time due to circumstances and expressed for 9 months. He never had a drop of formula. I personally don't want to give my hard earned cash to companies with dubious marketing practices and whose claims are usually that their product is 'similar' to breastmilk. Human milk contains so many ingredients. The average formula doesn't even hit a 10th of that. What we need is good support and it becoming the norm once again.

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

oh it varies so much as to the situation, my eldest 2 i fed for 9 weeks as had to go back to work them number 3 was mix fed because of various issues he had with his mouth that i couldn't get help for for about 4 months and then i got sick of expressing every feed for him to have and number 4 is currently 26 months and has just been weaned through the day as he was becoming completely obsessed and i couldnt sit down, Dylan (no 4) had all his teeth and has bitten me once when his first tooth was coming through, this is often the time that they may nip!
I have very nearly quit a number of times having had no end of problems with him and a tounge tie that was undiagnosed for 9 weeks!

Helsbells, anything is better than nothing and just go with the flow and enjoy it, pst baby led weaning by gill ripley (i believe) is a fab book, messy bu easier than purees!

[Helsbells]

Breast feeding is currently going well, I hope it stays as good as it is because I don't have sore nipples or pain when feeding after the initial couple of sucks.

[fifi folle]

that's fab!