Question about long-term breastfeeding

[Anonymous]

By long-term, I mean beyond one year. How many times a day was your child breastfeeding at age 1? At 18 months? If you were working, was DC still taking bottles during the day?

I know there's no such thing as "normal," really. I'm just trying to get a sense of the range out there. My son is 11 months and between breast and bottle wants breastmilk 6-7 times a day. He's not very keen on most solid foods yet, but it's definitely improving. He'll now eat around 2 ounces of solids at each meal.

[Anonymous]

I breastfed my first son until he was 16 months old. We stopped giving him bottles around 11 months (maybe a little before) when he learned to drink out of a straw (and then we just gave him his breastmilk in a straw cup). Once he was 12 months old, I continued to pump at work, but this was because he refused whole milk at first and we had to give half whole milk/half breastmilk. Had he taken whole milk by itself, I would have stopped pumping at work and just nursed him in the evenings. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I'm still breastfeeding my DS at 15 months. At one year, I stopped pumping so stopped sending bottles of breastmilk to daycare. Instead I send sippy or straw cups with whole milk, which he still doesn't really drink, but he is getting better. He also drinks water throughout the day and gets at least 4 oz of whole milk yogurt. For breastmilk, he now get his bedtime, middle of the night (yes he still does these), and morning nursings. My DS liked solids but was slow to take to table food. He is now eating like a champ though (still not a lot of table food but enough that he has a good variety and he's beginning to like new things each week).

[Anonymous]

With DD1 I nursed until 18 months. Just once a day. DD2 is now 14 months and I nurse her twice a day, morning and night. During the day she is on table foods and whole milk in a sippy.

[Anonymous]

at one year i was nursing dd about 6 times a day. we tried weaning around 13-14 months and couldn't seem to get rid of the last 3 feedings - morning, noon and night. slowly the noon feeding left, then we finished the morning nurse (which was really hard) around 17 months and are working on stopping the night nurse now around 20 months. as you can see i'm doing a very gentle wean

[Anonymous]

At 11 mos, #2 was nursing 4x/day (sleeping through the night). I weaned him to whole milk for the two mid-day feedings and stopped pumping. At 13 mos, he's still nursing morning and night. It turns out that he doesn't really like the whole milk, so we just make sure he gets lots of cheese (for calcium) and water (for hydration).

FWIW, #1 was also nursing 4x/day at 11 mos and went on a nursing strike, so I weaned him. He was eating full meals and then taking three big bottles of whole milk each day. Big eater, that one.

[Anonymous]

I am still nursing my 23 month old 3 or 4 times a day. I thought that it would gradually decrease as he got older but he doesn't want to stop! I don't know how to wean him - I was just hoping that he would naturally self-wean.

[Anonymous]

Frankly, if you remove BM altogether, the child will make the adjustment to cow's milk, or soy or whatever you think is best. You've just got to give them the chance to do so. If you are still BFing after 1 1/2, you might want to examine whether or not you are doing it for your child or yourself. Not trying to be harsh here, but this is not as complicated as it seems-babies grow into toddlers who grow into preschoolers and on and on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, if you remove BM altogether, the child will make the adjustment to cow's milk, or soy or whatever you think is best. You've just got to give them the chance to do so. If you are still BFing after 1 1/2, you might want to examine whether or not you are doing it for your child or yourself. Not trying to be harsh here, but this is not as complicated as it seems-babies grow into toddlers who grow into preschoolers and on and on.

For me, removing breast milk altogether (using your words) is not easy! While it may have been easy for you, it certainly is not easy for me. There is nothing wrong with nursing past 1.5 years. Are you aware that the WHO recommends breastfeeding until the age of 2?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all for your comments. It's nice to see that others are still nursing 6x day even at 12 mos. And it's good to see the range out there.

We just had a breakthrough in table foods - the kid just ate 4 oz! It's a miracle! I hope this means that his daytime BF needs will taper off a bit.

Though, at the rate we're going, I doubt this kid will self-wean before age 2. And I honestly don't mind.

[Anonymous]

If you are still BFing after 1 1/2, you might want to examine whether or not you are doing it for your child or yourself

.

This type of statement is typical of someone who knows nothing about extended breastfeeding. It really demonstrates an underlying bias, that you believe women practice extended breastfeeding solely for some sort of personal gratification. Breastfeeding is healthy and extremely beneficial for the child - no matter how long you do it. Many 1 or 2 year olds also continue to derive great comfort from it and continue to feel really emotionally connected to their mothers at precisely the time when tantrums typically start. From a health standpoint, I know that I felt so fortunate when my two year old contracted rotavirus last year, and at a time when he absolutely refused to eat or drink anything, and was vomiting and having diarrhea, breastmilk sustained him and, in my opinion, saved him from a trip to the ER.

Not trying to be harsh here, but this is not as complicated as it seems-babies grow into toddlers who grow into preschoolers and on and on.

I'm not really clear what you're saying here, and how it relates to breastfeeding. Maybe you could explain what you *would* be saying if you were indeed being harsh. Are you saying that breastfeeding moms don't let their kids grow up?

[jennrgolden]

Anonymous wrote:By long-term, I mean beyond one year. How many times a day was your child breastfeeding at age 1? At 18 months? If you were working, was DC still taking bottles during the day?

I know there's no such thing as "normal," really. I'm just trying to get a sense of the range out there. My son is 11 months and between breast and bottle wants breastmilk 6-7 times a day. He's not very keen on most solid foods yet, but it's definitely improving. He'll now eat around 2 ounces of solids at each meal.

I didn't read all of the responses so I'm sorry if I repeat something that's already been said. I breastfed my first son until he was 16 months old (he's 2 now). He breastfed almost constantly, I was stay-at-home so that was no issue...what was an issue was he seemed to have weight issues (as in not enough weight gain) and he too had an aversion to solids. It turns out he was just pacifying and not breastfeeding - no clue if this is what's happening with your little one - but I thought I'd share.

Also, the moment I stopped breast feeding my son's sleep issues disappeared. He was waking every two hours to breastfeed (pacify) and then started sleeping through the night almost immediately.

I now have a 3 week old and intend NOT to breastfeed so long because of these issues. I will likely only breastfeed for 9 months to a year.

Obviously, this was just my experience and is likely very different for you and may very well be different with my youngest baby...just wanted to share my experiences.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I nursed until my dd was 3.3. Dc never "self-weaned" and, in fact, became more and more fond of nursing, rather than less. If you talk to old-timers (like my 92 y/o grandmother or 80 y/o MIL), they'll tell you that such behavior is completely within the range of normal. Cross-cultural research has shown that, when left to their own choices, children self-wean most commonly around 3-4 years old.

We nursed multiple times a day up until around 2ish, then it became more of a comfort ritual when dd was tired or hurt or sick. The times that remained constant throughout were the pre-sleep nurses.

When we decided to wean (and it was something dc and I talked about together), dd was emotionally "ready" but still reluctant to give up something so beloved. My spouse took dd out of town for about 5 days and 4 nights (to MIL's), I used cabbage leaves and took pseuodephedrine, and that was it. Dd continued to want to cuddle with "the baby milks" before bed but accepted not nursing. Sometimes she cried about it and bit, and we were sad together and talked about how nice it was but how nice it was that she was now a big girl too. Dd also received a big present that she had identified as what she wanted to celebrate weaning and becoming a "big girl".

It's been over 6 months now, and dd has fond memories of nursing, no trauma related to giving it up, and talks about nursing her babies when she grows up and becomes a mother.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Jenn, thanks for sharing your own experience. Obviously, I'm no expert here as this is my first, but as long as my son keeps gaining weight to his doc's satisfaction and keeps making progress with the table foods, I won't worry TOO much.

I'm not SAHM (unfortunately), so DS doesn't really get to feed constantly and he has cut way back on the night feedings even though we're cosleeping. Luckily, I have the option of gradually transitioning into his own bed, his own room, and no night feedings. I know not everyone does.

Every baby is different - I wonder if your second will self-wean, without any intervention on your part. My own mother says I was so fiercely independent I refused the breast after 15 months. My sister, on the other hand, would have nursed forever!

[Anonymous]

Neither of my kids self-weaned. Both breastfed until they were 2 and a half years old, and I would say they become more dependent on it as time went on. In both cases, I just gradually cut down and shortened each nursing session by distracting them. Eventually one day I just said no and changed the situation (ie, they would like to come into my bed in the morning to snuggle/nurse, so I would just not be in bed when they woke up). I think at age 1 they were still nursing many times a day, even through the next year. Maybe by the time they were 2, it was down to 2-3 nursing sessions each day, usually just before or after sleep (depending on circumstances).

Both my kids were 'late-bloomers' with solids. Though, I didn't really push it either, especially with the second. I did a lot of self-feeding type of food with him and didn't do much spoon feeding (cereal/baby food) at all. Just kept offering smooshy finger foods until he was able to eat what we (adults) were eating.

Don't stress this too much, and go by your ds's lead. Offer him table food, yet allow him to nurse if he wants to. I have no idea when the recommended age for giving up the bottle is - though in my experience the child with continue to breastfeed long after they don't need a bottle anymore.