Leane Our society seems to have this view that breastfeeding beyond 6 months is not necessary and there’s something slightly wrong with you if you’re still going at one year, despite the World Health Organisation recommending breastfeeding until 2 or beyond. Now this blog post probably isn’t going to have a huge impact, but if I can help just one breastfeeding mama feel less alone or help one non-breastfeeding person realise that it’s normal then I’m happy with that and I haven’t wasted my time with this.
I’ve had comments about needing to get Babybel off the boob and onto a bottle. She’s 19 months old and won’t take a bottle so that won’t be happening. If you’ve watched our breastfeeding journey video, or read the blog post, you’ll know why she won’t take a bottle. I’ve also had people tell me she needs to move on to cows milk now as breast milk is not enough. You mean to tell me milk that’s made for a baby cow is better for her than milk that is actually tailor made for her? Even the HV at her check up was surprised that we were still boobing and said it wouldn’t be long until I could move her on to cows milk.
I’m not going to go hugely into the benefits of ‘extended breastfeeding’ which actually annoys me. It seems to imply that breastfeeding is only normal until one, then anything else is additional. But I’m just going to leave that there as I could go on about that for ages. I know breastfeeding continues to provide vitamins, nutrients, antibodies, comfort, and connection. If they have an upset stomach, human milk is sometimes one of the only things they can tolerate and this was true recently when Babybel had a tummy bug. She ate no solid food at all over Christmas and New Year, and solely survived on breastmilk for about 5 days.
So is breastfeeding a toddler different to feeding a baby? Yes it is completely different. But it’s not a sudden change, it’s gradual. They start looking about more, getting distracted, pulling off the boob, moving around, and then suddenly, they’re performing gymnastic moves and seeing how far your nipple will stretch. Spoiler alert – it’s quite far! They can also ask for a feed more directly. Babybel learned ages ago that trying to pull my top up signalled to me that she needed a snack and she’s happy to do that anywhere!
There’s also the twiddling to take into account. Some babies start this quite early but Babybel didn’t start doing this until a few months ago. If you’re not sure what I mean, it’s when they play with the opposite nipple to the one they’re feeding on. It can really make me cringe and sometimes I have to stop her from doing it. It’s some sort of weird comfort for her as she’s does it when she’s going to sleep. I could do without the twiddling but if it means she goes to sleep in 5 minutes, I can just about put up with it!
There’s also teeth to consider. Babybel has only bitten me intentionally (I say intentionally, it’s not like she thought I know what I’ll do, I’ll bite the boob that feeds me) but a couple of times she’s bitten as she’s been nursing to sleep and jumped. And it hurts. It is like a real burning pain but as I said, out of however many boobie feeds, she’s only done it a couple of times. After that first one though I did live in fear of an amputation!
Babybel still feeds a lot. When she’s ill, when she’s got teeth coming through, when she’s tired. There have been times when it’s a like having a newborn again recently. I honestly thought that she’d be boobing a lot less by now but she still feeds to sleep for the majority of naps, at bedtime, through the night and just random snacks during the day. It is a huge source of comfort for her and it forces me to slow down and chill out when she feeds to sleep. You hear a lot about how women are only doing it for themselves at this stage but that is utter crap. Although I enjoy the snuggles, I would very much like to get a whole nights sleep or not worry that my nipple is going to get chomped off during headstand practice during a feed. It does still solve everything though. Just like when they’re babies, boob helps them sleep, eases pain, stops a tantrum, so maybe a little bit is for me as it is the easiest way to solve most problems.
I do feed in public and I’ll continue to do that until it’s no longer necessary. I’ve never had any comments from any strangers but I’ve got plenty of comebacks ready if anyone does feel they need to share their opinions with me!
