NCT Information Sheet: Breastfeeding: how long?

Pressure to stop

In this country, women who continue breastfeeding may often experience pressure from others to stop and may not feel able to be open about continuing to breastfeed. In fact, breastfeeding an older baby in the UK is not as unusual as people may think. Although statistics are scarce, anecdotal evidence suggests that up to 70,000 babies a year continue to receive breastmilk after twelve months of age.

The decision to stop is a personal one, but the information in this sheet might be useful to you as background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF recommend that children are breastfed for ‘up to two years and beyond’ WHO reports that the world average duration of breastfeeding is 4.2 years.

Continued benefits for mothers and their children

Breastfeeding can be a wonderful experience. It can be a time to relax and enjoy quality time together. The nutritional and health benefits of breastfeeding continue not only for as long as children are breastfed but throughout life.

• less risk of eczema
• lower blood pressure as an adult
• lower risk of childhood Leukemia
• less likelihood of being overweight
• less likelihood of developing childhood diabetes.

Some of the anti-infective factors in breastmilk increase as children grow older and take less milk – perhaps to protect them as they interact more with their surroundings.

Breastfeeding your toddler contributes to meeting her needs for energy, protein and vitamins. If you breastfeed for a year or more your toddler can bypass formula altogether.

Mothers who breastfeed longer have:

• a lower risk of ovarian cancer
• a lower risk of developing Type II diabetes
• a lower risk of breast cancer – on average, for every year spent breastfeeding, the risk of developing breast cancer drops by 4.3%.

But breastfeeding doesn’t just have health and nutritional benefits. For mothers who continue breastfeeding, it can feel so easy that it just becomes a normal response to a child who needs calming. Often a sick child will not take solid food, yet will continue to breastfeed, keeping fluid intake up and helping prevent weight loss. For a working woman, breastfeeding offers a way of reconnecting with her child after a day apart. It can be flexible, too. A toddler can wait for feeds, learning to respect the needs of others. Breastfeeding is often part of the bedtime routine, helping a child to fall asleep easily.

A breastfeeding mother can feel great pride in her body’s ability to support the development of her growing child and can enjoy the special link with her child that it provides.

How you may feel

Breastfeeding a baby for longer can be a close and comforting experience for the woman and her baby. However, frequent questions about the feeding, such as ‘You’re not still doing that are you?’ or ‘When are you going to stop feeding?’, can result in some mothers feeling isolated and misunderstood.

Each woman will find her own way of dealing with these situations, some quoting facts, some using humour. Some mothers only breastfeed an older baby at home, while others actively seek out people who are supportive.

Partners

Pregnant and breastfeeding

If you breastfeed for longer, you may find that you become pregnant before your first child has weaned off the breast. You will be able to nourish both the baby in your womb and your older child, but it is important that you continue to look after yourself by eating well, drinking when thirsty and taking adequate rest.

Some children will stop feeding during pregnancy. Your child may be ready to stop anyway or you may find that pregnancy hormones make your nipples sore, particularly in the first trimester. At some point before the birth, your body will begin to make colostrum rather than mature breastmilk, which your older child may or may not like. Children who can talk may say your milk tastes different now you are pregnant and may choose to stop.

Breastfeeding siblings

Breastfeeding both an older child and a newborn is known as ‘tandem feeding’. Even if your older child appeared to have stopped during your pregnancy, you may find she decides to breastfeed again once the baby is born, to share in the experience and enjoy the bountiful milk supply.

Your body will produce as much milk as is needed. You will produce colostrum for the first couple of days or so after the birth (some older children may experience its laxative effect), which will gradually be replaced by mature milk. You may find that your ‘milk comes in’ a little earlier than it did the first time around. Usually mothers allow the newborn baby to feed first to ensure her needs are met.

Ending breastfeeding

Breastfeeding can feel so natural and normal for both mother and baby that one day the mother suddenly realises that she is now breastfeeding a toddler. She may then continue, day-by-day, until a reason to stop arises. Some mothers plan how long to breastfeed for while others prefer the child to decide. Sometimes the child loses interest before the mother is ready to stop, but this is not usually before 12 months.

If you decide that the time is right to wean your baby from the breast, there are a number of different strategies to use. Reducing the number of feeds means less breastmilk is made and is most comfortable if done gradually. Dropping one feed at a time, over a period of days, may work best. One way to do this is to be outside more often or to provide other distractions that you know your child enjoys, such as having friends round or going swimming, that will divert her attention. Some mothers use ‘never offer, never refuse’ – perhaps by avoiding usual breastfeeding situations, such as a cuddle in a favourite chair, but never rejecting an outright request from the child to feed. This approach may mean that ending breastfeeding takes longer.

Once your child is past 18 months, it may be harder to stop with a determined toddler. However, as the third birthday draws nearer it may become easier as you can talk about the situation with your child; for example, you may want to explain that you only want to breastfeed in the evenings now and not when you’re out and about. If your choice is to let your child decide, you may find her need to breastfeed may gradually reduce or she may decide quite suddenly not to carry on. Occasionally mothers prefer or need to stop quickly. In all cases it is important that care is taken to avoid problems due to overfull breasts – perhaps by gentle hand expression for comfort around usual feed times, until this is no longer needed.

The process of stopping can be an emotional time, and breastfeeding counsellors are trained to offer skilled support. To contact a breastfeeding counsellor call the NCT Breastfeeding Line between 8am and 10pm any day of the year.

If you would like further copies of this information sheet (Code 1715), click here; other sheets in the series can be obtained from NCT Shop at www.nctshop.co.uk or on 0845 8100 100