Why are more and more moms breastfeeding toddlers? Believe it or not, breastfeeding a toddler is actually more "normal" than you might think.

Unfortunately, this has become something that Western society thinks is abnormal.

But why? It really makes no sense why some people think that the same milk that at one point provided all of your baby’s needs, no longer has a value as a child grows into a toddler.

Whether they like it or not, breast milk contains valuable vitamins, calcium and antibodies for as long as it is produced and is actually more "normal" than you might think! In fact, in most of the world’s cultures, breast feeding continues for at least 2 years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) would also agree with a mother’s decision to continue to breastfeed a toddler. It recommends that new mothers breastfeed their children from birth until two years…and then as long as mutually desired by mommy and child.

Even though many moms don’t talk about it, breastfeeding toddlers is not a new idea at all. Mothers have continued to feed their babies this way for centuries and new scientific research shows it is an excellent choice for both mommies and their children.

While I will agree that it is not for every mom, there should also be no rush to wean based on someone else’s pre-determined schedule.

Do what feels right to you. Each mom is different and each child is different…and only the two of you really know when it is best to stop.

Other topics that may interest you:

**Breastfeeding Benefits Beyond One Year

**Getting Pregnant while Breastfeeding

**Breastfeeding while Pregnant

**Breastfeeding Tandem

**Breastfeeding Stories

**Preparing your Toddler for a New Baby

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Home Page | Extended Breastfeeding Page | The Truth about Nursing Older Children

If you are trying to get pregnant while breastfeeding your next baby, you will find it’s a bit more challenging. Most women who are exclusively breastfeeding will have almost 100% protection against pregnancy. Once you are past the 6 month mark, the chances of conception occurring rises.

Breastfeeding and Conception

Let’s take a good look at breastfeeding and conception.The reassuring truth is that it is possible to get pregnant while breastfeeding. Ask any doctor and they will tell you if you don’t want to get pregnant to certainly use birth control. Even with women who exclusively breastfeed past the 6 month mark, pregnancy can occur. The fertility will start to come back (albeit slowly) when you start to supplement the feedings with formula, juice or food. Until you supplement or introduce foods, there is only a 1-2% chance for pregnancy to happen.

Your Monthly Cycle

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Breastfeeding, in addition to the wonderful value it gives to both you and your baby, is meant to provide you with “natural” spacing of your children. Exclusive breastfeeding allows the body to recover from pregnancy and childbirth. When the monthly cycle returns it shows that fertility has been restored and conception can once again take place. Of course you can conceive even before the monthly cycle returns – because obviously ovulation occurs some 2 weeks prior to the monthly bleeding.

The return of the menstrual cycle can vary with different women. Some will have their cycles right away. Others may be back within 7 or 8 months or others may not see their cycles until they’ve completely weaned their baby. My cycles came back around the 8 month mark with my five babies.

The Role of Hormones

Prolactin is the hormone produced during breastfeeding. This is the hormone that suppresses ovulation. Even when your cycle returns, there may still be high levels of prolactin which will prevent conception from occurring. This is what makes breastfeeding while trying to conceive so difficult at times.

Once your hormones level out conception is more possible. You find out this through charting your fertility signs. That way you can pinpoint whether or not you are indeed ovulating and how long your luteal phase (the time from ovulation to menstruation) is. This can be difficult with nighttime feedings, but it is possible to get a glimpse at what’s going on with your cycle.

My experience with breastfeeding is that it takes my cycles a while to balance once they are back. Normally you may see your luteal phase under 10 days. This is too short and unable to sustain a pregnancy. I watched my charts – and as I took supplements that help to regulate the reproductive hormones like vitamin B6 (which is also safe for the baby). My luteal phase would start at around 7 days. Within another 6 months or so it would increase to over 14 days.

You May Have To Make a Decision

Success rates with breastfeeding while trying to conceive will vary from woman to woman. Some will have no problems conceiving. Others may take a while. Others still may find they have to completely wean before conception will occur. At that point you have to ask yourself what is more important at the moment – that you breastfeed your child or that you conceive your next baby.

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This "Getting Pregnant While Breastfeeding" article was contributed by Lori Ramsey, author of "Mom's Lifestyle Guide to Pregnancy & The Journey to Motherhood." You can find her work exclusively at Amazon.com.

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Related Articles:

• Breastfeeding While Pregnant–Important information about nursing while pregnant.
• Tandem Breastfeeding–Help for mothers considering tandem nursing.
• Breastfeeding a Toddler–Why nursing a toddler is more “normal” than you might think.
• The Truth about Nursing Older Children–Contrary to what you may hear, breastfeeding older children is more common than you might think. Learn more about the benefits here.
• Preparing a Toddler for a New Baby–Some tips for preparing your toddler for the arrival of a new baby.

Home Page | Extended Breastfeeding Page | The Truth about Nursing Older Children

You may have never intended to be breastfeeding while pregnant, but here you are. The fact is that lots of nursing mommies never actually plan to be breastfeeding while pregnant, but as many of us know…sometimes babies are conceived at the most unexpected times!

On the other hand, you may be one of the moms that actually plans a pregnancy while still breastfeeding to ensure that your sweeties are close in age.

No matter what your situation, these moms all find themselves in the situation of nursing while pregnant.

Symptoms of Pregnancy During Breastfeeding

There are various things that a nursing mother might notice that may alert her to the fact that she may be pregnant while still nursing.

* Some women notice a decrease in their milk supply. This is usually not a permanent situation and your supply will adjust back so that you can continue nursing.

* You may have sensitive nipples.

* You may be more tired or thirsty than in a previous pregnancy…but as long as you keep drinking enough and resting enough this should not be a problem.

Is It Safe to Continue to Breastfeed?

Absolutely! In fact, throughout much of the world, breastfeeding while pregnant is a common occurrence. It is just “normal.” There is no reason why a mother cannot preserve a good breastfeeding relationship with her child without risk to the health of her new baby who is growing inside her. It is a very safe and natural event.

Research confirms that any mother who is getting the proper nutrition should have no problem providing perfect nutrition for both her unborn baby and the breastfeeding child. However, if a child is younger than one year, it is important to watch your child’s weight gain and provide additional solid food if necessary. (Your pediatrician can help you determine your child's needs.)

What Might Happen

In some case, the nursing child will think that the breastmilk tastes different or may be frustrated by a supply drop during pregnancy. This is normal and is not a sign that you must stop breastfeeding.

If you decide you want to wean your child, it's still easiest to do it slowly. Many moms try the "don't offer, don't refuse" approach if their child is old enough. Then if you can anticipate when your child is likely to want to breastfeed, you simply offer a snack or a helpful distraction instead.

However, most children simply adjust to the taste, your breast milk supply returns and they are perfectly content to keep nursing as long as mom is willing.

Don't Forget

Breastfeeding during this pregnancy may provide one of your last opportunities to sit alone with your breastfeeding child and nurse, cuddle and truly enjoy these moments...because before you know it you will have to divide your time between him and the new baby.

Enjoy this time! Don’t rush to wean. Allow your sweet baby to nurse and he will have the reassurance that, although there is a new baby coming, you still want what is best for him, too.

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...or to see our breastfeeding
supplies Top 10 list?

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in the Mom Chat Breastfeeding Forum?

....or return to problems and extra care situations page?

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Breastfeeding Benefits Beyond One Year

Why delay weaning? Why extended breastfeeding?

While more people are initiating breastfeeding at birth now, only a small percentage make it to six months, let alone to a year.

Breastfeeding beyond six months and especially past the first year often incites negative comments from family, friends and strangers. Some think that there are no benefits to nursing beyond a year, but they are wrong.

There are many breastfeeding benefits beyond one year for you and your baby.

Did you realize…

• The average age worldwide for weaning is 4.2 years old!

• The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that babies and toddlers be breastfed for a minimum of two years, and as long after that as is mutually accepted.

• Extended breastfeeding is considered beneficial and recommended by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Breastfeeding Benefits Beyond Six Months, One Year and Beyond

• While many people will tell you that a child doesn’t get anything out of breast milk after six month or a year, that is untrue. Toddlers get energy, protein, calcium, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, B12 and C from breast milk. They also get 76% of their folate requirements from nursing.

• Breastfeeding beyond the age of one protects the toddler from illness. Studies are showing that toddlers who nurse between the ages of 16 and 30 months have fewer illnesses, and those they do get it ill, it lasts a shorter period of time.

• When a child develops an illness like diarrhea or fever, the appetite usually decreases. Children in these circumstances are still willing to nurse, preventing dehydration and providing nutrition during the course of the illness.

• The World Health Organization states that “a modest increase in breastfeeding rates could prevent up to 10% of all deaths of children under the age of five. Breastfeeding plays an essential and sometimes underestimated role in the treatment and prevention of childhood illness.”

• Toddlers who nurse develop fewer allergies and cases of asthma.

• Nursing toddlers do better in school later. Breastfeeding builds the brain.

• Toddlers that breastfeed make better adjusted children. Their needs are met physically and emotionally through breastfeeding and the close relationship between mom and child. They develop their sense of independence secure in who they are.

• While short-term breastfeeding offers some protection for children from leukemia, sustained breastfeeding gives them an even greater reduced risk.

Extended Benefits for Mom

The longer a woman breastfeeds, the more protection she has from breast cancer. Studies show a distinct correlation between how many years are spent breastfeeding and increasing protection from breast cancer.

In addition:

• Extended breastfeeding reduces the chances of developing ovarian cancer.

• Breastfeeding reduces the chances of developing uterine cancer.

• Breastfeeding reduces the chances of developing endometrial cancer.

• Breastfeeding reduces the chances of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

• Breastfeeding helps moms lose weight with less effort.

• Breastfeeding helps protect women from osteoporosis. While nursing, a mother may lose 1 to 2% of bone density. This loss is gained back after weaning, often to the mother’s benefit as an increased amount is added to the bones than was lost.

• Sustained breastfeeding delays fertility in many women by suppressing ovulation.

Sustained Breastfeeding Stories

Here are some of the extended breastfeeding stories submitted to our magazine:

Breastfeeding a Toddler — Mary’s Story

Why I Would Recommend Breastfeeding — Kathy’s Story

Extended Nursing was the Best Choice

Breastfeeding Extended Periods

Tandem Breastfeeding a Toddler and a New Baby

Breastfeeding Success Stories

 

Breastfeeding Stories | Extended Breastfeeding | Breastfeeding Magazine Home

Extended breastfeeding is simply nursing a child past Western society’s ‘normal’ expectations.

To some people this is past six weeks. For some it means six months. For others it means nursing a toddler.

We don’t understand why people think that the same milk that at one point provided all of your sweeties needs for food and drink (not to mention all sorts of other benefits) no longer has value after 6, 9 or 12 months? That is, in fact, simply a common myth.

Breast milk contains valuable vitamins, calcium and antibodies for as long as it is made.

Extended Breastfeeding Facts and Benefits

Here are some facts that may surprise you.

• In most of the world’s cultures, it is perfectly normal and expected that breastfeeding continues for at least 2 years.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that moms breastfeed their children from birth until 2 years and then as long as mutually desired.

• The worldwide average age of weaning is 4.2 years!

• The Director General of the Health Department in Pakistan claims that 22 percent of infant deaths could be prevented if the mothers had breastfed for at least the first six months of the baby’s life…even more if they breastfed longer. (Isn’t that amazing?)

• The Scottish parliament is considering a bill that makes it a criminal offense for anyone to stop a mom from nursing a child up to 2 years old in a public place. Similar bills are also being considered all over the world to protect a baby’s right to eat!

• Cancer risk decreases the longer a mother breastfeeds.

• After 6 months breastfeeding is usually a pleasure – Mothers and babies are comfortable and are in sync. Why give up before then?

• Studies have shown that kids who are breastfed grow up to be more secure and self reliant than their bottle-fed peers.

• Practicing ecological breastfeeding helps to naturally space children.

Sustained Breastfeeding, Extended Breastfeeding….It is ALL Good

Some women seem to even be offended by the term “extended breastfeeding” because they feel that it makes it seem to be abnormal. They prefer the term “sustained breastfeeding.”

In most parts of the world, breastfeeding this long is just called “normal.”

For us, we do not care what you call it. We just want you to know that it can be a great choice for many women and their children.

Pregnancy, Breastfeeding, and Tandem Nursing

If you decide that extended breastfeeding is the best choice for you and your children, you will probably find yourself either trying to get pregnant, actually being pregnant while still breastfeeding and eventually…tandem nursing.

Here are some resources on our site to help you:

• Getting Pregnant While Breastfeeding–What you need to know about getting pregnant while breastfeeding.
• Breastfeeding While Pregnant–Important information about nursing while pregnant.
• Tandem Breastfeeding–Help for mothers considering tandem nursing.
• Breastfeeding a Toddler–Why nursing a toddler is more “normal” than you might think.
• The Truth about Nursing Older Children–Contrary to what you may hear, breastfeeding older children is more common than you might think. Learn more about the benefits here.
• Preparing a Toddler for a New Baby–Some tips for preparing your toddler for the arrival of a new baby.

It’s a Your Choice

Although many moms don’t talk about it, extended breast feeding is not a new idea, at all. Moms have continued to feed their babies this way for centuries and new scientific research shows it is a good choice for both moms and their children.

Extended nursing is not for everyone, but it is breast feeding as nature intended…not on someone else’s arbitrary schedule.

So we say—breastfeed as long as you and your child want – and who cares what your neighbors think?!

Extraordinary Breastfeeding Stories

Here are some of the extended breast feeding stories submitted to us:

• Breastfeeding a Toddler — Mary’s Story
• Why I Would Recommend Breast Feeding — Kathy’s Story
• It was the Best Choice
• Breastfeeding Extended Periods
• Tandem Nursing a Toddler and a New Baby
• Breast-feeding Success Stories

 

Breastfeeding Magazine Home Page

Contrary to what you may hear, breastfeeding older children is more common than you might think. Some women do so in private, just because the fear the criticism of friends and family.

Extended Breastfeeding: A Growing Trend

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Breastfeeding is becoming more common, especially among new mothers. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention are showing a steady growth in the number of women who begin breastfeeding their babies.

More mothers are sticking with breastfeeding longer, as well. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that babies should be breastfed at least a year, and the World Health Organization promotes nursing until at least age two. After that, both organizations suggest it should be left up to the mother and child.

With more moms becoming educated about the benefits of sustained or extended breastfeeding, it isn’t surprising that more moms are also breastfeeding their children beyond the expected one or two years. Many breastfeeding moms have weathered the storms of public opinion about nursing in public, and now the media seems to have turned to breastfeeding older children.

The Benefits of Breastfeeding
Older Children

Extended breastfeeding still offers older children a boost to their immune systems. Even if they are eating solid foods for their meals, nursing once or twice a day will help prevent infections and illnesses.

Studies have also shown that the longer children are nursed, the more brain power they have. Everyone wants to do the best they can for their child’s intellectual development, and extended nursing provides a good solid foundation for your child’s success.

Nursing an older child will help to meet their emotional and dependence needs, which can make them easier to parent in the long run. Breastfeeding toddlers usually have fewer temper tantrums and other discipline problems, because the normal frustrations young children face are soothed by a quick breastfeeding session.

Toddlers and preschoolers are exposed to a lot of new experiences that may cause anxiety and stress. The comfort they find in nursing at this age can help make them more independent and secure when they face these situations and when they get older.

Criticism from the General Public

Most mothers who nurse beyond the age of two tend to work breastfeeding other children around the rest of the day’s schedule so they’re nursing in the privacy of their homes. Considering how hard it has been for some mothers to breastfeed an infant in public, they usually don’t want to expose their older children to the opinions they may attract from others.

It is unfortunate that in most westernized countries, extended nursing is not the norm. The average age of weaning in the rest of the world is around four years of age! This helps many children survive in some rather adverse conditions.

The westernized world has sexualized the breast to the point that many people have trouble seeing breasts used to feed infants at all.

Overcoming Bias

Fortunately for babies, many mothers are overcoming this cultural bias to provide their children with the best nutrition they can give them.

If you are considering breastfeeding older children, you are not alone. While there are no studies or records of how many mothers are choosing to do this, the mothers who do notice their children are more secure.

By encourage child led weaning, the child is guaranteed to have his or her needs met on his or her own terms. They wean themselves when they are ready. Some parents of older nursing children celebrate when their child makes this decision with a party or special treat, seeing it as a milestone in the child’s life.

Most extended breastfeeding children are 3, 4 or 5 years old, with a few that range a bit older. Most mothers who practice extended breastfeeding find that the older the child is, the fewer times they need to nurse.

when breastfeeding older children, some may only nurse when they are upset, which could be as rarely as once a week or even once a month. The length of the nursing session is much shorter than for an infant as well. The child is able to get the comfort he or she needs in just a few minutes. It is amazing to see how much it can affect a child’s self-esteem just to have that option open as they go through toddler and preschool ages. As more mothers choose nurse their older children, it will become more accepted and normalized to the mainstream public.

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