Nursing In Public ~ When It's Time to Stop... - Page 2

[alegna]

I nursed dd in public until around 3. Probably in semi-public until around 3.5.

I didn't say no if it was a situation she'd be heartbroken. I waited for her to be old enough and mature enough to understand "wait until we get home" or "I'm sorry you skinned your knee- here's a bandaid and a hug"

-Angela

[Lynn08]

Originally Posted by Starflower

<snip>
In her preschool class of 4-5 year olds, (she was 4) I nursed pretty much every day after class in a chair at the back of the class while the other kids waited for their parents to pick them up. All had been nursed but no one remembered. The kids liked to watch and ask questions. No one ever bugged me or DD really - it was just something we did.

DD is pretty much done now (she is 6 years old) but once in a while may ask for a comfort nursing at bedtime. But it's rare.

OT: I love this! And the thought of a 6yo asking to comfort nurse is so tender and sweet. Thank you for the wonderful imagery to get my day going. :

[KweenKrunch]

My 6 y/o hasn't asked recently, but if she really needed to I'd absolutely nurse her in public. Not my problem if other people objectify breasts as something other than nourishment and comfort for children.

[Meiri]

With our son, I stopped NIP unless he was really hurting between 2 and 3.
With our daughter, I didn't worry about it. She would ask to nurse when we started attending our UU when she was 4, and no one batted an eye. After she turned 4 though, such requests became fairly rare, and eventually she only asked if we were in places she felt really at home: home and our UU.

[Gentle~Mommy :)]

My older boy does not ask to nurse too much in public now (4.5) but my 3 year old does and I never deny him although I have had some stares and once a group of teens giggling and saying 'ewwww' after passing us.

Recently though we were at a boat show and my older son had been very quiet all day not himself, I found a quiet bench to nurse my youngest and he wanted to nurse too, so I had the both of them! He ended up falling asleep lol (turns out he had a cold)

Anyway they are pretty big boys and I am a little self conscious, but I will still do it.

[TeaLeaf]

I have had the same thoughts lately and starting to feel self-conscious with my 23 m.o. DS

If I'm in the neighborhood, I usually prefer to do it on our property so I ask him to wait until we get to the yard. I go in a relatively private area of it and nurse or inside the house.

If I am in public, I nurse him on the spot since I know there won't be a better place than where I am usually. I am mindful and do it discretely. I ignore people's stares and carry a copy of the law in my state with regard to nursing just in case. So far, nobody has bothered me. I don't know how much longer I'll be comfy with that but we'll see

[boigrrrlwonder]

For us, it's been gradual, too. I encourage her to wait until we get in the car or get home or whatever, but I still rather nurse than get through a tantrum. My DD is 2.5. She almost never nurses in the grocery store or anything at this point, but we do nurse in semi-private situations like playgroup, LLL meetings, etc...

[prothyraia]

My son turns 3 next month (and looks older) and we still nurse in public sometimes. It seems to come up most often at his gymnastics class, actually, when he gets a little socially anxious. After he nurses he participates much more enthusiastically.

We just moved from a liberal hippy state to a more conservative area too, so I'm not sure what the general culture around here thinks of this. Nobody's given me any dirty looks, though.

[cln1812]

I am happy to stumble upon this thread. I have been wondering about this same issue. DD is 22 months old. She doesn't often ask to NIP unless we're eating out, and I've just gone ahead and nursed her because she is going through a fussy time (2 yr. molars coming in & the nursing helps with that). Plus, I feel since she won't drink cow's milk, BM is best for her if she wants milk and won't be distracted with water. I haven't yet gotten "the look" but I think this is due in part to DD being small for her age, plus she is still quite bald so people mistake her for being much younger than she actually is. But her hair is starting to come in more now and I have wondered if toddler NIP is inherently inappropriate (bad manners) or you just don't see it since seeing NIP (even of a newborn) is rare in itself here and the only toddler NIP I've seen has been at LLL meetings. It's good to know other moms with older nurslings feel there is nothing wrong with it. I too live in a very conservative area (sigh).

[momtokimari]

My DD weaned at 2 because of my pregnancy. During the first half of my pregnancy while there was still milk, she still nursed on demand. In public or not. But as there was less (or no) milk, she became less interested in nursing unless she needed the comfort so she just stopped asking in public. I know circumstances are different, but I thought I'd chime in.

[GearGirl]

I started feeling uncomfortable in restaurants at about 20 months, but I'll still nurse him (he's 23 months) in certain outside places if he needs to. It's really more about me, I know people don't get it so I feel less comfortable, particularly in a restaurant. I just tell him "no, we don't nurse in restaurants" and he seems to get it. I did nurse him for about 6 hours of a six hour flight last week when he wasn't feeling well, I'm pretty sure that was preferable to hearing him scream! One main issue I have is that he wants "both sides" and doesn't want anything covering them, so I would basically be hanging out there!

[3kidsclmr]

I decided to check out this section because I've been so frustrated with my almost three-year-old daughter who wants to nurse all the time, often in public... I guess I thought it would have been winding down by now... (My first child weaned himself right before his third bday, and my second stopped at 20 months because I was pregnant, and had no milk... I could never get him to go back to nursing) I feel so much better after reading all of these posts... I thought it was really uncommon for someone my daughter's age to want to nurse so much!

[GoBecGo]

I have never nursed a babe past 7 months, but just as a tip for those with tummy-issues (or rather, issues with how their tummy looks)....

I used to wear 2 singlets/vests in summer or one vest with a t-shirt/shirt/top over it when it was cooler. The one against your skin needs to be a cheap one with thin spaghetti straps with a bit of stretch (primark do them for about £1). Then to nurse i'd pull the under one down under my boobs and the ouer one up, keeping my tummy warm and hidden while i nursed. Just a thought

[Smokering]

Interesting thread! DD's only 19 months but I already feel a little odd nursing her in public. Not at home, where it seems perfectly normal, but when other people are around I feel like they might not see she's still a baby, because she's very verbal and active and "grown-up"; and so I worry they might think it's gross or weird.

It annoys me, because I don't think there's anything wrong with it and I've never even gotten a dirty look; so it's all in my head. I'd like to be able to nurse a five-year-old in public without a second thought. So my discomfort really irks me.

[CageFreeFamily]

With both my kiddos I stopped NIP (mostly because of the high incidence of BF rights issues in the town we were living in) around 18 mo.

It was a pretty simple matter that never seemed to cause trouble for us though. I simple made sure to nurse before we got out of the car, when we were in fitting rooms or lounge rooms, and again when we returned to the car.
If they asked during our outing I just said that we would nurse when we got back to the car because it was more comfortable for Mama to have a soft seat while we nursed and offered food, drink or distraction depending on what need I thought they were wanting to meet with the nursing. It worked great and it skirted the issue of dealing with ugly responses to nursing and explaining that some people are offended by it. I didn't want my kids to get any idea that there was question about their nursing - ever. So I guess I avoided the situations where it might happen.

[Sharoncute]

By the time they were about 9 months they developed a schedule and I just usually stayed home around those times but I still nursed them up to a year in public if there wasn't any other opportunity. I've never nursed at a restaurant table though, they were so squirmy, I would've ended up showing way too much of the goods.

[graceshappymum]

Well....DD is almost 4 and she is still welcome to nurse in public as far as I am concerned. The thing is though that she is weaning herself as the moment and only has a little bit of milk each morning before getting out of the family bed......so obviously not in public !

I would defer if your DC is ok with that, otherwise......go with it! I kind of wish that DD was still nursing in public, I like the example that we were setting a year ago! Good luck!

[rjruiz_415]

Shortly after she turned 2, when I got pg and my milk dried up, she stopped nursing in public. In fact, she was only nursing 1-3 times a day, normally only 1. Now that baby is here, she is nursing all the time again, and she does occasionally ask to nurse in public. I limit it to family homes though.

[*MamaJen*]

It's funny, I haven't really though about it much, but 22 month old DS doesn't really nurse much in public anymore. He's kind of stopped asking -- I guess he tends to be distracted by thing going on out of the house. I still would, but I probably would hold out for a relatively comfortable location.

[detroitgirl77]

I nursed in public with my first son until he was 2 1/2. My second still nurses on public on occasion as needed. If anyone has a problem with it, so be it.