Yes, I'm still nursing!

[madeleines_mom]

My DD just turned 1 y/o on December 4th!!! I'm still nursing her and am going to continue to do so until it stops working for us. I'm just so happy to have made it this far (especially with the loads of trouble I had in the beginning!)! I'm going home soon and I don't think most of my family knows that I'm nursing M still, and I'm expecting a few remarks about that.

What do you all say when people remark on you STILL nursing your child??

[sweetpeppers]

Somebody at my old job asked me that when my son was like four months old when I had gone back for a visit. I laughed and said of course, and she asked me how long I was going to nurse, I think I just shrugged. My grandfather asked me that last New Year's Day, when I was sitting next to him on the couch nursing my son (who likes to crawl under my sweatshirt). I said yes, and he said that his mother told him that he had nursed until he was five. How COOL is that? Ahem, but back to your question, I say, "yup."

[ikes_mommy0731]

my son is 16 months old & i still nurse him. its so beautiful & its something that no one will understand unless they've nursed a child themselves. i always get dumb lil remarks from my bf's family. but frankly its nobodys business how long you decide to nurse your baby. thats how i feel anyway.

[sunfish21]

Good question--I have gotten this one a few times recently...dd is almost 21 months. I have a few tactics:
1-the mock suprise face, "of course I am still nursing..."

2-the intellectual reasoning, "the benefits of breastfeeding don't end just because the baby is over 6 months..."

3-the world-wide view, "you know, gloablly most children wean between the ages of 3 and 4...the United States has very low rates of extended breastfeeding, and we are not the healthiest...." (I see you are in Canada but you can make it work!)

Seriously, I try to educate and explain without sounding apologetic. It is the best thing you can do for yourself and your baby--way to go!

[To-Fu]

Originally Posted by sunfish21

Good question--I have gotten this one a few times recently...dd is almost 21 months. I have a few tactics:
1-the mock suprise face, "of course I am still nursing..."

2-the intellectual reasoning, "the benefits of breastfeeding don't end just because the baby is over 6 months..."

3-the world-wide view, "you know, gloablly most children wean between the ages of 3 and 4...the United States has very low rates of extended breastfeeding, and we are not the healthiest...." (I see you are in Canada but you can make it work!)

Seriously, I try to educate and explain without sounding apologetic. It is the best thing you can do for yourself and your baby--way to go!

My son is not quite 23 months and #3 is the angle we take, too.

It will be interesting to see if anyone gives me crap for it when we fly home for the holidays later this month. Here's to hoping everything goes smoothly for the both of us!

[Cativari]

Nobody says anything anymore. DD nursed until a little over 3 and DS is still going strong at almost 2. When people did ask I just took the health angle for the most part, I'd get a bit smart if it was asked in more then a courious way though.

[Shanny2032]

Happy Birthday! DD turned 1 on 12/1 and we will be going string for years hopefully! last month at our monthly "girls night in" when i pulled her in my lap to nurse (she has been walking since 9 months so I have to wrangle her in!) a friend said "how old is she now?" I could hear the judgement in her voice and know it is coming soon from many of my friends - the ones without children (several of whom have already commented that they are comfortable up until a certain age 2, 3 or "when she can ask for it"). Anyway, I use the health benefits for the most part and tend to go on about what an amazing experience nursing is. In other words I make them really sorry they asked the question

[Gentle~Mommy :)]

If had a quarter for every time I got a 'look' or a comment from a family member, well, I'd have a lot of quarters lol

My oldest will be 5 on Jan 10th and still nurses twice a day (morning and evening) my youngest (3) nurses 5 - 10 times a day depending on what kind of day we are having. Just ignore the comments and keep doing what YOU know is best for your daughter.

[mokey4]

DD is only 10 months, but when we were visiting family friends last month I had a couple of people ask me how long I was planning to breastfeed. They all have toddlers & babies and no one in that family nursed past 6 months, so the fact that DD is still more or less exclusively breastfed at 10 months is an oddity to them. When asked, I told them that I would keep going until it didn't make sense anymore, and that I hoped it would be for at least 2 years. They seemed curious but sort of unsure of how to approach the idea of extended breastfeeding. One of the women was already supplementing her 3 week old with formula, and she asked me how I could nurse a baby with teeth, didn't it hurt? I know that her older sister stopped nursing for good the very first time she got bitten by her 5 month old. I told this woman that it only hurts once in a while, when DD is teething, and when she's latched on correctly her teeth don't get in the way.

Anyway so far no one can make me feel bad about this, because I know that I'm doing the right thing. And if they ask me, I'll give them more information than they want to know .

[Saminvero]

I say...."hopefully he'll be done before college"...he he...love to see the look on their faces!!

[greeba]

My son will be three in January, and we're still at it! I think that people are kind of like "you're still doing that?" but I don't really care. I usually say that the natural weaning time for kids, if left up to them, is 4, and I don't have any reason to make him stop. I don't remember where I read that 4-year-old thing, but people usually don't take it further. Honestly, I'm hoping it's true!!

[mbm]

DD is 14 months, still nursing twice a day, and so far no one has said anything negative. If anyone in my family brings it up at Christmas, I'll just tell them we're keeping it up at least until the end of the flu season.

[Materfamilias]

I think so many ppl just have never thought about it enough to question their prejudices (when I'm being charitable). One of our good friends made a comment that kids who are old enough to ask for it are old enough to be weaned. I gave him a lot of facts and he was taken aback. I don't think he'd ever thought about what a dumb comment that is.

[nerdymom]

I do the surprised face and "of course!" Typically that stops the rest of the commentary. My 16 year old sis said "but aren't they (my breasts) supposed to stop, you know, doing that (making milk) after like 6 months?" So I gave her the worldview and nutrition bit.

For one very persistent and curious (in a good way, his first kid is 6 months) man at church I gave him all of the above plus the story of Samuel from the Bible. Samuel's mother Hannah promised God her son would be devoted to his service, therefore after the child was weaned, he was given into the care of the priests. He was old enough to help the priests, so he was at least 3 or 4 perhaps older, closer to 6 or 7. That pretty much ended that conversation!

[lifeguard]

At 13 months I find people already have assumed he's weaned & since we rarely have a need to nip anymore I don't bother correcting them. It's none of their business & I don't need the judgement (plus most of our friends have already had their children so I am finding much of what I'm doing that is different they are taking as criticism about their choices).

[Ben's Mommy]

Originally Posted by madeleines_mom

What do you all say when people remark on you STILL nursing your child??

Haven't had to respond to this myself, but I'd just say with a huge smile and gleam in my eye... "Yes we are, and Thank You for asking!" That way they'd look like a jerk if they wanted to say anything else.

[mi_amor]

I say "yes he is!"

I live in Canada as well and was thrilled to discover the "Toddler's First Steps" book handed out in BC recommends breastfeeding until 3!!!

Here's the link if you wanted to check it out:
http://www.hls.gov.bc.ca/children/in...s/toddler.html

My grandmother keeps telling me there is no nutrition left in my milk, but I tell her that there still is and DS keeps growing and is healthy!

Some other people seem a little surprised that I'm still breastfeeding, but I know it's best for me and my baby, so I don't let it bother me. I try to educate them about it. I never thought I would breastfeed past 6 months, because I didn't know anything about breastfeeding. But I am so happy I stayed with it because it is a wonderful gift to DS and myself.

[madeleines_mom]

Thanks Ladies!!

I think I'm just going to say, "yes we still are and it's going well for the both of us, so I don't really see any reason to wean her yet. Also, any new literature you read now recommends breastfeeding continue till 2 at least, so it would be kind of silly for me to stop now when it's going so well!"

[Logan's mommy]

Ds2 is almost 15 months and I don't hear that often, but when I do I just tell people that he's not all that interested in food (most of the time this is true) so if we stopped nursing he wouldn't be getting enough to eat through out the day. He's very stubborn, so if he wants to nurse he's not going to be distracted by food.

[isabchi]

Originally Posted by mokey4

she asked me how I could nurse a baby with teeth, didn't it hurt? .

The same different that eating Ice cream with bite a piece of meat...I can imagine somebody bitting an ice cream as was meat, 'case they have teeth..LOL