Funny comment from MIL...

[kkd]

My DD is only 10 months old...well, 10 months on Monday. When talking to my MIL today I commented that it's hard to believe she's 10 months already, she said, "Yep, and it's almost time for weening." She didn't say it confrontational or anything, just very matter of fact. Uh-Oh...I just replied that I don't have any particular time table in mind, and, since she's low on weight that BF is good for her, and has more calories than foods that would replace BM. Will be interesting to see how long she can refrain from making any further comments...I'm guessing that at the 12 mo mark it will come up again...so I might be visiting this thread for advice!

Thought that would make someone here smile - just the thought that since DD is "so grown up" at 10 mo that she should be weened....

My MIL formula fed her children so I understand that the whole BF thing is foreign to her and she doesn't understand it's importance to the baby. I haven't tried to "educate" her at all b/c I don't want to come across as being critical of the choice she made to formula feed.

[pbjmama]

I think your MIL might surprise you. My own mother made some negative comments about breastfeeding over a year when I was nursing my first and now I've tandem nursed and I'm nursing my dd who just turned two and she hasn't said anything - I think she sees how my children are still so little and how much they love mama milk. My ds is about to be 4 and he has never had an antibiotic! That really speaks to her as my sister and I were sick quite a bit growing up. Hopefully our MIL will be happily surprised that you keep nursing!

[Ambishop19]

Keep it up! It is our job to help change society's view on breastfeeding. It is somewhat similar with my family. On my side, no one has bf past a year. My boy is only 9 months, but I plan on going past a year, so hopefully I will normalize it even more for them.

[Katie T]

I got 2 comments today about how my 21m old is too old to nurse today at work and so I took the time to educate them on the benifits of extended breastfeeding. Neither one of them agreed with me but I don't care lol.

Way to go gently telling your MIL about your plans, hopefully she will be supportive and not give you anymore comments.

Hurray for 10months of breastfeeding!

[RomanGoddess]

My DS will be one year in a couple of weeks and it will be interesting to see reactions and raised eyebrows when they see him "still" nursing. So far, I find that people refrain from negative comments apart from, "wow. You're STILL nursing him?". I remind them that as long as baby's main nutrient is supposed to be milk (i.e. at least up to one year), human milk is normal milk. They seem to understand when I put it that way. We'll see what they say when he is past one.

[MadziesMom]

extended bfing twins

First YAY for extended BFing!! =) I used to get asked all the time from people, "When are you going to stop doing that?" THAT. as if I had a bad habit or something??? I nursed my twins until we all communally weaned at 32 1/2 months. and towards the end, I definitely got looks from family members. Most of the women in my extended fam bottle fed and "felt comfortable giving their babies formula" and I would just try to ignore it. I have reached a point where I stopped trying to talk to people about it. No matter how many things you site, they don't want to hear it. But, BFing is a hot topic for me. I am not one to take any short cuts when it comes to parenting or the health of my two kids so I read about everything I can get my hands on to make the best choices I can for them until they are old enough to make their own.
The most frequent thing I was asked was.. Can I get you a blanket? to which I responded, Do you eat under a blanket?

=)
Blessings on a happy nursing relationship!!
MadziesMom

[kiwiva]

Sounds like she may just be assuming that's when you wean and you have the perfect opportunity to educate her! When my DD was under 6 months my DH made a comment about how she would be weaned around a year and I couldn't believe it! I signed us up for our local LLL conference so he could be educated. He didn't have any issues with it at all, he just had no knowledge about it.

When DD was under 2 I was prepared to tell people that the WHO and the AAFP (since people may say the WHO is only talking about 3rd world countries) recommend breastfeeding until at least 2 yrs. I didn't know what I'd say after that, but once we went past 2 I think they were all afraid to ask!