Questions for Muslim mamas

[mamatowill]

I hope no one minds but I am curious about something and I am hoping that Muslim mamas can answer.

How do you handle fasting during Ramadan when you are nursing an older baby? I am thinking over a year. Do you still fast and make up the time later? How does fasting affect your milk supply? Do you do a modified fasting like just drinking water? Thanks,

[Liquesce]

I'm not sure why the differentiation between an older baby and a younger one? It's all basically the same, I think. Fasting may affect supply, and if a mother fears for the health of her child for that reason she should not fast. If fasting is not affecting supply or otherwise causing no reason for fearing for health, then she should fast. But how it will go individually is all just personal ... there really aren't set-in-stone guidelines to follow about what will happen.

There are no partial/modified fasts, though. A person is either fasting or they aren't. If a person is taking water, then they very simply are not fasting.

[mamatowill]

Thanks for the reply. The only reason I differentiating between an older baby and younger is that I thought that if a woman was nursing a newborn or young baby she might not want to run the risk of altering her supply and so was more likely to refrain from fasting with a newborn. Also I thought that nursing women were exempted from fasting but didn't know if that changed when the baby was older kwim.

[Ammaarah]

Originally Posted by mamatowill

Thanks for the reply. The only reason I differentiating between an older baby and younger is that I thought that if a woman was nursing a newborn or young baby she might not want to run the risk of altering her supply and so was more likely to refrain from fasting with a newborn. Also I thought that nursing women were exempted from fasting but didn't know if that changed when the baby was older kwim.

I fasted when my daughter was 13 months old because I had a very robust supply. It was pretty hard on me, though. If I had it to do over again I'd probably not fast while nursing unless it was an older toddler who only nursed a couple times a day.

[Liquesce]

Originally Posted by mamatowill

Thanks for the reply. The only reason I differentiating between an older baby and younger is that I thought that if a woman was nursing a newborn or young baby she might not want to run the risk of altering her supply and so was more likely to refrain from fasting with a newborn. Also I thought that nursing women were exempted from fasting but didn't know if that changed when the baby was older kwim.

Oh, ok. Well, there's no clause that fasting takes precedent over breastfeeding once a child hits an age at which they could theoretically be weaned. Almost all of the exemptions from fasting are really just a matter of exercising judgement in good faith.

[mamatowill]

Thanks again for the replies I had often wondered- I live in an area with a high population of Muslims but don't know any well enough to ask that sort of question.