Extended Breastfeeding

Comment

Comment by Tammy Miller on June 19, 2009 at 11:00am

wholesomebabyfood.com and askdrsears.com both have some good information available. We waited until 6 months. Our Lacation Specialist stated that the baby should have some teeth, be sitting up on her own, have tongue control and act interested. We started very slow and never pushed it. She is now 10 months old and eats several meals a day along with nursing. There is no rush--breastmilk is best and should remain the main source of nutrition until 12 months old. Right now my little one is sitting next to me smearing bananas all over the place!

Comment by efrat on June 19, 2009 at 10:53am

we introduced solids at 6 months and had a supportive pediatrician. i would read the signs the baby is giving: if she stares at you with utter fascination while you're eating, perhaps she's ready. as it is, we started slow - it took months before my son was eating one or 2 "meals" a day. until they're a year old, breastmilk or formula should still be the primary source of nutrition. solids are just for practice at that point.

Comment by Ericka Soileau on June 19, 2009 at 10:39am

Just wondering: from those extending nursing mothers, at what point did you introduce solids? I have always felt that we will practice baby led solids and baby led weaning. Our little girl is 4 months and our pediatrician is telling us we need to start solids despite all the recommendations from the AAP, WHO, UNICEF, etc that say exclusive breast until 6 months..any thoughts?

Comment by Bonnie P on June 13, 2009 at 8:20am

Jennifer, thanks for the encouragement! I definitely would get more sleep if we bedshared the entire night! I think for now I'll just continue on doing what I'm doing - but stop feeling guilty about bringing Chase to bed with us. Last night I had to laugh at my little guy - he was not sleeping very well, only sleeping stretches of 45 mins - 1.5 hours until I brought him into bed with us. Then he snuggled right in and slept 4 hours! He loves being in bed with us! Just one more reason not to feel guilty when he joins us at night.

Comment by Jennifer Stankovits on June 12, 2009 at 6:54pm

Hi Bonnie! I have three kids that I have nursed on demand, and as for my experience, they sometimes went through phases of nursing more frequently in the night. Sometimes from teething, other times from sickness, other times we didn't know why, but usually they would eventually space out again on their own. WE always have our babies sleep in our bed though, right now our two year old sleeps with us while her big brother and sister share a bed in another room. This is what has worked for us. If you are interested in learning more about bedsharing and/or cosleeping Mothering Magazine is a great resource for information on the matter! Here's a link: http://mothering.com/recent/26 I don't think any one thing works for every family, I just share info, because that is how I have come to some of the best decisions for my own family. Good luck with your night-nurser!!! And good job breastfeeding on demand, your baby is so blessed :)

Comment by Bonnie P on June 12, 2009 at 9:52am

Hi! My son is almost 9 mths and I want to nurse him until 2 yrs, or when he decides that he's done. I do have a question - I've been letting him nurse on demand since birth, which I think is a good thing, but now at nearly 9 mths, he still wakes up EVERY 2 hours during the night to nurse! I get so exhausted during the night that he always ends up in bed with my husband and I at around 4 am when I have no resolve left. I've been contemplating night weaning, but don't know if I should do it or even how to go about doing it. I'm not really a fan of letting him "cry it out", especially when my husband has to work the next morning, but I have the feeling that if I want him to sleep longer during the night that's the course I'm going to have to take. What do you ladies think?
I'm so glad I found this group, my extended family isn't UNsupportive of extended breastfeeding, but they all think it's very weird for me to want to nurse past 6 mths, let alone 2 years! And you should have heard them when I said that we were waiting to feed him solids until 6 mths. They thought he was going to waste away, lol! So thank you in advance for your support!

Comment by Jennifer Stankovits on June 11, 2009 at 11:09pm

Hi Sabrina, I tandem nursed my first and second for six months. By then my first turned 3 and I felt like he would be okay with weaning. I still don't know how I feel about that, to be honest. I have three now and would have tandem nursed again with my second and third, but my colostrum came in during my pregnancy with my third and it gave my second pretty bad diarrhea, so we weaned and were solemn for a time. I do wish I could have changed that, sometimes I think I still feel the effects of weaning her before wither one of us was ready. I would tandem nurse again if given the opportunity because I think it is wonderful for the older child to get to continue to have that intimate bond with mommy, who now has to spend an awful lot of time with a new sibling. THAT is worth whatever time tandem consumes. It really can be the calm in a tempestuous time for that older child. But on the other hand, if it feels like too much for mommy, then it isn't good for anyone. We have to remember that we are responsible for taking care of ourselves also!

Comment by Ann Linton on May 28, 2009 at 12:17am

when I was pg with my youngest and my toddler was nursing it hurt soo bad! There were times where I had to stop myself from crying... I felt so bad when I would tell him that nursing gave mommy and "owie" but he was a good sport about it and would givehis num-nums an "owie" kiss when he was done nursing. =)

Comment by Cherylyn on May 27, 2009 at 10:10am

My baby is due in July. It will be interesting to see if my toddler will want to resume nursing. She didn't continue nursing when my milk dried up a few months ago. She would try and then get really mad when there was no milk for her. Maybe if she had continued to nurse it would have helped my milk supply stay up. Every child is so different, and this was the first I'd gotten pregnant while still nursing.

Comment by Ann Linton on May 27, 2009 at 9:39am

I've been tandem nursing for 9 months now... at first DS wanted to nurse when the baby was and he WAS nursing like a newborn. Just feed the newborn first. my 2 y/o wanted to nurse first so baby got A LOT of hindmilk ( and she's a chubby thing!) but now they are on different patterns. the 2 y/o nurses 3-4 times a day and more at night and the 9 m/o is still nursing about every 2 hours. =)

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• …
• 14
• Next ›
• Page