Breastfeeding a baby is now a pretty acceptable thing to do. However, breastfeeding a toddler is still taking its time to be trendy. I'm still breastfeeding my 17 month old toddler and on many occassions thougth of weaning him only because it's the acceptable thing to do. I get asked the question of when I'm going to wean him quite a bit. I've only known of 2 other mums who had breastfed their toddlers till 4 years of age. If I'm not wrong, the jewish in the old testament practiced extended breasteeding - 3 years old is the age of weaning - Samuel in the Old Testament was weaned and given to Eli at age 3.
My only problem with extended breastfeeding is the social stigma and the possibility that I mightn't get my beauty sleep back earlier. Abnormal medical conditions not considered, neither of them are for any wholesome benefits. In fact, I found there are more benefits to continue to breastfeed a toddler than not - see http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/breastfeeding/a/bf_toddler.htm . There's the better health aspect, the attachment/security and bonding aspect (the more secure your child feels, the more confident he/she will be as an adult) and the cost aspect (no need to buy milk and bottles).
So I've decided I will continue to breastfeed my boy till he's ready to give it up. I'll just have to start training him that it'll have to be done in private. At the moment, he's still being fed on demand, so that means, anywhere and anytime (yes, he asks for it when I'm queuing up at the checkout if he's upset- lol). I guess that'll have to stop by the time we go on our holidays in May!
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