Confession: I’m Nursing A Toddler

Oh my gosh! Did you see that woman nursing her almost 2 year old???

Oh wait, that was me.

Truth be told, I never intended for it to be this way. Don’t get me wrong: I had always planned on breastfeeding my children, and I had always planned on breastfeeding them for the recommended first year. That was it. Then things changed…

We had our first child, Lilly, and I went straight home from the hospital ready to attack breastfeeding and take no survivors! No bottles or pacifiers in the house; free formula from the hospital was donated immediately; oatmeal was in the pantry [to help with milk production]; I was ready to dive right in.

But by week two, reality had set in: I was in excruciating pain and even though I had met with a lactation consultant (from Baylor Dallas) things still weren’t exactly simpatico. My milk had come in, Lilly nursed all the time, and it was just teeth-grindingly painful. Being a big reader, I’d purchased Dr. Sears’ The Baby Book as well as La Leche League’s The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, which I’d had sitting on the nightstand while I nursed in the wee morning hours. Finally I picked it up and BAM! Found the solution to the problem: a bottom lip that was sucked in every time she latched on. I wish I could say that this helped the problem overnight, but it didn’t. It took until 6 weeks of nursing, constantly correcting the latch problem (by detaching and re-attaching, and YES this caused an upset baby) and literally bleeding – to finally hit the plateau of breastfeeding.

And then everything just…clicked. Like a cool breeze in the Dallas summer I felt relieved, content, and finally able to relax. I began nursing her when laying down and when walking around the house. She began to latch on completely on her own and would stroke the back of my arm with one hand and play with hair with the other.  We were both hooked.

By one year of age I had a baby girl who loved nursing and only kind of liked food, and who happened to have  an anaphylactic egg allergy. She still wanted to nurse several times a day, and I couldn’t help but notice that it helped her both calm down and recharge in the middle of a hectic day. If she didn’t eat as many vegetables as I liked in a week I didn’t really worry because I knew she was getting the extra nutrition from me. Outbreaks of flus caused me slightly less worry, again, because I knew she was getting extra immunity. More than anything else, however, was that it actually made her happy.

By 18 months I had a potty trained toddler who STILL loved to nurse, and was now fending off questions of: “Are you EVER going to wean her?” “How long are you going to nurse her…until she’s in grade school?” I felt the pressure and though she continued to nurse I stopped nursing her anywhere in public except the La Leche League Toddler meetings and the Attachment Parenting group to which I belonged.

And finally, as she neared her second year, the nursing times became further and further apart until finally days at a time would pass. I would tell her she would have to wait to nurse, and she would forget about it altogether. And so this incredible bond that had lasted two straight years finally came to an end.

At least until Sophia was born…

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Interested in breastfeeding past the first year? The reasons to continue breastfeeding after one year are valid and strong, and include:

• Nutrition! Research has shown that second-year milk is very similar to the first-year milk nutritionally (Victora, 1984). Even after two years or more it continues to be a valuable source of protein, fat, calcium, and vitamins (Jelliffe and Jelliffe, 1978).

• Immunity! The immunities in breast milk have been shown to increase in concentration as the baby gets older and nurses less, so older babies still receive lots of immune factors (Goldman et al, 1983).

• Allergies! It is well documented that the later that cow’s milk and other common allergens are introduced into the diet of a baby, the less likelihood there is of allergic reactions (Savilahti, 1987).

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Lastly, I suppose, my main reason is this face:

When she starts tugs on my pant legs and starts signing for milk, I turn to goo and cuddle up on the couch for some downtime with my youngest.