Extended Breastfeeding and Child-led Weaning

As breastfeeding is becoming more popular, the ideas of extended breastfeeding and child-led weaning are too. Extended breastfeeding can mean different thing for different people but it is basically when you breastfeed your child after they turn a year old. Child-led weaning with nursing is when the child gets to decide when the breastfeeding relationship is complete. I am currently practicing both of these ideas and wanted to share a little bit of my experience with both.

It was not a hard decision to make when I decided to do extended breastfeeding and child-led weaning with our second child, Kye. It made sense to me that he would be the one to end the breastfeeding relationship when he was ready to do so. Children are extremely intelligent, they work right off of their intuition. Kye is currently one year and four months and he still breastfeeds whenever he desires to no matter when or where we are. Once he turned a year I noticed that he was not wanting to nurse as much but still using it as a coping mechanism emotionally. I became pregnant with our third child in September, a month before he turned a year, and while in the beginning of my pregnancy it was somewhat painful to nurse, I continued to do so because I knew it wouldn't last and that it was still benefitting Kye even if it was more for his emotional well-being rather than nutritional at this point.

I know quite a few moms that want to end the breastfeeding relationship before the child is ready for various reasons. One thing I noticed in all of these situations is the more the mothers pushed away and told the child no to breastfeeding, the more the child wanted to breastfeeding which only frustrated both the mother and child in the end. Children are very sensitive to their environment and the energy around them. They can sense the vibes their mother is putting off and when it is a more negative vibe they will naturally want to breastfeed more to cope with it. The more calm the mother is, the child will follow and therefore be more calm as well. There are still times when I do not feel like breastfeeding Kye usually when I am feeling very tired. However I remind myself that this moment is temporary and he will not always want to seek the emotional comfort from me through breastfeeding. This time is precious and temporary and after all I decided to bring him into this world and it is my responsibility to provide him with the best upbringing I possibly can. When I go with the flow of it and let Kye lead the way, both of us are much happier and content.

As I near my time of delivering my third child my plans are to continue to breastfeed Kye as long as he wants as well as the new baby. It will be a big adjustment for Kye bringing a new baby into our lives with him being so young and still so reliant on me so I feel it is important to provide him with the comfort he desires during that transition. We should remember that our children are the reflection of ourselves and the more gentle, caring, and understanding we are as parents, the more gentle, caring, and understanding our children will be.