“Breastfeeding my three year old.” Words I never thought I would be saying.
Normal term breastfeeding is not common in my family. The few times my family mentioned breastfeeding a toddler, or young child, it was portrayed as something negative and disgusting.
I am the first in my family to do many things differently. I was met with resistance.
But now they understand that this decision involves my nurslings and myself. My husband is supportive of me tandem nursing the girls until they are ready to be done.
Honestly, I am ready to be done nursing her. It will still be emotional when she does decide she is done, but I am following her lead.
I may be ready to be done nursing my three-year-old, but she is not ready to stop.
Nursing is still the one thing that helps calm her emotional hurricane.
When she is having a really hard day, dealing with big emotions, frustrated, or not feeling connected, the one thing that makes it all go away is letting her nurse. I feel her little body relax almost instantly.
She still asks for milk multiple times a day and sometimes I need to say no because my nursing aversion is rearing its ugly head. For the most part, I try to let her nurse as long as I can.
That connection is so important for her.
This past weekend Little Bear blew out her three candles on the cake she decorated herself and it hit me. I am breastfeeding a three-year-old.
Anytime I see things in the media about normal term breastfeeding with a three-year-old, I see so many ignorant people treating it as if this nursing relationship is a taboo.
In America, breasts can sell beer, lingerie, hamburgers, etc. But God forbid we try to do what nature intended by feeding our children.
The benefits of breast milk do not expire after one year.
Breast milk adjusts to what our children need as they need it.
We give antibodies that our nurslings need for immunity through our milk, healthy fat they need for growth and much more.
I just have a hard time taking these people seriously. Do they know that the milk they are so quick to offer as a replacement for a woman’s breast milk is the breast milk of another species?
Cow’s milk is breast milk of a cow, for a baby cow. Cow’s milk is designed to grow a baby cow (that is quite large already) into an even larger cow. It is full of hormones and fat for a baby cow, just as human milk is made with over one hundred ingredients specific to a human’s growth needs.
If you are uncomfortable seeing a woman nurse her baby, toddler, or young child then look away.
Keep your comments to yourself.
Why?
Because it is none of your business. Keep drinking your bovine breast milk and keep walking, or scrolling as the case may be.
I am one of many women who continue to nurse my child until I need to stop or they are ready to be done.
If you choose not to breastfeed at all, that’s fine because it is your child and your choice. There is no need to put a mother that chooses to continue breastfeeding down. It says a lot about you in the way you react to these types of situations.
I should remind you that the world breastfeeding ages range between 0 and 7 years old. Yes, seven years old is when children lose their milk teeth. The average age of nursing worldwide is 4.2 years old.
Breastmilk provides immunity and health benefits no matter the age.
Science shows without question that extended breastfeeding is beneficial for the child and the mother.
So many parents worry that their picky eater is not getting enough nutrients and breastmilk is full of them! Breastfeeding helps lower a woman’s risk for breast cancer and ovarian cancers among other health benefits to mom.
Just because society is uncomfortable with a woman using her own breasts for what they were created for, is not a good enough reason for me to take that emotional and physical support from my daughter.
I think society tries to polarize women, we can be either sexual or maternal to them.
As women, we are creators, nurturers, protectors. We balance our femininity and our masculinity. We are sexual creatures and nurturers. To have someone suggest that we can only be one without the other is absurd. We balance the different parts of who we are.
“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.” -Diane Mariechild
Benefits of breastfeeding a 3-year-old.
When I breastfeed my three year old it is for her nourishment, her comfort, her security, for her to feel grounded and connected.
When I breastfeed my three-year-old I cherish every painstaking minute of closeness with a girl who never stops unless she is sleeping. I reap the lasting health benefits extended breastfeeding provides for my body.
When I breastfeed my three year old my one-year-old gets a lesson in sharing milkies with her sister and patience. Some days I nurse her as many as five or six times. Usually she only nurses for short “sips” as she is always on the go. Other times she only asks twice a day.
My child needs my milk.
My three year old needs her milkies, so we continue into a new year. I am looking forward to the things we will learn together this year. I am ready for the challenges.
So how long have you been nursing? What are the struggles you have faced?
IF you could say anything to encourage a mom to extended breastfeeding/ normal term breastfeeding what would you say?
