I know what natural breastfeeding is. The poster above said it was average. It’s extremely rare.
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I don’t think there are gonna be many 7 year olds still breastfeeding at all but a lot of mothers who have done natural term breastfeeding admit to doing it behind closed doors because of the stigma associated with it, so I don’t think many mothers in the western world would come forward and admit to feeding a 7 year old, I read a bbc article about a year ago about Inuit communities where it was very much the norm to be breastfeeding 5 year olds, so 7 is entirely possible in communities where natural term breastfeeding is just normal practice, like lots of communities in remote villages all around the world where food can be scarce
I had this discussion with a health visitor, breastfeeding is very under reported. I know from personal experience I was never asked if I was still breastfeeding at the 2 year check, and in fact they ticked no each time without even checking. I was still breastfeeding past the age of 2. Breastfeeding older children carries a lot of stigma, fear of being reported to social services (which has happened to people) or just noone asking the questions. I was part of the la leche league for a few years and there were a lot of mums still breastfeeding at 4 or 5 years. It.would be good to get more accurate figures.
I know in NI health visitors massively misreport the levels of breastfeeding. It says at the front of our children’s health record books that bf should still be recorded at “total” after 6 months if it is the main source of milk intake, alongside complementary foods. However many HV still circle “partial” for bf because people are obviously weaning babies on to solids at 6 months.
We don’t even have a section for bf at the 2yr check. I have bf all mine until over age 2, but there is no record of that and so no stats on it at all.
It's bad isn't it. I've been recent looking into biodomes and the big effect breastfeeding has on them and future health outcomes but the research tends to only go up to 2 years (I'm a breast milk nerd, I'd have loved to do a dissertation around natural term breastfeeding)
well I know my 2 year old is absolutely nowhere near ready to self wean, she might surprise me one day but at the moment she is a little boob monster, her little face lights up with happiness when I start lifting up my top! She hasn’t had her two year check yet but the HV didn’t bother asking at her one year check, I will admit I’ve started ‘going underground’ with the breastfeeding now as I’ve started to get a few questions from family and friends about when I’m going to stop and I just can’t be arsed trying to explain to them how the breastfeeding relationship is so much more then food, I can’t believe anyone would report to social services!! Just goes to show how little is understood about bf and how far away from the biological norm our society has moved.
My family stopped asking after my first when I would stop! I’ve had to stop each time because I was pregnant again and so uncomfortable and sick when feeding
My MIL and FIL have been the best supporters in some ways, as my MIL didn’t bf, but she has never once made a comment about me feeding for “longer” times, and any time she does mention feeding it’s always in a really positive way.Just about to start my 4th, and final, bf journey, and just hoping it goes as well as the others
I always had "will you still be feeding them when she goes to school?". I've got a lovely photo of my middle feeding in her school uniform. My In laws were a bit twitchy about it all, no idea why because I weren't asking them to breastfeed my kids, but my Polish grandfather in law loved I was still feeding them because it made them "strong as bull"
. My health visitor was desperate to tell me how damaging it was that my child was still cosleeping at 4 (I pointed out that me and their dad were in our 30s and still coslept 
). My kids are confident, social happy kids so I happily gave her the middle finger.oh I can relate to this! Currently 13 weeks pregnant with no2 and struggling so much, just the permanent nausea and vomiting and fatigue has killed me off and I admit I would be absolutely over the moon if my daughter decided tomorrow she wasn’t interested anymore, I’ve tentatively tried to say no to her but wow it doesn’t go down well she is actually heartbroken and then I feel awful and give in, I’m getting over the hill of the horrible sickness now though thank god so I’m finding it a bit easier again and I’ll see what the next trimester brings and how much longer I can carry on forMy family stopped asking after my first when I would stop! I’ve had to stop each time because I was pregnant again and so uncomfortable and sick when feeding
Just about to start my 4th, and final, bf journey, and just hoping it goes as well as the others
I felt so done with it the other day that I screamed at my partner that I was formula feeding the new baby from day 1 ha ha, now that I’ve calmed down a bit I’ve decided I will intend to bf number 2, I’ll give it my best, if it doesn’t work out for any reason, terrible painful latch or whatever, I will give exclusive pumping a go and if that doesn’t work I will move onto formula without any bad feelings about it, just thinking ahead! Wow you’ve done incredibly well to bf 3 so far for as long as you have, I’m sure no4 will work out brilliantly too!
Oh I feel for you, I always found from about 9 weeks onwards very difficult. When I was feeding my second and pregnant with my third feeding him actually made my skin crawl. Many times I just wanted to shove him off me, because I would be actually squirming while he fed. With this pregnancy it definitely made the nausea worse, and was so sore as well! So both times I weaned around 15 weeks pregnant to save my sanity.
Weaning is not easy, but I can honestly say that after max 3 days all of mine were absolutely fine with it. I actually felt a bit rejected at times! So if you decide you want to wean while pregnant don’t be afraid of negative response from LO. You can still provide comfort and love with cuddles
I have found 3 times out of 3 the worry of weaning was way worse than the process itself. And my son in particular was an absolute boob monster!Oh I haven’t dared admit to any HV that my daughter has never once, since 4 weeks of age, slept in her own cot or bedI always had "will you still be feeding them when she goes to school?". I've got a lovely photo of my middle feeding in her school uniform. My In laws were a bit twitchy about it all, no idea why because I weren't asking them to breastfeed my kids, but my Polish grandfather in law loved I was still feeding them because it made them "strong as bull"
this is another example of completely normal infant behaviour - the need to be next to parents overnight every night - which seems to be extremely misunderstood by western society, I don’t get how and why we’ve culturally moved so far away from biological normswe love a bit of co sleeping in our house. I’m actually struggling atm to fall asleep at night because my youngest just transitioned to sleep with my husband, and I am struggling to sleep without her little snuggly body shoving me on to six inches of my bed 
BF is normalised though? The stigma is all in your head. It will never be normal (no matter how many celebs do it) to share a picture of you breastfeeding you baby.
Correct, some of us love the attention and some of us don’t. It’s definitely an excuse to get your bits out in social media. BF has been happening for millions of years and couldn’t be any more normalised if it where trying to be.
I agree. I don’t think people actually have a problem with BF. It’s completely normal.
However I really find it uncomfortable when women post pics of them BF or do it in public. It’s awkward. I don’t want to see a strangers big veiny boob being flopped out. And I think that’s how others feel. It’s not that they think BF is wrong it’s the fact they don’t want to see it.
I don't thing that's what was meant. We all know it's a matter of getting used to it. However, there are people who somehow cover it. If i'm feeling hot for some reason, I'm not gonna get naked, right? Even though I feel like it. And a baby being hungry is as legit as me not feeling well because it's too hot.
This said, I really don't have that much of a problem with breast feeding in public. But we should find a middle ground. My mom has told me she didn't have a problem breastfeeding me in public, but she always carried some sort of cloth to cover the boob, so she could have some privacy, even though she was in public.
I think it can be done tastefully. There is an ex-slimming world instagrammer who always has her boobs out on insta (thefeebsfeed - she has a thread on here), just for the sake of it. And it’s tedious.
I hope Zoe keeps it tasteful and doesn’t go on a big BF crusade as there are many women who can’t BF for various reasons and it can be detrimental to their well-being when others are showing off about it
Gross.
If you think women shouldn't breastfeed in public and you think lots of others agree with you then BF isn't normalised and you do have a problem with BF
Plenty of breastfed babies feed every 2 hours or more in the early months, should those women be chained to their houses?
This is the last I'll say on it, but would you like to eat dinner with a blanket over your head?
The problem is, some people cannot separate the sexualisation of the breast with its natural function. That's on them, not on breastfeeding mums to appease them.
This is exactly what I meant. I think there’s nothing wrong with doing it in public as long as the breast is covered.
But if you ever say that you get ‘jumped on’.Which these comments prove.
Thanks for sticking up for me
Wow .. breastfeeding shouldn’t be done in public?? It’s people like you that contribute to the stigma with comments like that. No mum should be made to stay home or go hide to feed their baby. Maybe just don’t look if it bothers you!! I’ve never known a mum to get her full on boobs out anyway, once baby is latched on you can’t even see anything
if anyone came up to me whilst I was breastfeeding in public and told me to stop I would tell them where to go!!