Real life: Is breast feeding really best when your child is 4?
Few would disagree that breast milk gives your baby the ideal start in life. But what if you don't want to stop when your infant becomes a toddler? Catherine Ball speaks to two mothers who believe breast is still best even when your child is over two.
APRIL Hunter's daughter Iona celebrates her fourth birthday next month.
But she is still happily breast-feeding along with her younger brother Judah, aged one.
Stay-at-home mum April set out intending to breast-feed Iona until her first birthday. But once her daughter was born she learnt about the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s recommendation that children are given breast milk for the first two years of their life.
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She says: "Two years then became the aim but after that I just kept going. When Iona was 13 months we went to South Africa for a year and around the time she turned two we were preparing to come back to Britain.
"Then I became pregnant so a lot of things were changing all at once. I felt it was important to be that stable presence in her life and continue breast-feeding."
April had thought Iona might naturally wean herself off the breast while she was pregnant but she didn't.
The 31-year-old, who lives in Congleton, says: "It was important to her that it was there and I still used breast-feeding for getting her to sleep. It didn't seem to bother her when my milk changed to prepare for the new baby.
"She would talk about it and say it tasted like sweets or brownies. It was quite lovely."
April got advice on feeding during pregnancy and tandem feeding – breast-feeding more than one child from La Leche League.
She says: "Tandem feeding is unusual, you don't see it every day and being around it through La Leche League helped prepare me. I explained to Iona she would have to share when Judah was born.
"The first few weeks after Judah was born were a bit rough not so much with the tandem feeding but her experiencing the anxiety of a new sibling. She suddenly wanted to feed a lot more but after a while she went back to normal – feeding in the morning and at night and maybe once in the day."
And as Judah got older, he was actually the one who didn't want to share his milk with his big sister.
April says: "He would kick her and push her off."
But feeding two children at once did have some advantages for April. She didn't have to worry about building up her supply of milk as she was already producing plenty, or becoming engorged – when breasts become swollen – as if she ever produced too much milk she knew she had a willing toddler to drink it.
Now Iona mainly feeds at night when she's having her bedtime story.
April adds: "It's still important to her. I asked her 'when do you want to stop?' and she says 'when I am five'. Some of my friends say why are you still feeding her? But it's a lovely part of our relationship that is still there."
And she says she was lucky as her husband Jon, aged 41, an SEO manager, supported her decision to continue breast-feeding.
She says: "He wasn't breast-fed so for him the whole feeding thing was unusual. But he could see it was a real asset as breast-feeding really helps when they get to be toddlers – it helps with tantrums and bumps and falls.
"Sometimes people see breast-feeding as a heroic thing but I see it as a tool which has helped me as a parent."
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