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Breastfeed a Toddler—Why on Earth?
Handout #21. Toddler nursing. January 2005
Written by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC. © 2005
Because more and more women are now breastfeeding their babies,
more and more are also finding that they enjoy breastfeeding enough
to want to continue longer than the usual few months they initially
thought they would. UNICEF has long encouraged breastfeeding for
two years and longer, and the American Academy of Pediatrics is
now on record as encouraging mothers to nurse at least
one year and as long after as both mother and baby desire. Even
the Canadian Paediatric Society, in its latest feeding statement
acknowledges that women may want to breastfeed for two years or
longer and Health Canada has put out a statement similar to UNICEF’s.
Breastfeeding to 3 and 4 years of age has been common in much of
the world until recently in human history, and it is still common
in many societies for toddlers to breastfeed.
Why should breastfeeding continue past six months?
Because mothers and babies often enjoy breastfeeding a lot. Why
stop an enjoyable relationship? And continued breastfeeding is even
good for the health and welfare of both the mother and child.
But it is said that breastmilk has no value after six months.
Perhaps this is said, but it is patently wrong. That anyone (including
paediatricians) can say such a thing only shows how ignorant so
many people in our society are about breastfeeding. Breastmilk is,
after all, milk. Even after six months, it still contains protein,
fat, and other nutritionally important and appropriate
elements which babies and children need. Breastmilk still contains
immunologic factors that help protect the baby. In fact, some immune
factors in breastmilk that protect the baby against infection are
present in greater amounts in the second year of life than in the
first. This is, of course as it should be, since children older
than a year are generally exposed to more sources of infection.
Breastmilk still contains special growth factors that help the immune
system to mature, and which help the brain, gut, and other organs
to develop and mature.
It has been well shown that children in daycare who are still breastfeeding
have far fewer and less severe infections than the children who
are not breastfeeding. The mother thus loses less work time if she
continues nursing her baby once she is back at her paid work.
It is interesting that formula company marketing pushes the use
of formula (a very poor copy of the real thing) for a year, yet
implies that breastmilk (from which the poor copy is made) is only
worthwhile for 6 months or even less (“the best nutrition
for newborns”). Too many health professionals have
taken up the refrain.
I have heard that the immunologic factors in breastmilk prevent
the baby from developing his own immunity if I breastfeed past six
months.
This is untrue; in fact, this is absurd. It is unbelievable how
so many people in our society twist around the advantages of breastfeeding
and turn them into disadvantages. We give babies immunizations so
that they are able to defend themselves against the real infection.
Breastmilk also helps the baby to fight off infections. When the
baby fights off these infections, he becomes immune. Naturally.
But I want my baby to become independent.
And breastfeeding makes the toddler dependent? Don’t believe
it. The child who breastfeeds until he weans himself (usually from
2 to 4 years), is generally more independent, and, perhaps,
more importantly, more secure in his independence. He has
received comfort and security from the breast, until he
is ready to make the step himself to stop. And when he makes that
step himself, he knows he has achieved something, he knows he has
moved ahead. It is a milestone in his life.
Often we push children to become "independent" too quickly.
To sleep alone too soon, to wean from the breast too soon, to do
without their parents too soon, to do everything too soon. Don’t
push and the child will become independent soon enough. What’s
the rush? Soon they will be leaving home. You want them to leave
home at 14? If a need is met, it goes away. If a need is unmet (such
as the need to breastfeed and be close to mom), it remains a need
well into childhood and even the teenage years.
Of course, breastfeeding can, in some situations, be used to foster
an over dependent relationship. But so
can food and toilet training. The problem is not the breastfeeding.
This is another issue.
What else?
Possibly the most important aspect of nursing a toddler is not
the nutritional or immunologic benefits, important as they are.
I believe the most important aspect of nursing a toddler is the
special relationship between child and mother. Breastfeeding is
a life-affirming act of love. This continues when the baby becomes
a toddler. Anyone without prejudices, who has ever observed an older
baby or toddler nursing can testify that there is something almost
magical, something special, something far beyond food going on.
A toddler will sometimes spontaneously, for no obvious reason, break
into laughter while he is nursing. His delight in the breast goes
far beyond a source of food. And if the mother allows herself, breastfeeding
becomes a source of delight for her as well, far beyond the pleasure
of providing food. Of course, it’s not always great,
but what is? But when it is, it makes it all so worthwhile.
And if the child does become ill or does get hurt (and they do
as they meet other children and become more daring), what easier
way to comfort the child than breastfeeding? I remember nights in
the emergency department when mothers would walk their ill, non-nursing
babies or toddlers up and down the halls trying, often unsuccessfully,
to console them, while the nursing mothers were sitting quietly
with their comforted, if not necessarily happy, babies at the breast.
The mother comforts the sick child with breastfeeding, and the child
comforts the mother by breastfeeding.
Questions?
see
my book Dr. Jack Newman's Guide to Breastfeeding (called
The
Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers in the USA)
Handout #21. Toddler nursing. January 2005
Written by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC. © 2005
This
handout may be copied and distributed without further permission,
on
the condition that it is not used in any context in which
the WHO code on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes is violated
