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Home › Articles › Issues for Mom › From Bottle to Breast

From Bottle to Breast

Explaining Breastfeeding to Bottle-fed Kids

By Shel Franco

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In time, your child might want more detail. You may find yourself entertaining questions about how you make the milk and where it's stored, even about how much milk you make and when you're going to stop breastfeeding.

"Show the child how breastfeeding works," says McCarthy. "If the older child is young, Mom can just have the child watch her breastfeeding and say this is how babies eat. If the older child can understand more, she may want to also show the child a book about breastfeeding, with pictures, and tailor the explanation to the child's age."

Once you've explained the why and how, your child may actually ask to nurse. "Sometimes a young child, under 3, will ask to breastfeed or taste the milk," says McCarthy. "Let the child come to the breast if [he or she] wants to. Usually they 'chicken out' and decide this is just for babies. They just want to see if Mom will let them – if Mom still loves them."

Pamela Kock's 2 1/2-year-old daughter asked to breastfeed. "That would have been fine with me, but she changed her mind when I offered," says this Cincinnati, Ohio, mother.

Shelley Haggert, of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, had a similar experience with her 4-year-old, except Haggert's daughter opted to taste the breast milk. The result? "She spit it out!" says Haggert.

Like these mothers, if you do decide to let your young child taste the breast milk, chances are it won't be habit-forming. McCarthy explains that successful breastfeeding requires a specific suck. A young child that has not been breastfed does not have the necessary fat pads in his or her cheeks and will probably not have the ability to form a nutritive suck without a great deal of hard work.

With an older child, say 8 or 9 years old, a "taste test" is not very likely. "At that age, it may not be cool," says McCarthy.

Even so, if your older child is curious about the taste of your breast milk, McCarthy offers this advice: "I'd suggest [Mom] pump a little, at her convenience, and see if the kid wants a taste [from a cup]."

As with anything that pertains to parenting, if it makes you feel uncomfortable, you're not required to comply. Simply explain your feelings in a basic way and devote some extra hugs, kisses and cuddle time to your older child. After all, one of the nicest things about breastfeeding is being held tight in Mommy's arms, and you're never too old for that.

*Name has been changed to protect the privacy of the individual.

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