I Don't Want to Wean!

What Does Extended Nursing Really Mean?

By Ann Calandro, RNC, IBCLC

What guidance does an American woman get from her health care providers? The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages mothers to breastfeed exclusively for six months, and thereafter, breastfeed along with other foods for at least a year, and then, for as long as the baby and mother mutually choose. (The American Academy of Family Practitioners agrees.) The American Dietetic Association recommends breastfeeding for at least one year. The World Health Organization encourages breastfeeding for at least two years.

Anthropologists and biologists study other mammals to find out how long normal nursing extends. It is easy to do because other mammals all breastfeed by instinct and breastfeed until just the right moment for weaning. They are not influenced by the neighbors, advertising or going back to work. Their internal clocks tell them when it is time. Their weaning depends on how fast their babies mature and are able to care for themselves.

Studying humans doesn't help, because humans sometimes don't breastfeed at all. Some humans may breastfeed for days or weeks, and others may breastfeed for years. Katherine A. Dettwyler, an anthropologist, has studied the weaning patterns of other large primates and has theorized that an accurate rule of thumb for weaning would be when Baby quadruples its birth weight (7 X 4= 28 months) or has lived six times its gestation age (6 X 9= 54 months).

Dettwyler "does advocate that medical professionals and paraprofessionals, family members, friends, acquaintances and even strangers recognize that human children, like their nonhuman primate relatives are designed to expect all the benefits of breast milk and breastfeeding for a minimum of two and a half years. The information that three or four years of breastfeeding, or even longer, is both normal and appropriate for human infants should be disseminated to heath care professionals and parents alike."

Is it still healthy for the child to breastfeed for extended periods? Yes. Breast milk continues to offer immunological properties to the child along with superior nutrition. Although it is not designed to be the sole food for children beyond the first six months or so, breast milk continues to add nutrition, vitamins and calories along with health benefits.

Nursing an older child is very different from nursing a baby. Older children nurse infrequently, usually only when going to sleep at night.

Mothers, too, benefit from extended nursing. A recent study indicated that longer nursing decreases the mother's chances of developing breast cancer.

Want to see more?

• Child-led Weaning: The Way Nature Intended
• Nursing Beyond 1 Year
• Tandem Nursing in Today's World
• Talk about it!