>Does anyone have a recent article that details the benefits of bf after 1
>yr? One of the pedi docs I work with just told a mom there were no
>benefits after 6mo, and since her child just turned a year, she should
>'make things easier for herself, and stop bf.' She stopped that day!
It's a very strange idea that breastfeeding stops having any value
after a particular time. I suggest to mothers who have heard this
(often from HCPs) that they ask what the HCP thinks happens to
breastmilk at that time. Does it turn to water? Or something else?
Why, given that it doesn't turn into anything else, would it cease to
be nourishing and thirst-quenching and a source of health-giving
properties? Why, given it is a human milk, would cow's milk be any
better for the baby (the HCPs don't suggest the mother stops milk
altogether)?
Why, given that for many mothers and babies, breastfeeding is an
important and loving part of their relationship, does the mother
have to stop? Would the HCP tell the mother there is no more
'benefit' in cuddling, holding, comforting after a certain date?
What, in other words, is the HCP *thinking* of, to tell a mother to stop?
I think it's for the HCP in this case to justify his/her own strange
ideas - and as you work with this doc, Michelle, maybe you could do
the asking?! Following the doc's advice has given this mother the
discomfort of egorgement, which you then had to help her with, so
this is your 'in' to raise the topic (you prob would not ask the
questions in the eye-rolling way I have done here :) ).
Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
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