Okay, anecdotal evidence, sample of one:
first child, still BF extensively at age one year, reduced to once or twice
a day, eye-opener and nightcap, from about 20 months til final weaning which
was some 20 months thereafter.  Reduction was a natural consequence of me
starting work outside the home four days a week when she was 19 months, and
followed a conscious plan to stop the all-night feed-ins which from about
14-18 months had made all our lives less enjoyable.  We devised the plan
ourselves without recourse to any baby books or sleep gurus, and happily, it
worked.

BF was a part of waking and going to bed.  I can't remember her asking apart
from those times, and I certainly can't remember refusing her if she did
ask.  I might have done, but I have no memory of doing so.  Since half of
our BF course was with one or two episodes daily, and it lasted over three
years in all, I can't say the reduction was the death blow to BF for us.  It
was a steady state, and it ended because I ended it (decidedly not bragging,
just being honest).

I do remember that she was never difficult to settle for the night from
toddlerhood on.  No resistance, no ploys to stall for time, no protests.
Toothbrushing with water alone as she is a spirited sort who reacts to all
forms of soap and foam to this day, then BF in rocking chair where she would
fall asleep, then bed.  Any chair would do if we were not home, and once
asleep she could be placed ANYWHERE, moved ANYTIME, and would not wake up.

When the BF stopped, or if I were not home at bedtime before she was weaned,
she continued to go to bed as though it were the normal thing to do when one
is tired.  Every single night, no matter where we were.  No protests, no
stalling for time, no calling us in on a pretext of needing something, just
going to sleep.  It didn't occur to me until long after that her whole
experience of going to bed for the night was globally positive, and she had
no reason to construct elaborate strategies to avoid it.  BF was an integral
part of it at the start, but stopping BF didn't change her attitude to going
to bed.

I agree, though, with Kathy D. who said she feels babies getting BF twice a
day when they approach one year are unlikely to make it to two years without
weaning.  That time from 12-18 months was a time of much change, when her
orientation to food evolved from being mainly mother-centered to being
mainly solids.  If that evolution occurs much earlier I think the BF might
well be jeopardized.  But as for frequency afterwards, I see that varies a
lot from dyad to dyad, and I don't think there is one correct frequency for
all.  I know many, many families where the child has continued to get
breastmilk at bedtime for more than a year after all other BF has stopped.

Rachel Myr
Norway

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