04/22/2023
"There is no such thing as “extended” breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding a toddler is as normal, healthy, and beneficial as breastfeeding a baby. The benefits of breastmilk do not expire at one year - in fact, ounce per ounce they increase!
Throughout human history the natural age of weaning has likely been between 2-7. This has been demonstrated by a variety of methods including oral histories, anthropological data, and comparison to our closest mammalian relatives, the primate family.
Toddlers still benefit from that close relationship, as well as the fats, protein, vitamins, antibodies, stem cells, and beneficial hormones (and thousands of other known and unknown components) that breastmilk provides - all in the perfect amounts and perfectly digestible.
Breastmilk is also rich in human milk oligosaccharides which become food for the beneficial bacteria which live in our gut - thus nurturing a healthy microbiome. A flourishing and diverse microbiome is believed to be one of the primary factors which promotes health and prevents disease throughout our lifetimes.
The WHO and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, and continued breastfeeding until at least two years of age (with the addition of complementary solid foods added in at six months.)
They state, “Over 820,000 children's lives could be saved every year among children under 5 years, if all children 0–23 months were optimally breastfed. Breastfeeding improves IQ, school attendance, and is associated with higher income in adult life.”
Although breastfeeding toddlers (also called “full-term” nursing) is not the cultural norm in many Western countries, it continues to be the biological norm for our species."
(✏️.earth.motherhood, 📸:freshpinephotos_stlmotherhood)
