Milking the benefits for your child

Many people feel uncomfortable at the thought of breastfeeding a toddler, but new guidelines recommend just that.

AS Abigail Fuller lifts her 14-week-old baby daughter Doris from the Moses basket and settles down to feed, her son Albie leaps on to the sofa just to make sure his presence is not going unnoticed.

It's a common problem for second-time mums, trying to breastfeed the youngest and keep the elder entertained at the same time. But after a cursory glance at what his baby sister's doing, he jumps back down and gets stuck into his Lego.

Yet it's not that long since Albie, who'll be four next week, himself was breastfeeding. In fact it was only nine months ago, when Abigail became pregnant, that he finally felt he was "too big" to get milk any more. Many people can be left squeamish at the idea of mothers breastfeeding when their children reach toddler stage – and beyond – yet the Government is about to recommend that women do just that.

New advice from NHS Health Scotland, which will be issued to all pregnant women later in the year, states that babies should be given only breast milk for the first six months, and then continue to be breastfed for a further 18 months while they are eating solid food.

The advice is based on guidance from the World Health Organisation which states there is increasing evidence that babies who are breastfed until the age of two enjoy better general health in later life and also have higher IQs.

For 37-year-old Abigail, of Carrick Knowe, extended breastfeeding just came naturally – it certainly wasn't planned.

"Albie was three years and three months when he finally stopped," she says. "I hadn't planned that . . . I just thought I would see how it went. To be honest when he was a baby and I saw toddlers being fed by their mums I thought it looked odd, not something I would have thought I'd be doing, but I did."

Not that breastfeeding came easy. "It was a complete nightmare when I started," she says. "I had a lot of difficulties, including mastitis (painful, blocked milk ducts) but my sister was also breast-feeding her baby at the time and she told me that it would eventually get better, so I persevered.

"I was more influenced by what she told me than by this whole idea that because it's such a natural thing you and the baby should just be able to do it, which is what you hear from midwives and health visitors. I think that attitude is why a lot of women give up when they have problems."

While she says she would never "recommend" anything to another mum because "everyone is different", she does believe that extended breastfeeding has helped Albie to become the healthy child he is – and she hopes it will be the same for Doris. "He's a very outgoing, sociable boy and a lot of people believe extended breastfeeding helps children develop in that way, but I think that's just Albie really," she smiles.

"But what breastfeeding has done is ensure that he's very healthy. He's never been ill – beyond chickenpox – and even colds don't last longer than a day. In fact I've never given him Calpol, because if he has had a temperature or a cold, he would just feed and it seemed to help. It also meant that if he was off his food I didn't have to worry about his nutrition."

She was also fully supported by her husband Ian. The 51-year-old psychotherapist says: "It's never been an issue with me that the breastfeeding should stop, I was quite happy for Albie to decide, because that's when it would come to a natural end. I just felt that this is the way it's supposed to be."

Abigail adds: "Latterly it was just a couple of sucks before going to sleep. Then one day he said, 'I don't think I want to have milk mummy. I used to have it when I was little but I'm a big boy now'. And that was it. To be honest I was quite glad because I didn't want to get into tandem feeding when Doris was born, but I think it's lovely that it happened like that."

Gillian Baxendine, 42, from Bruntsfield, is another mum who thoroughly believes in extended breastfeeding. Her two-year-old son, Samuel, still breastfeeds and her elder daughter Anna, now seven, fed until she was four-and-a-half.

Like Abigail though, she says it wasn't planned. "I thought I would give it a go for about six months with Anna, and I had a lot of difficulties in the beginning, but having got through them I found that I really enjoyed it, that I really got to know her and we have a very strong relationship. So when I got to six months I didn't see any reason to stop, and by then I realised it was about more than nutrition. I thought I'd just keep going while we were both happy with it."

The part-time civil servant returned to work when Anna was six months. "Her nursery was near the office so I could go and feed her at lunchtimes which helped me keep going too," she says. "And it became part of our lives, and was a nice way of reconnecting when I got home from work in the evenings too. Even when she developed teeth she never bit me, so that didn't make me stop either.

"People always knew I was feeding her. I didn't think it was something I should keep secret or be ashamed of. When she was a baby and I saw big children feeding I did think it was odd, but then the more people who see it, the less odd it will get. If you hide when you breastfeed then society will never get used to it."

She too believes extended breastfeeding has helped keep her children healthy. "I've had about three days off work with them being ill," she says. "They're happy and healthy and outgoing – they're not overdependent on me.

"Samuel is still feeding, but Anna gave up when she went away with my husband for a few days and just said, 'I won't have any milk when I come back'. And with Samuel she just sees it as something he does."

Now training to be a breastfeeding counsellor, Gillian believes that more support and help needs to be given to mums as they start to breastfeed – but that there should be no diktats to how long they should continue.

"The majority of women want to breastfeed but if they don't get the right support then it can be difficult and they can feel like they've failed somehow. I would just really like to help them get through that hard time. Even if it's just for three months it's a huge thing to do for your baby."

EVIDENCE SHOWS MOTHERS' MILK BOOSTS IQ
ALL expectant mothers in Scotland are to be advised they should breastfeed children up to the age of two.

The new guidance is contained in a DVD that will be given to all pregnant women from later this year, after being produced by the Scottish Government's health education body, NHS Health Scotland.

The recommendations are based on growing evidence that breastfed babies may have a higher IQ and better general health.

But concerns have been raised that they will make mothers who struggle to breastfeed feel guilty, and could even put women off trying breastfeeding altogether.

Current advice suggests women should breastfeed their babies for six months, with no other foods or drinks, for the best health benefits.

The new guidance states that they should give their newborns nothing but breast milk for the first six months, then continue breastfeeding once the baby is on solids for a further 18 months.