Can breast feeding be good for older children?

SHARON Spink has been criticised for breastfeeding her daughter in public in the past.

But the shocked reaction she has provoked is not due to her feeding her baby in public - but because her daughter Charlotte is now five-years-old.

Sharon, 46, is a supporter of extended breastfeeding and said it is for Charlotte to decide for herself when she wants to stop.

The North Yorkshire jewellery designer argues her daughter takes comfort and nutritional value from continuing to breast feed and said she could continue for as long as she wants and is able to.

She said: "It's Charlotte's choice.

"I believe the health benefits are there. Breast milk does adapt to the needs of an older child.

"From Charlotte's point of view it's something she enjoys doing and it's normal to her. It's part of her bedtime routine. We read a story and she has Mummy milk.

"Because she knows I'm there when she needs me, the research they have done has proved breast fed children are more independent.

"The choice about when she stops will be hers, whether that is naturally or because she has got her adult teeth and cannot latch on any more - they change the shape of the mouth and she physically won't be able to do it."

Charlotte, who started primary school this year, is breast fed about twice a day.

The the majority of feeds take place at home although Sharon said she would feed her daughter in public if she asked.

They have been victim to criticism with a family friend suggesting Sharon was trying to keep her daughter a baby and another woman in a Selby pub referring to the Bitty character in the comedy show Little Britain, in which a woman continues to breasttfeed her grown up son. The woman got up and turned her back to Sharon and her daughter.

While no Government or international body has a recommended upper age limit on when a mother should stop breast feeding her child, the World Health Organization (WHO) said there are a range of health benefits for exclusively breast feeding babies for the first six months After that the WHO suggests a combination of foods, fluids and breast milk up to the age of two "or beyond"

Sharon, who has two grown-up children and an eight-year-old daughter Isabel, said she only breastfed her other children for a relatively short amount of time due to a lack of awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding.

But, now training to become a breastfeeding counsellor with the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, she said she strongly believes in the benefits of extended breastfeeding and hopes to normalise the idea of older children being breastfed.

She believes many mothers continue to breastfeed older children but do not do it in public to avoid being criticised and because older children feed less often.

She said: "I have had negative comments saying they think it's ridiculous I'm still feeding Charlotte, that I'm trying to keep her a baby

"It's just a lack of understanding, some people don't like it because they think it's not a normal thing.

"Hopefully when people see this it will become more of a normal thing - it does happen more than people realise.

"It's just another day to us, to us Charlotte is just another day older, she did that yesterday so she will do it today. "

Sharon believes people's discomfort can come from seeing breasts as sexual. "In our society breasts are seen as a sexual object - but their main use is to feed children," she said, "As a society we seem to have moved away from that and maybe we need to move back and see their primary function is for feeding children, selling cars is secondary."

Sharon said her husband Paul, 41, is supportive, and would speak up if anyone criticised her.

"If anyone had a go at me, he would say something to them," she said, "He is very laid back. He is happy for us to carry on because he sees how happy we are."
 

EXPERT Morag White said such extended breastfeeding is not necessarily of nutritional value but could be of emotional benefit.

The infant feeding coordinator at York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust said: “Breastmilk is a food, a fluid, and a source of protection from many diseases for babies. Ideally every baby should have the opportunity to have breastmilk for the first six months of life as a minimum.

“The World Health Organisation suggests that children should have breast milk until two years of age, and that solid foods should be introduced from six months to meet the nutritional requirements of the growing infant.

“Beyond two years there is little evidence to suggest the nutritional value of giving breastmilk. However, the comfort and closeness that this provides to the child and the mother is immeasurable. Breastfeeding is much more than a food and there is evidence to support that babies who have had that closeness and responsiveness by being breastfed do indeed tend to cope better with separation and stress in later life.

“It is unusual in our culture to see older children being breastfed in public. However, that does not mean that older children are not having the occasional drink of breastmilk. It is more common for children to self wean between the ages of two and three years of age but not all are ready at that time. It is an entirely reciprocal relationship between mother and child.”