丨The author of this article: Wan Yi, Zhuo Zheng online lactation consultant
At present, authorities such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, introducing appropriate solid foods and continuing breastfeeding at about 6 months, as long as both mother and child are willing, breastfeeding can continue until 2 years of age or more.
But for some mothers, don't say 2 years old, breastfeeding until 1 year old is difficult for them to imagine.
Is breastfeeding still necessary after age 1? Does feeding for that long affect a child's gender identity? How many times a day do I need to feed? When is it time to wean?
Let's find out together today.
Is breastfeeding still necessary after age 1?
Most mothers ask this question out of concern about two aspects: first, whether breast milk is still nutritious after the age of 1; Second, whether eating breast milk for too long will interfere with the gender identity of children (especially boys).
Let's start with nutrition. It is too incomplete to just say that the nutrients are too incomplete, in fact, breast milk can provide not only nutrients for the child, but also a large number of immunoactive substances.
Available information suggests that human milk at 11 to 17 months postpartum provides the same or higher concentrations of macronutrients and key bioactive proteins compared with mature depot samples donated in the first year postpartum.
In particular, substances with antibacterial action, such as lactoferrin, lysozyme and immunoglobulin A, have significantly higher concentrations in the second year postpartum than in breast milk within one year postpartum.
In addition, studies have found that in the second year postpartum, 448 ml of breast milk can provide a baby:
29% of energy demand
43% of protein requirements
36% of calcium requirements
75% of vitamin A requirements
76% of folic acid requirements
94% of vitamin B12 requirements
60% of vitamin C requirements
This is not to say that breast milk is the only source that provides the above nutrients, and children after the age of 1 can also get enough nutrients through a balanced diet.
But breast milk should not be "denied" by nutrients. Human breast milk provides nutrition and disease protection at all times.
Will feeding for so long affect the child's gender identity?
Let's talk about gender identity. Some boys' mothers worry that breastfeeding for a long time will affect their children's gender identity or make their children "sissy".
First, there is no evidence that prolonged breastfeeding has an impact on a child's gender identity. Speculation in this regard is pure fabrication.
Even if you take 10,000 steps back, the word "sissy" in the traditional concept actually carries a stereotype of gender activity and behavior. To borrow from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), as the times have progressed, our expectations of "what girls do" and "what boys do" have changed.
Most obviously, girls are increasingly pursuing subjects that are traditionally considered "masculine", such as strength sports, social activities. Men are increasingly moving into fields traditionally considered "feminine" such as beauty, cooking, and parenting.
Society has recognized that stereotypes of "male" and "female" activities and behaviors are inaccurate and limit children's development. Nor do these activities determine or affect a person's gender identity.
Conversely, if our stereotypes cause the child to feel shame or suppress their nature, talents and true self, it can be harmful to the child.
Therefore, if someone comments that "breast milk affects children's gender identity", it is not only groundless, but also exposes the need for real sex education for the commentators themselves.
Breastfeeding after one year of age: more freedom to carry milk
I often tell mothers who come to counsel that breast milk after the age of one is "meritorious at will".
The meaning behind this is that, mentally, you can still feed on demand after one year of age. However, although breast milk after one year of age can provide nutrition for the child, ordinary food is the source of most of the child's calories. Breast milk functions in this regard more like part of a balanced diet, part of dairy products. Therefore, the amount of breast milk is not as important as before the first year of age.
Of course, breast milk is by no means as simple as "dairy". The immunoactive substances it can provide, the sense of attachment to the mother, are irreplaceable. It's just that our pursuit of breast milk volume can not be as active as it is under 1 year old.
Especially for mothers who carry milk. After the baby is 1 year old, as long as there is no allergy, the baby can drink milk or eat other dairy products. According to the latest version of the mainland dietary guidelines, children aged 1-2 years old, the recommended milk volume is about 500ml; 300-500ml is recommended for over 2 years old. As long as this total amount is guaranteed, the pressure on mothers to carry milk at work can be reduced.
For example, mothers can completely go without carrying milk during the day, let the baby drink milk at home and eat normally. Going home in the evening and breastfeeding is also a way to continue breastfeeding.
Some people are worried about whether the baby will be deficient in calcium after the age of 1 when eating breast milk? Indeed, after 1 year of age, the baby needs more calcium, and the calcium content of breast milk is not high. However, the absorption rate of breast milk calcium is high, and at the same time, the baby will also obtain calcium from other foods, such as milk and its dairy products, old tofu, dark green leafy vegetables, sesame peanuts, seaweed, etc., which are all calcium-rich foods.
Therefore, whether it is a breastfeeding mother or a full-time mother, as long as the baby is provided with rich solid food as the main source of nutrition, it can continue to feed. As for the feeding time, it can be flexibly adjusted according to the actual situation.
Breastfeeding is a part of life. Life is the mother's own, and how to feed the milk is naturally the mother's final say.
Weaning: This is bound to happen
Mothers who are still breastfeeding often say this: When will they be weaned. Especially for mothers who are still breastfeeding at night, this emotion appears especially frequently.
Mothers sigh like this, on the one hand, because breastfeeding does consume a certain amount of physical cost, and on the other hand, the environment we are in is not friendly to long-term breastfeeding.
For example, there are many sayings circulating in the crowd, what "XX months of breast milk is not nutritious", "it is not good to wean when you are old, it is better to wean when you are young", "it is not good to wean in winter, and it is good to wean in summer"... Wait a minute. These statements sound like words, but in fact they have nothing to do with science, but will make normal breastfeeding mothers have self-doubt.
In fact, if there is breastfeeding, there must be weaning. Weaning is a phenomenon peculiar to mammals, and all animals have a "natural" weaning age - about 8 weeks for dogs, about 8-12 months for horses, and so on. At present, according to anthropological and biological studies, the theoretical age of natural weaning in humans is about 2.5-7 years.
1. Do you really feed until you are 7 years old before you are weaned?
Note that this is a theoretical value. In practice, my personal experience is that most children are naturally weaned at 4 or 5 years old. This may have something to do with entering nursery or kindergarten, and the mother's return to the workforce.
This is only my personal experience. In the real world, there is very little research on the natural age of weaning, perhaps because so few mothers and babies have reached this milestone. Studies have found that the median time to weaning Chinese children from 2013 to 2014 was only 9 months. We need more families involved to collect more precise reference values.
2. So, how to wean naturally?
The "natural weaning" we tend to think of is that one day, the child takes the initiative to tell you: "Mom, I won't eat anymore." But in fact, it is more manifested in the fact that the mother suddenly realized that she had not breastfed for a long time, so she began to look back and reminisce about this special time.
Indeed, natural weaning occurs imperceptibly and is a process. From breastfeeding 8-12 times a day during confinement to 1-2 times a day on the last day, it is actually a gradual weaning process in itself. It's like running a long-distance run, and finally suddenly crossing from "eating" to "not eating", it is just a moment when the final run hits the line.
We can run a little easier, or we can hit the line more clearly.
How can I take the process a little easier during natural weaning? For children over 1 year old, try these methods:
1. Do not take the initiative and do not refuse.
2. During the usual breastfeeding time, arrange other fun activities for your child, such as some classes or outings.
3. Avoid habitual breastfeeding habits, such as sitting in the usual nursing seat or wearing nursing clothing. Give your child fewer breastfeeding associations.
4. Change your daily routine to pursue the life you want and make breastfeeding just a part of your life.
5. Express your thoughts clearly and set certain boundaries for your child, such as mom doesn't want to breastfeed in an environment where there are many strangers, or mom is wearing a dress that is not suitable for breastfeeding and needs to go home to change.
6. Seek help from family members to distract during typical breastfeeding times.
7. Provide children with a lot of companionship, help them develop self-soothing habits, and understand that children will have emotional changes to adapt to weaning.
3. How to take the final step of weaning?
Some mothers use guidance and consultation to "persuade" their children to wean from lactation. On many video sites, some bloggers advertise these methods as "one trick wins", but whether the implementation can be successful depends on whether the child itself has reached the stage of weaning.
A child who is ready to wean may have the following:
When feeding, he seems not very interested, and he looks like he can eat or not.
The duration of each feeding is significantly shortened.
It is easy to be distracted, for example, when the mother proposes to play something else, she will forget to feed.
Easily distracted when feeding. When the mother retracts the breasts, she does not object.
Feeding purely for the sake of appeasement, only shallowly sucking every time I breastfeed, sucking gently, and not sucking out the milk.
When the child has these performances, it is time to take the final step of weaning.
There are various ways to implement it, which can be discussed, such as discussing with the child to go on a trip, and not breastfeeding after the trip; You can also create some sense of ritual, such as on a certain birthday, telling the baby that blowing out candles is a mature baby and does not need to breastfeed; There are also picture books and fairy tales that help wean and can do thought-building for children.
Moms don't have to worry. One day the child will leave your breast, just as they left the womb, left the swaddling, left the hands and began to walk upright... It's a truth.
Of course, there is no need to blame yourself if you want to wean early milk. As long as the choice is made after weighing the pros and cons, it is worth supporting. Early weaning requires energy and physical effort in a shorter period of time than gentle natural weaning.
This is like spending money to buy something, natural weaning is 1 dollar a day, 1 year to pay; Early weaning may cost $30 a day and settle in 10 days. Money is nothing more than two ways to spend it, and it is most important to feel that it is suitable for yourself.
In conclusion, breastfeeding to over 1 year of age is not so unimaginable. Even though there are so many doubtful voices around, many mothers still go so far without realizing it. It is really "the apes on both sides of the strait can't stop crying, and the light boat has already crossed ten thousand mountains."
I hope that there will be more light boats over the Ten Thousand Mountains. Perhaps, when more and more mothers can breastfeed for longer, more and more people will accept it, and this kind of uninterventional feeding should be the norm for breastfeeding.
This article is reproduced from the public account
| Author of this article
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