Baby Parenting Guide

When is the best time to stop breast feeding?

ok, i'm 8 months pregnant with my son. I'm planning on breast feeding him. I just wanted to know when the best age was to stop breast feeding him. What age did you stop breast feeding your child? I'm just a little confused, some of my friends stopped at 3 years old, and some stopped at 10 months old. Thank you!

Public Response to When is the best time to stop breast feeding?

1. When you feel ready to stop. They recommend to breast feed for at least six month and aim for 1 year. Anything beyond that is ecxellent.
2. When you are ready or you son self weans. I breastfed all my children (inc. twins) to around the 1 year mark.
3. I plan to breastfeed for a year but i think it's just a personal choice that is diff for everybody..although i do think three years is kinda long
4. I had to stop at only 8 wks unfortunately because of blood pressure medicine i had to be on, BUT i wanted to breast feed UNTIL his teeth were gonna come in. Cause if they bite...IT HURTS. and by that point they are just getting a little to big to be holding up like that anymore. and it makes for some awkward times when your 3 yr old is at the pool tryin to get 'lunch' from everyones bikini top...they say the best is to go till about 1. good luck & congrats!
5. breast feed as long as you can
6. the world health organization recommends till 2 yrs or longer if it's still agreeable for mom and child. the average age for a child to self wean is sometime between 2 and 7 yrs apparently. I think the world average is something like 4 yrs. I am currently nursing son who is 2 yrs and 9 mos. I never made any plan in the beginning to continue this long, it's just sort of happened! At this point I could easily be done with him nursing, but he asks for it ALL day (but I only nurse him once, maybe 2x a day) and I know that emotionally he is not ready to wean. We have definitely seen benefits in terms of his health though. He rarely gets sick and if he does it's always pretty mild and of short duration. He's never had a stomach bug. I think it's also helped with the arrival of his younger brother. Tandem feeding has been pretty cool too, they get to bond with each other over some mama milk :) I think ultimately the best time to stop breastfeeding is when the child is ready or when the mama just can't take it anymore, whichever come first - and as long as it doesn't happen in the first year (or preferably 2 LOL :) Just go along for the ride, see how you feel and try to go as long as you can :) good luck!
7. Wow, you are getting some wacky advice. The World Health Organization recommends nursing for a minimum of 2 years. Of course, solid foods will become an important part of your child's diet after 1 year of age, but breast milk continues to provide much needed nutrition and immunological support - not to mention the sense of comfort and well being your child receives from nursing. Katherine Dettwyler provides an excellent explanation in her article, "A Natural Age of Weaning." (See link.)