breastfeeding a toddler

hi guys! it's angel with makingbabytaylor, and i am here with erin! erin: hello! erin, why don't you tell them about your channel? my channel name is gentle thrifty mama yes yeah she does awesome mommy type stuff yeah so one thing that

i watched her make recently was a video about breastfeeding and so it was nice to know that she was a fellow mom who breastfeeds toddlers yes, yeah and that's something that's near and dear to my heart so i wanted to talk about nursing a toddler with her today what are some of the best things about it? what are some of the worst things about it?

maybe some tips about it ya know, things like that sure because i feel like there's not a lot of support right for nursing past infancy ya know? (yeah) it drops off a lot as far as people who do it

a lot of people feel kinda alienated a lot of people hide it because they feel like it's not socially acceptable and so it's kind of one of those things people don't really talk about very much but it's still very normal yes! very normal biologically, emotionally...

and all that i don't know about you... but one of the main reasons why i continue to nurse into toddlerhood is because it's still beneficial for their health, ya know, specifically not just their nutrition yes! it does still have nutritional value

it doesn't stop being nutritious so, ya know, if you've got a picky eater, you don't have to worry about are they getting enough? ya know, if they're still nursing they're getting calories, and fat, and vitamins that they need it's also great for their immune system because their immune system still

is developing a lot into their second year, and it's not even done until they're like, five? so it can still support their immune system in those years where it needs a little bit of an extra boost kids get sick all the time yeah, yes

it's so all encompassing to their body, and their well being, and emotionally. yes. for their- to be able to branch out and start to be independent and not feel insecure. right. and it's also good for mom!

it will help... the more months, cumulatively, that you nurse, the bigger it decreases your risk of breast cancer so i've got... (laughs) four and a half years racked up so far... awesome! so my risk is like this big yeah! (laughs)

it's like 90 something now? totally yeah it's a huge decrease in that risk it's also nice that- i mean obviously it's not totally eliminated it never is but it's nice that i know that it's still doing something good for me aside from burning some extra calories...

yeah! but it's good for mom, it's good for baby. that's why i continue i like to go until at least 2, and after that kinda she turned 2 a month and a half ago we're still going i don't know, ya know..

i kinda play it by ear because you never know, they grow so gradually it's not like you're nursing a baby, and bam! all of a sudden you have this big toddler they grow slowly and they still feel like your baby and you look at them and you're like

i know you're 2, but you're so little still and you still need me and it doesn't feel weird! i thought- ya know before i had my son, and when he was a little baby, i thought it might be weird it's not weird. it's totally not weird.

i know lots of people nurse even 4 year olds.. my son self weaned a little bit before he turned 2 and a half so i look at him and i'm like, i could not imagine nursing him right now! yeah but had you done it- but because we stopped 2 years ago exactly ya know, if we were still going

it's such a gradual thing... it's seamless, it happens. right, right. yeah i- it's funny because moms who usually say, "oh, i'll nurse until 2, " "and then not beyond" but as someone who's nursing an older toddler, like, over 2,

there's not a hard line at 2 years old that you just are like, "i'm done!" i thought maybe there would be? i wasn't sure because it was new territory for me i didn't nurse my first son so... my only son, my other child and so, ya know, i was like, 'how would i feel?' but there's no, there's no time

so it doesn't just stop at 2 so we are still nursing and we're just going to continue on until she weans or if i've had enough which... it's so convenient right now like, she only nurses, um, in the morning and she actually, sadly, doesn't nurse in the evening anymore so ya know, it's so convenient that why stop?

unless she wants to or or i for some reason down the road want to it's a two person relationship so if it's working for both of you, keep going if it's not working for one of you for whatever reason, then yeah, there's nothing wrong if you've just hit your limit

and you're like, "i can not..take another..bad latch!" yeah (laughs) that's.. yeah i just can't! ya know, then yeah kerrigan, she right now, for the past like, couple of months she's- i don't know what it is but she keeps on not wanting to stick out her tongue ok

to latch yeah and her latch is pinchy and i'm like ahhhh and i keep having to correct it and i don't know what her deal is i don't know why all of a sudden is she teething? like molars? she cut those awhile ago.. yeah i...

yeah so i haven't gotten to that point where i'm just like, "i'm done, done." because i can still- as long as i remind her to stick out her tongue now latch on then it's fine yeah the lazy latch.. she still needs me a lot it's funny because there's some days

where she nurses a bunch! through the day and feels like she has to nurse to sleep she like panics and then there's other days... like yesterday granted we were driving here but we stopped a couple of times and everything she.. i nursed her when she was still, like

asleep.. real quick before she went back to bed like, i don't know, 6 in the morning? sometime early in the morning before we woke up and then we woke up and we got dressed and i finished packing we started driving... she didn't nurse at all that whole time

then when we got to the hotel we went swimming so she even saw me get undressed she didn't want to nurse until we got back after we were done with the pool to get ready for bed that was at, like, 11:30 pm so way more than 12 hours

but yeah! so i mean, she went all that time without it just fine so it's like... it naturalizes things, sort of yeah nursing a toddler is not like nursing a little tiny baby no who nurses all the time it's not like that

some toddlers will do it on demand if the mom is comfortable with that but usually it's really short though they don't hang out for like 20 minutes every single time it's like 2 minutes, ok, i'm gonna go play so it's ya know you feel like if you're nursing this little baby

and you're like, "i can not imagine having to sit like half my day" it's not like that nursing a toddler... no and i actually particularly chose to not have it be like that i day weaned my- yes miriam, my daughter um, not like.. it just sort of happened naturally

but i would distract her more often during the day yeah they ask to nurse and it's like, "oh well, do this first" and then they forget about it so when people think of like nursing a toddler they think like, 'oh i'm going to be strapped to them' ' to this kid forever' but it's not like that at all at least in my experience, it's not

and i think the thing i like about nursing toddlers is because they also.. even if you do nothing, they will, on their own, gradually wean yes! and cut down and that's better for your body instead of bam! cold turkey weaning

like, hormonally hormonally, you're more likely to have depression and also, like mastitis and plugged ducts. it's not comfortable guys not fun it hurts so with my son it was so great, yeah

i did not experience any of that yeah, i feel like right now it's sad to say, but i feel like we're slowly weaning more and more like, i just dropped the before bed, um, nursing which was very hard but it can be done

um, actually, i think it was very hard emotionally but actually, it was very easy because she's ready to do that i think another benefit of nursing a toddler is the weaning process, at least in my experience, has been easy ya know? i... "easy"

because now they're in the point where they can be ready to do it exactly. ya know, when they're a small baby, babies very rarely naturally wean before age one and pretty rarely don't naturally wean before age 2 most babies will go until at least age 2 if you make it completely up to them

so once they're, ya know, an older toddler, they might be ready, and if they're ready it's easy no fighting, no if she asks to nurse and i'm like, "not right now" sometimes, she will throw a tantrum an epic tantrum! she will hit me it's not pretty

i've had, i've had- it's hard yeah, i've had some of that, yeah so i could imagine trying to completely cut off her if she wasn't ready yeah cold turkey because that would just be so... yikes. i mean, ya know, if you're there and you're ready

of course you'll push through, but of course but that seems like it wouldn't be very pleasant, though of course, you just have to do what's right for you if you want to do that great obviously but yeah at the end of the day

it really does come down to it's easier to wean an older child and i still, i still like having those tools in my tool belt yeah me too i like having it if 'oh, i need her to go to sleep right now' so if i nurse her, she'll go to sleep oh, she just hit her head really hard

and she's crying and she's tough she rarely cries when she hurts herself, so if she's crying, i know she *hurt* herself and she could be so beside herself, but i latch her on, and then she calms and then she's like, 'ok.' and then she's fine ya know, obviously you can still manage both of those things without nursing

but it just makes it easier for sure another thing i love about nursing a toddler, which is totally off topic, but there is just something so sweet about your child like, asking you for it and saying please yeah, it's so cute!

it's just- like, the manners that come around asking to nurse-i want milk! yeah! "please?" ya know, it's just- i don't know-yeah some people think like, as soon as your kid can ask for it like that's, that's it technically a baby asks for it by crying, or-yeah, yeah

cal knew the sign for it yeah-when he was 4 months old like i was not gonna.. just hearing them vocalize that it really does melt your heart at least for me, i find it to it sets some, creates some ground work for them to learn to ask politely-yeah! for things and-exactly! and boundaries

personal boundaries right! ya know, i teach her.. like if she tries to... "uh, that's not how we ask nicely.." yeah!-"how do we ask nicely?" and yeah and they totally do it-"yeah, like, this is my personal space" because they're so motivated because they want to nurse-yeah

exactly-so they will do whatever you want them to yeah (laughs) yeah, yeah so then it translates because she's learning good manners for other things -yeah that are unrelated so true because it has set that groundwork now as far as unpleasant things...

so i touched on, like, her latch when they get older, for some reason when they're toddlers, they're just more likely to not have a good latch they just get lazy about it they know how to do it and then when they're babies... or they do the "oh i wanna see what's going on over that"-yeah

yeah, uh ow! you're still attached!-woah! ouch! because they're so busy and then the up and down and up because they're so busy they'll come, they'll wanna latch on she'll nurse for like a minute and then they'll go play and then five minutes later,

they wanna nurse again-yeah and just back and forth and it's just like, "oh my god! no!"-yeah my daughter, now she'll be like on one side, and then the other she'll say, "other side" and then she'll be like, "other side!" yes!"other side!" and i'm like, "nooo" ok. yeah

so yeah, and like i said the tantrums... that's not fun yeah it's not fun so yeah, i mean there's obviously some things that are not perfect it's not all sunshine and rainbows and it's obviously not for everyone if you don't wanna do it for whatever reason that is, that's totally fine

always, as i always say ya know, we all have our different comfort levels... but, ya know, this particular.. i'm kinda speaking to the other moms do it or the moms who are open to the idea... and kinda wonder what that's like what it looks like-i want people to know that it's normal! totally normal! so, i mean

nothing freaky or weird about it it may be, like, by society at large, it's a little less socially acceptable especially nursing in public is less socially acceptable with toddlers, but it's still normal so there you have it alright, so definitely head over to erin's channel and check out her video that we're doing

and also subscribe if you like it because i know you will! thanks for watching, guys, bye! "i have really thick hair, and it's really hard to brush" "especially when my hair is wet" "so i'm... yes." "i'm all about this." "i have another thing from cabot. cab-it? cab-ott?" "cab-it?"

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