Despite the fact that the competent bodies in the matter of child health (AAP, AEP, WHO, UNICEF, etc.) have for years explaining that it is advisable for a baby to drink exclusively breast milk until 6 months, accompanied by complementary feeding up to the 12 months, as one more food until 24 months (2 years), and then until mother and / or baby want, there are still many prejudices against breastfeeding older children both socially and professionally, with pediatricians, nurses and doctors who make judgments about it (what mother breastfeeding has not gone to the doctor to find a remedy for a medical condition and has come out with a "if you breastfeed I can not give it to you" and a "ah, but if you give that big child, stop giving it and you recipe ").
In this situation the AEP (Spanish Association of Pediatrics) has decided to publish a report with the intention of sensitizing the entire population in this regard, including professionals, to defend the interests of nursing mothers, those of nursing babies and, at the same time, defend the recommendation they have been making for years and few people seem to be taken seriously . Below we explain what they say in that report.
There is no age limit to breastfeed
All the scientific associations of the world are unanimous in the recommendations that we have commented above and in this one: there is no age limit to breastfeed. That is, they do establish the minimum at 12-24 months of age, but not the maximum, because they consider that the time that a child takes breastfeeding should depend solely on him and his mother.
But aren't you going to give him real milk?
This is said by many people, as if breast milk were a lie. We have standardized the consumption of cow's milk so much that it seems that this is what we have to give to the children, when the most logical thing is that they drink breast milk, human milk, which is the most adapted in reality to the children.
If a baby, if a child, is doing at least 4 daily chest shots You don't need any other source of dairy: no "real" milk, no yogurts, no cheese. Obviously, not needing it doesn't mean you can't eat it. If the child wants to consume them and at home they eat all this, he can do it.
The benefits of breastfeeding beyond the year, also in rich countries
Babies and children in poor countries benefit most from breastfeeding for more than a year, since they live in places where artificial milk is potentially dangerous (poor hygiene, difficult access to drinking water, lack of resources to buy it, etc.). However, this does not mean that babies in rich countries also benefit from it. That is, there are also risks in children and mothers if the baby stops breastfeeding soon and that is why improve breastfeeding rates at one year of life It is a public health goal in all countries of the world.
How long is it normal to breastfeed?
Normal now or normal during the history of mankind? Because the normal thing now is to give it much less than a year. There are few who come a year and I no longer tell you those who reach two years breastfeeding their children. But that's normal now, because if we look back, The usual thing has been to breastfeed children until 2-3 years of age. It was from the last century when, by "modernizing" in every way, and when the infant formulas appeared, babies began to be weaned early.
In fact, anthropological studies have established that spontaneous weaning of Homo sapiens sapiens (we) occurs sometime between 2.5 and 7 years. That is, then, normal (or the usual of a lifetime).
Why continue breastfeeding beyond 6 or 12 months?
The same should be asked the opposite question: why not? But as the AEP has responded the first, we go for it. Many people say that breast milk becomes almost water at 6 months of age, or at 12 (lately it seems that the process of transforming milk into aguachirri occurs later). The reality is that breast milk does not lose its properties over time. In fact, starting at 12 months, breast milk has more fat content than in the first months, being then a complete and nutritious food and even better than formula milk and cow's milk. I repeat: best.
In addition, since breast milk is not just food (in fact there are many who talk more about other things, above their ability to feed), children continue to receive her mother's defenses through milk, which have an impact on their health, suffering fewer infections than non-breastfed children. But there is not everything here, because the effects of having taken breastfeeding are not only seen in the day to day, but also over the years, because they are children who suffer less certain types of cancer, metabolic and autoimmune diseases (such as type 1 diabetes) and have a better intellectual development (the effect being greater the longer they have been breastfed).
On an emotional level, it has been seen that children have better emotional and psychosocial development, a lower incidence of child abuse, a better relationship with parents in adolescence, a greater perception of care and better mental health in adulthood. Similarly, adopted children who have been breastfed by their adoptive mother take advantage of these emotional benefits.
The mother also takes her own
We have commented on other occasions and that is why I am glad that the AEP explains it: mothers who breastfeed also seem touched by a magic wand, and the longer they are breastfeeding, the lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer of breast, ovarian cancer, hypertension and myocardial infarction.
More than one or two years? That can not be good…
This is what many people think, that it is ugly, that what people will say when they see such an older child, who already walks and runs clinging to his mother's chest, that makes him dependent, weak, little autonomous, in love ... It can affect your development as a person.
Well, according to the report, there are no physical or psychological risks in children for breastfeeding beyond 2-3 years. There is not even evidence of malnutrition for it, nor is the relationship with caries demonstrated.
There is no risk either for the mother or the fetus in case there is a new pregnancy and the baby continues to be breastfed, although weaning should be assessed individually in case of threat of abortion or premature delivery.
So in reality, the biggest problem a woman has that breastfeeds an older child, which is the same problem as the child, is social and professional rejection. That is the biggest obstacle today and that is why a report like this is so important, that it reaches all corners of the country and helps to open some minds (others, unfortunately, they will not) and normalize something that is only rare for a few years: that children drink their mothers' milk, the normal one, the one of a lifetime, breast milk.
