Coco Austin faced backlash from certain parties earlier this month, when she said she has no plans to stop breastfeeding her five-year-old daughter, Chanel, anytime soon.
When asked about her extended breastfeeding in an interview, Austin said that her daughter "Still likes my boob. Why take that away from her? If she doesn't want it, all right, that's where you stop it. But I'm not just going to say no." Adding that Chanel also eats food, the model explained that the child breastfeeds as "a little snack every now and then."
On an Instagram post, where she can be seen with her daughter — captioned, "[Whose] kids also hang on the boob like Chanel? I feel forever bonded with this child — people were also quick to denounce her choice. "This seems like it’s more for you than for her…weird," wrote one Instagram user, while another added: "Time to let go... That's just gross at this point... She must be 96 months old too."
However, while extended breastfeeding may be outside some cultural norms in the west, there is nothing abnormal about it. Lyndsey Hookway, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant for The Maternity Collective, tells VT: "While breastfeeding beyond the age of 6 months, a year, or toddlerhood might be unusual in the Western world, this does not mean that breastfeeding full term is weird, wrong, or deviant. It's just uncommon."
It should just be called breastfeeding
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed for about the first six months, with continued breastfeeding while introducing appropriate foods for one year or longer. However, it's difficult to estimate how many mothers in the US breastfeed beyond the first year.
The CDC's 2018 Breastfeeding Report Card shows that 82 percent of mothers started out breastfeeding. However, only one-third of infants were breastfeeding at 12 months.
But while pediatricians largely recommend breastfeeding until the baby is at least a year old, many mothers continue beyond that — for a myriad of reasons.
"Extended breastfeeding should really just be called breastfeeding," Hookway comments. "In many cultures around the world, where there is more cultural expectation of breastfeeding, more community wisdom and support, and less social and economic pressures — it is common for children to be breastfed until middle childhood. Anthropologically speaking, the average age of full-term breastfeeding (sometimes known as extended breastfeeding) is thought to be anywhere from 2-7 years, but, of course, there will be children who breastfeed longer than this."
The benefits of breastfeeding are well known. According to the CDC, infants who are breastfed have reduced risks of asthma, obesity, type 2 diabetes, ear and respiratory infections, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). But it also aids the mother — as it is known to lower the risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and ovarian and breast cancer.
There should be no judgment
Hookway denounces the idea that breastmilk somehow loses its value after a length of time, explaining that this is not actually backed by evidence.
"Children actually expose their mother's breast to the bacteria and viruses they are exposed to, and the breast responds almost immediately by manufacturing specific immunoglobulins (antibodies) to those pathogens. Breastmilk continues to contain the exact amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrates, growth factors, hormones, pre and probiotics, and several hundred other ingredients that are impossible to manufacture artificially."
As the Mayo Clinic corroborates, there is no known age at which breast milk is considered to become less nutritious. As long as the mother breastfeeds, the cells, hormones, and antibodies in her milk will bolster their immune system.
Hookway concludes: "Breastfeeding until childhood is a very different experience from breastfeeding a baby, and requires just as much support, research, and understanding. It's not for everyone, and that's ok, but what is certainly not ok is judgment, shame or canceling," Every mother-child pair deserves to have the feeding journey that is right for them."
