‘My Boyfriend Wants Me to Stop Breastfeeding Because He Thinks It’s Weird’
An anonymous woman has reached out for guidance and support after her boyfriend announced that their 6-month-old daughter was now “too old” to be breastfeeding and that it is “weird”.
Not content with taking his word for it, the young mother angrily stood her ground and checked in with the good folk of Reddit to see if she was in her rights to do so.
“My boyfriend and I are both 18,” the new mum writes. “we have a 6-month-old daughter who is exclusively breastfed. She hasn’t shown much of an interest in food yet and I have absolutely no intention of formula feeding provided I’m still able to breastfeed.”
“My boyfriend has asked me a few times when I plan on stopping and the honest answer is I don’t. I’ll stop when I have to or when baby self weans, but my goal is to make it to 18 months if I can. He generally doesn’t have a clue about women’s bodies and just doesn’t quite get things.”
“Yesterday, he came upstairs at bedtime when I was feeding our baby and said, “I think she’s getting a bit too old for that, it might be time for formula and real food”. This kind of upset me because I know the average age to stop breastfeeding around the world is between 2.5 and 7yrs, and he’s constantly making stupid remarks.”
Breaking this down, we can see that the couple are both very young – perhaps he is just a bit uneducated with regards to feeding infants? We could give him a pass if he were willing to learn and support his partner in her choices, but unfortunately, that’s not what happened.
The new mum writes that she’s “given him tonnes of information on WHO recommendations, and he has a phone – Google is free” but her boyfriend refuses to learn.
She added that they had been trying to introduce solids to their daughter for a few weeks, but that she’s not ready yet. Consultation with their paediatrician revealed that her baby is perfectly healthy and just doesn’t want to try solids yet.
Many commenters supported the young mum in her quest to breastfeed her child, but a few insisted that her boyfriend has every right to voice his opinion on his child’s care, too.
The mum was quick to respond: “And it’ll be completely fair [when he does have an opinion], but when his only argument is “it’s weird”, I’m not taking that into consideration.”
Yes, Mumma bear! You stick to your guns on this one.
Babies are very rarely breastfed by the time they start school.
It is a personal choice. Some babies choose to self wean.
It seems that many Mums stop or reduce breastfeeding at around 2 months. I know a Mum who the last few weeks only gave a few good brast feeds twice a week.
It can be embarrassing if a toddler suddenly lifts / opens your top to have a feed unexpectedly even if you have stopped breastfeeding