Today my Sweets is one year old! That puts us into the category of what many people refer to as “extended” nursing now. “Extended” I guess, because many people in our culture think that 12 months is the time to wean, if you haven’t already. Others prefer terminology like “full term nursing” or “natural weaning” – terms that emphasize that biologically, humans are meant to breastfeed longer than just one year. I have heard several misconceptions about “extended” nursing that I would like to discuss here.

Shouldn’t a baby that age be able to drink from a cup? Shouldn’t that baby be eating solid food by now? I don’t want to have to go to his school and nurse him at recess.
Breastfed babies learn to drink from a cup and eat solid food the same way that formula-fed babies do. The frequency of nursing gradually decreases with age so that she is getting less of her nutrition through breast milk as she gets older. My babies started eating other foods at about 6 months old, and learning how to use a cup at around 12 months old, just like most other babies. Munchkin is still nursing, but only about once per day. The rest of the time she eats table food, drinks from a cup, and goes to daycare and other activities without me.

I weaned at one year because that’s how long the AAP says to breastfeed.
The AAP actually says “Breastfeeding should be continued for at least the first year of life and beyond for as long as mutually desired by mother and child.” One year is the minimum recommended, not the maximum. The WHO recommends breastfeeding for a minimum of two years.

After one year, there aren’t any nutritional benefits to breast milk. After one year, cow’s milk is more nutritious than breast milk.
Human milk is specially made for human babies. Cow’s milk is specially made for baby cows. It’s a fact that is so obvious to me that I sometimes forget it is not obvious to others. If you believe that a child needs milk nutritionally, then you must see that cow’s milk is a substitute for breast milk, not the preferred nutritional source. At one year, a baby can tolerate cow’s milk, but that does not make cow’s milk the preferred choice. Cow’s milk is an adequate substitute for human milk when human milk is not available for some reason, but human milk is still the default and top choice for human babies (and toddlers!).

After one year, there aren’t any immune benefits to breast milk.
A child will continue to get antibodies in breast milk for as long as he is still nursing. In fact, the antibodies and other immunities become more concentrated in the breast milk to make up for the decreased frequency of nursing. In addition, some studies have shown health benefits to both mother (breast cancer) and child (leukemia, overweight, allergy) to be dose-dependent, meaning that longer breastfeeding leads to greater benefit.

After a year, babies don’t need breast milk anymore.

Well, to take it literally, I guess no child really “NEEDS” breast milk at all. After all, plenty survive on formula from day one right? And yet, most of us try to give our children more than just the bare minimum that they “NEED” to survive. Just as breast milk is superior to formula as a food for infants, it is also superior to cow’s milk for toddlers.

When a child is old enough to ask/walk/talk/have teeth, he is too old to nurse.
The only reason I can think of why someone would link the ability to ask with age appropriateness of nursing is that they associate nursing only with young babies, which of course is just a cultural bias rather than a biological indicator of readiness. The actual act of asking for something can’t possibly have anything to do with not giving it to them – you don’t say “if he’s old enough to ask for juice (or whatever) then he’s too old to drink it” because it makes no sense. What you are really reacting to here is just your perception of “what babies do” and talking/asking is apparently your cutoff between babyhood and toddlerhood. It’s similar to when others say that when he can walk he’s too old. There is no actual link between walking and nursing. You could say “when he can walk/talk/whatever, he’s too old to sleep in a crib?” After all cribs are for babies, yet many folks keep their toddlers in cribs too and nobody gives it a second thought. It makes no sense though because these things actually have nothing to do with each other!

The emergence of teeth at least makes a little more sense when discussing weaning age, however it is obvious that an infant with a few teeth would not be able to survive without milk, therefore the emergence of first teeth is also not a good biological indicator. A better indication if you wanted to use teeth could be a complete set of teeth, which may happen around 2 years old, or even the emergence of adult teeth (more like 5 years old).