Mom of Seven Shares Her Nursing Experience

Carolyn came across the Mom-to-Mom post on toddler nursing and left a very nice comment (thanks so much Carolyn and thanks to all 12 people who left comments on that post!) Because her comment tells such a wonderful story with her perspective on nursing each of her seven children, I thought I would share it here:

“What a fun website! I was surfing for info for my daughter on caring for a toddler while nursing a baby, and ran across your site. Ah, memories of nursing back in the dark ages of the ’60s came back. My first son had a lot of colic, which we dealt with poorly, but as a consequence, he nursed right through my second pregnancy, more for comfort than for nourishment. He was 15 months old when the baby was born, and he was thrilled when the milk came in. I nursed them both until the oldest was three, when I just felt that was enough (plus my mother-in-law and others were horrified, and I just caved, I guess). He was none too happy, and I would sneak around nursing #2 (at night, etc), but that didn’t last long. When the boys were 2 1/2 and 3 1/2, along came #3. Since I was pretty stressed out caring for three children and my milk seemed to be causing colic, she was weaned at 6 months. Sixteen months later came baby #4, a second girl, who repeated the pattern. Baby #5 came yet 16 months later, and one month after his birth, we were in the middle of the great stress and confusion of moving to a different job and state. I just threw up my hands and weaned him at 6 weeks. Two years later, after two more moves, #6 came along. Being older and wiser, I nursed her for two years. She self-weaned as the milk dried up, because we were expecting our last, a fourth daughter (born in 1978) who nursed for three years, when I decided that was long enough (she wanted to continue). So, I’ve run the gamut of nursing times, and from this vantage point, I would advise mothers to relax and do what they feel is best. For some reason, my milk many times led to runny diapers and I finally landed on baby carrots to counteract this with #7. Immediately, the diapers were firmer. She was only a few weeks old when I tried this, and I wish I had figured it out with #1. So, that’s my nursing story, for better and worse.”

To read other breastfeeding stories, click here. To share your story with me, click here.