Benefits of Nursing Beyond One Year

As John closes in on the fourth quarter of his first year, I continue to be utterly amazed at how God created the perfect food for babies in a convenient, monetarily free, and easy delivery system.

I recently read an article on the benefits of nursing babies beyond 12 months old (Mothering magazine, September-October 2007). I don't even like calling it "extended nursing," as does the magazine article, because it really is normal nursing according to how the human body was designed. Intuitively, we recognize that toddlers still want (need) to be nursing, as evidenced by all the cow's milk we give them to drink and the sucking we encourage them to do (via pacifier or thumb) to self-comfort.

Did you know that the body changes the milk's composition to reflect the baby's age, whether the baby is born very premature or the baby is 9 months old or 24 months old or any other age? After the first year, the fat and caloric content of human milk increases to reflect the higher needs of the baby. In fact, between the ages of 12 and 24 months, 448 milliliters of human milk (that's a mere 15 ounces!) provides:

29% of the baby's minimum daily requirements of energy (calories)
protein: 43%
calcium: 36%
vitamin A: 75%
folate: 76%
vitamin B12: 94%
vitamin C: 60%

For mothers who worry about the typical toddler who seems to live on air because he is too busy playing all day to have interest in eating, knowing that the baby still nurses as part of his food diet would really set one's mind at ease!

I think all mothers now know that infants benefit from the antibodies in human milk. The mother's immune system helps boost the newborn's immature immune system. (I think I recall reading somewhere that the human immune system isn't actually as mature as an adult's until about seven years old.) In fact, "the immunological benefits of breastfeeding actually increase during the second and third years of nursing." When a mother is exposed to a new bacteria or virus, her body produces specific antibodies to it that are then present in her milk supply within only one half hour! If the baby is exposed to a germ when he isn't with his mother, he passes that germ into his body next time he is nursing, then his mother will develop the antibodies and pass them back to the baby!
When a baby or toddler is very sick and cannot keep down any other foods, often he can easily nurse--and human milk is so much more fortified than manufactured drinks like Pedialyte or Gatorade! I certainly believe a miserably sick baby would feel much more comforted by nursing in his mama's arms than drinking a cold cup of sugar drink.

I can't even begin to compile a list of all the diseases (for both mother and baby) that are dramatically reduced because of the benefits of extended breastfeeding.

Did you know that the only reason that drinking whole cow's milk (versus lower fat cow's milk) is pushed so hard for toddlers is that American toddlers aren't nursing? Toddlers still desperately need high fat to develop their brains, but what they really need are the exact type of fats in human milk. The type of fats in cow's milk are not the right kind, as they are designed to bulk up the body size of a large-bodied, small-brained cow instead of to bulk up the brain of a large-brained, small-bodied human. If a toddler is nursing as part of his food diet, he really doesn't need cow's milk and certainly not whole cow's milk. Click here for an interesting link to the composition of various animals and human milk.
None of the above even takes into account the many emotional and psychological benefits to mother and especially baby from nursing, which I don't think should be discounted in comparison to nutritional benefits. (One could read many interesting articles on the subject here and here.)
I could go on and on about this subject so dear to my heart, but then you'd probably boycott my blog from boredom! Now that John is nine months old, I qualify to become a leader applicant for La Leche League, which I sure hope to do!

As a reward for reading this (perhaps over-eager :) "public service announcement," below are some cute new photos of our favorite copper-headed boy:

John is enamoured with strings these days, so blankets with fringe are particular reason for delight: