Age to leave babyhood behind?

My daughter was giving her younger son a quick breast feed when she came home from work until he was nearly 4. He also spent most of his babyhood tied to her in a shawl. Now he's 12 he is the most independent child you can imagine and doing brilliantly well at school. I remember being rather hurt when my son decided that breast was too much like hard work when he was a year old. I had imagined myself going full on earth mother for at least another year.

Sadly it is the norm !

Shelflife

Sadly it is the norm !

It really isn’t - lots of little ones are potty trained and dry, at least in the day.

I was going to start a thread about my concerns with my daughter still breastfeeding her little boy at age two-and-a half - and then I saw this one.
They live some distance from me and I only see him a couple of times a year. At the Christmas visit, I hesitently asked my s-i-l what his opinion was and he just rolled his eyes, threw up his hands and said "I've given up on the subject". There is a sort of logical reason for it. He cannot have normal "baby-milk" let alone ordinary cow's milk as he was born lactose intolerent. He can only have breast milk if she herself abstains from cow's milk, but s-i-l suspects it is also psychological. She had her only child at nearly 40 years old and because of complications could not have another. She wants it to last. Luckily, as a Primary school teacher who taught entry stage children she was appalled at the lack of toilet training in her young charges. She is potty training him.

Sounds fine, Aely.
I presume he is eating a good mixed diet too and the breast milk is just a top-up.
Could she try him with a cup and lactose- free milk?

Potty training at 2½ sounds like a good age to tackle this.

He seems to be a very fit and energetic child so I reckon it is just a top-up for Calcium. I can't see why she doesn't try lactose free.
I can't help thinking of that Little Britain sketch, "Bitty, bitty"! I'm all for breastfeeding when possible, but it has to stop sometime.

The NHS recommends breastfeeding until at least two years old, so two and a half isn’t unreasonable. I did full term breastfeeding with child and my milk dried up at two years nine months. There was nothing psychological about it for me despite me being in my early 40s. And I knew a good few breastfeeding mums who did full term feeding. It’s absolutely normal and shouldn’t be shamed.

My first daughter was breast fed to around a year. She got fed up with it before I ran out. I even provided spare milk to the baby unit (late 1970s). My second daughter, the one with the grandson, didn't really thrive on it and I had to mostly move her on at around 4 months, although I still partly breast fed her to about 11 months. It might have been because I had had lumps removed from both sides leaving scar tissue. Perhaps the flow was impeded or the quality affected.