More Women Are Breastfeeding Their Toddlers

Almost everyone knows the benefits of breastfeeding their infants. The positive aspects of nutrition, immunity, and bonding that can come from breastfeeding are being praised more often by public health officials. Thanks in part to the positive press that breastfeeding has been getting figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from Abbott Labs' Ross Mothers Survey show an increase in the number of women who initiate breast-feeding, from 57 percent in 1994 to 72 percent in 2005.

In the US the majority of mothers who choose to breastfeed wean by a year. Though the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 2 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics only holds a recommendation of 12 months. Despite of being outside the majority there is a growing number of mothers who are choosing to breastfeed beyond the first year. In the same study by the CDC and Abbott Labs' Ross it was shown that in 1997, 14.5 percent of mothers were still breast-feeding at 12 months; by 2005, the number had climbed to 20 percent.

Nursing an older child is becoming less uncommon as mothers are being educated more on the benefits of breastfeeding a toddler. Though most mothers are less open about breastfeeding a toddler than an infant, the numbers show that it is being more and more common. Singer and actress Erykah Badu spoke openly in an interview about breastfeeding her son for two years. Actress and model Jerry Hall posed for a photo shoot with Vanity Fair, elegantly dressed, and sitting down breastfeeding her son. Even actress Carrie Ann Moss has been photographed walking downtown while carrying and breastfeeding her then one year old son. The positive image that breastfeeding has been gaining is making more and more mothers who once nursed their toddlers in secret come out and admit that they are not weaning before the first year.