Pregnant women or recently given rise women sometimes think of that, to continue to nurse what is the time. A question this ambiguous, it has no exact answer. The recommendations of different doctors and psychologists strongly differ among themselves.
You should not go into extremes
Always it is necessary to remember that all cases are individual. There are no universal recommendations of at what moment it is better to stop breastfeeding. But at the same time it is not necessary to go into extremes: "I will feed as long as possible" or in the first months of life of the kid to separate it from a breast. Neither that, nor another will bring benefit to the kid and the feeding mom. There are families where mom decided to nurse before so-called self-refusal (usually it happens approximately in 2.5-3 years), but the child did not cease to suck a breast and up to 4 years, and sometimes and much longer. It is unlikely psychologists will tell that for the nine-year-old boy it is useful to suck a maternal breast, to see mother naked, etc.
You should not separate from a breast of the kid in the first months too. Almost all feeding mothers periodically have a laktatsionny crisis: the amount of milk is reduced. So the woman's organism as though checks whether breast milk and in what quantity is necessary. Therefore if on the third month of milk suddenly there was less or it was gone, it is worth fighting for breastfeeding continuation. But also it is not necessary to go too far too. If days go, and milk does not appear, the kid heart-rendingly shouts day without a break for hunger and cannot sleep, better to buy mix. Will be so quieter to both mom, and the baby.
Recommendations of pediatricians
Doctors advise to continue to feed with breast milk till 1 year. Such recommendation can be seen on packings of baby food. Within the first year of life all food which is received by the kid besides breast milk is a feeding up, but not the main food. By the first birthday in the child's diet already there have to be milk porridges, vegetables, meat and fruit. From this age the kid passes to "table d'hote", that is begins to eat the same products, as parents. Certainly, the size of pieces has to correspond to abilities of the kid to chew.
Therefore from age in 12 months it is possible to curtail chest feeding gradually. Milk already stops being the main source of nutrients for a children's organism. It does not mean that it becomes less useful. Simply in the child's diet there is already all necessary.
Psychological factor
After a year the chest feeding if it continues, gets absolutely other function. The kid begins to use sucking of a breast only for calm, contact with mother, for falling asleep. If at mom by that moment cordial relations with own child were not established, it results in big inconveniences. Then the kid can calm down only with a breast or ceases to sleep well because he cannot fall asleep. The feeding mom cannot leave anywhere in the evening because the kid will not fall asleep without her. It becomes difficult to carry out household chores, etc.
At excommunication from a breast of the child frighten 1-1.5 years often it is necessary to think out some tricks: to smear nipples with brilliant green or something bitter to force the kid to stop sucking. Though so not in all families. Some children easily and just stop breastfeeding and at such age.
Health of teeth
Most longer feedings by a breast continue at night. In a dream at the child saliva is not produced, one of functions of which is disinfecting of an oral cavity. Breast milk is less harmful to enamel of teeth, than mix. But, nevertheless, many stomatologists claim that sucking long breasts in a dream after all injures milk teeth.
The child eats nothing
There are children who very much like to suck a breast. They do not observe any mode, badly eat a feeding up, being content only with mom's milk. At the same time the kid sucks a breast nearly each hour and is capricious because he all the same does not gorge on. Some mothers decide in that case to continue to nurse longer, thinking that so the kid though something eats. But often these children begin to eat porridges and vegetables how they them separate from a breast.
Optimum age when to finish, mom chooses, being guided by the desire and a condition of the baby. Someone with very big work maintains chest feeding about half a year, and someone easily and comfortably feeds also up to 2 years. This process has to bring joy and satisfaction to both the kid, and mother.