7 Benefits of Extended Breastfeeding

Experts recommend breastfeeding until a baby is at least a year old—but many parents keep going beyond that. Discover the benefits of extended breastfeeding.

mom breastfeeding toddler
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As the mother of eight children and a certified lactation counselor, Robin Elise Weiss, PhD, CLC, knows just about everything there is to know about breastfeeding and chestfeeding. When nursing her children, she opted for "extended" or "full-term" breastfeeding, meaning she let each nurse as long as they wanted beyond the first year.

Weiss describes her policy as "Don't ask, don't refuse." That is, after the first year, she didn't offer to nurse, but she wouldn't say no if they asked. "Eventually, I'd wake up and say, 'Oh, you haven't nursed in a month.' And it's not painful for either of us," says Weiss, who writes extensively about breastfeeding and pregnancy.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that babies breastfeed exclusively for the first six months and then continue to nurse, with the introduction of solid foods and then as long as mutually desired for two years or beyond.

Weiss regularly tells her patients that nursing has just as many benefits for a child who is 18 or 24 months as it does for a newborn. Read on for the top benefits of extended breastfeeding.

It Provides Nutrition for the Baby

"A lot of people think there is no nutritive value after a year, and that is just simply not true," says Weiss. Regardless of how old your baby is, they will continue to receive the nutritional benefits of breastfeeding, from protein, calcium, and fat, to vitamin A and other nutrients.

Weiss compares the nutritional benefits to a vegetable, like spinach. The amount of spinach you eat doesn't detract from its nutritional value. Spinach is still good for you, whether it's a small side or the main part of the meal.

That said, human milk does change nutritionally over time. For example, the first milk you produce (known as colostrum) is dense in protective immune-boosting factors. After one year, the fat, protein, and energy content in breast milk increases significantly compared to breast milk under one year.

Further, fat and protein were the highest in human milk expressed after two years. Researchers suspect this has to do with the increasing energy needs in toddlers compared to infants.

It Boosts the Immune System

Breast milk is high in antibodies that help fight infection. These antibodies are abundant in colostrum, but they are also in mature milk and remain for as long as you breastfeed your baby. Breast milk also contains probiotics, which can help create a balance of healthy bacteria in your baby's body.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), breastfeeding can lower the risk of your baby developing the following:

Also, some vaccines you receive during pregnancy or while breastfeeding can protect your infant in the early months of life. According to the CDC, these include the flu shot, the COVID-19 vaccine, and the Tdap vaccine.

And as your toddler starts exploring and sticking their hands into more and more things, those immune-boosting antibodies and probiotics become even more critical for staving off illness, a huge benefit of extended breastfeeding.

It Lowers Your Risk of Certain Diseases

According to the CDC, people who chestfeed or breastfeed have a reduced risk of certain diseases, including:

  • Breast cancer
  • Ovarian cancer
  • Endometrial cancer
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • High blood pressure

In addition, more research has also examined the connection between breastfeeding and a parent's heart health. For example, one review found that parents who breastfeed are less likely to develop heart disease or stroke.

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the longer you breastfeed, the greater the health benefits. So, breastfeeding beyond the first year may even help you live a longer, healthier life!

It Boosts Your Baby's Brain Development

Another benefit of extended breastfeeding is that it helps boost brain development, which extends to toddlers or as long as you breastfeed.

For example, one study found that infants who received any breastfeeding for one year or who had been exclusively breastfed for six months had higher childhood IQ at school age. However, researchers did not observe similar outcomes for social-emotional or executive functions.

And researchers say the brain benefits are not just from the nutrients—the different interactions that breastfeeding parents have with their children while breastfeeding may also play a role. For example, Weiss says babies who nurse off both breasts are put into different positions and can look and reach in different directions.

When parents bottle-feed babies, the instinct is to use the dominant hand and put the baby in the same position at every feeding. So, whether you feed with breast milk or formula, Weiss encourages parents who use bottles to switch things up, changing the position of the baby and the bottle to help exercise the baby's reach and mind.

It Soothes Your Child

Breastfeeding after a year is a chance for a parent and baby to connect, and it's also a way of calming a baby in a stressful situation. For example, Weiss says she'd rely on breastfeeding when her children fell and hurt themselves. It allowed her to distract and soothe the child while also checking them out for cuts and bruises.

Not only is the act of breastfeeding comforting, but research has found that it may also reduce pain—another huge benefit for all of those toddler falls and bumps. For example, one review found that when infants were breastfed during vaccination and blood draws, they cried less and had lower pain scores.

It Calms You

Parents have a lot to do, and it's easy to get caught up in work, chores, and family matters. But Weiss says that she always loved the break that nursing brought. She knew it was a time just for her and her child, and everything else could wait. "For me, breastfeeding was always my chance to sit and calm down," she says.

Mindfulness aside, breastfeeding releases certain hormones that calm you. Specifically, oxytocin—the same hormone responsible for contractions during labor—is released during lactation.

Oxytocin's role in breastfeeding is milk ejection, but it also has anti-stress effects. Research has found that cortisol and blood pressure can decrease during a breastfeeding session.

It's Convenient

Although extended breastfeeding takes some planning, Weiss says it can be much more convenient than remembering to pack or dig for other snacks or soothing items. Weiss says the best example of that is the crying child and the frantic parent. "It's a lot faster to unhook your bra and pull the baby close and nurse the baby," she says.

In other words, if you know you can comfort your child through breastfeeding, you have fewer items to pack or worry about dropping and having to clean.

Key Takeaways

While breastfeeding beyond the first year is not the norm in the U.S. and is often misunderstood, there are plenty of benefits of extended breastfeeding. From nutritional benefits to convenience, nursing a child into toddlerhood and beyond can be beneficial as long as you and your child enjoy it. So, ignore the naysayers; there's nothing wrong with breastfeeding for years rather than months.

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Sources
Parents uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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  2. Breast milk macronutrient components in prolonged lactationNutrients. 2018.

  3. Breastfeeding benefits both baby and mom. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2023.

  4. Vaccines and pregnancy: 8 things you need to know. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2023.

  5. Breastfeeding is associated with a reduced maternal cardiovascular risk: Systematic review and meta-analysis involving data from 8 studies and 1 192 700 parous womenJournal of the American Heart Association. 2022.

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  8. Does breastfeeding reduce vaccination pain in babies aged 1 to 12 months?. Cochrane. 2020.

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