Breastfeeding has been recommended by doctors for many years. It stood as the only way for babies to get nutrition. Wikipedia says that infant formula was invented until 1867. Even after the invention, women continued breastfeeding their babies for economic reasons and convenience.
Even though the World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding because it is the ideal food for the healthy growth and development of babies, people in the U.S. regularly stop breastfeeding after 6 months. The reasons are several: from nipple pain to low-milk productions from the mothers, all the way to convenience. While only 27 percent of babies are breastfed at 12 months, a woman named Leanne Allerton chose to breastfeed her children way longer than that.
Allerton is 35 years-old and has a lot of YouTube fans that follow her breastfeeding videos. She appears breastfeeding her children, well over the recommended age. Her most recent video, which shows her breastfeeding her 4-year-old daughter Poppy, got over 1 million views. With a popularity level like this, you would believe that she has many fans. She does but, she also has many haters.
“I post breastfeeding videos when I feel like talking about things because there will always be someone out there who is going through the same thing,” Allerton told Daily Mail. “You get a lot of nice suggestions but also a lot of abuse. Abusive people are blocked and deleted. But I’m shocked by how many views it has had.”
She also posted a video where she is seen breastfeeding her daughter. Allerton says breastfeeding her serves more as a bonding mechanism with her daughter, than the nutrition side of it. She only breastfeeds her daughter before bed.
She has breastfed all four of her kids. This has gone down over the last 8 years. Currently, she breastfeeds her 5-year-old son in addition to breastfeeding her daughter. “He was still quite young and I didn’t want to say no,” she says. “But I got through all the hard stages and we got into a flow where it became effortless. I just knew it helped settle him and I didn’t want to take that away.” Allerton says she is proud of her herself and what she is doing. She does this despite comments she gets like, her daughter is way too old to be breastfed or that she cannot be producing milk for this long because her son is already 5. You might be for or against this, but you don’t want to miss out on this story. Check out the rest of what she does and people’s reaction to it. It’s sure to make a few heads turn!
