Woman Admits To Breastfeeding Her Seven-Year-Old Daughter: ‘It’s Very Relaxing’

A mum admitting to breastfeeding her six year old caused enough outrage earlier this week, so we hazard a guess that news of a British mum who still nurses her SEVEN year old will cause even bigger shockwaves.

Breastfeeding a child over the age of two, or even three, is pretty unusual in this country, so when we hear of a mum breastfeeding her seven year old, it’s pretty shocking.

But to Denise Sumpter, it’s simply the norm. The mum of two breastfeeds her primary school aged daughter, Belle, whenever she asks for it, after admitting that she never weaned her off the breast.

“Breastfeeding, once you get used to it, is supply on demand,” Sumpter told Sky News. “It’s pretty easy and no special effort or huge amounts of calories are required. It’s the usual thing – your body adapts to breastfeeding.”

Sumpter, who is also currently breastfeeding her two-year-old son, says that breastfeeding her seven year old is ‘very different’ to breastfeeding a younger child or baby.

“When you don’t forcibiliy wean your child, or let them wean naturally, it’s a gradual slow thing,” says Sumpter. “For instance, she may ask for milk once a week or she may ask once a day, it’s just two minutes here and there. It’s a relaxing thing that you do.”

She says it’s wrong to compare breast milk to food and says that breastfeeding comes with a whole host of benefits, including a immune boost, bonding and ‘proven psychological benefits.’

But while it may be a brilliant health booster for her daughter, it's culturally unusual to breastfeed a child as old as Belle in the UK. Here in Britain, we have some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world with a very small percentage of women managing to breastfeed for even the first six months of their child’s life.

Sumpter’s admission comes on the same day as a landmark study, highlighting the pressure that breastfeeding selfies (aka brelfies) are putting on mums.

The social media trend has prompted both breastfeeding and bottle-feeding mums to post photos on social medias with a one-word slogan on how feeding their child, and the judgement surrounding it, has made them feel.

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