What is child-led weaning, and what are the benefits?
A. Child-led weaning, otherwise known as natural weaning, is when a child is given the freedom to decide when he does not wish to breastfeed anymore. Apart from very natural changes from the mother, such as the sometimes less urgent response to a request to nurse from an older child, the parents do not actively do anything to stop the child breastfeeding. Sometimes a mother decides to stop offering the breast (“Don’t offer, don’t refuse”), but even that is not considered by some people to be true child-led weaning. Dr. Katherine Dettwyler has done extensive work on the topic of weaning, and concludes that an expected age of weaning in humans is anywhere from 2 1/2 to 7 years of age. She also found that in parts of the world where children are allowed to breastfeed for as long as they desire, they usually stop nursing around the age of three or four. There are many, many benefits of child-led weaning. These include all the benefits of extended breastfeeding, and the longer a child nurse
