Woman still breast feeds son, 6, says it's 'perfectly natural' and has no deadline for stopping

No one would look twice at the sight of Amanda Hurst breast-feeding her infant son, but watching her do the same for her 6-year-old is a different story.

Hurst, 29, of Hemingfield, England, currently breast feeds both her sons, 5-month-old William and 6-year-old Jonathan, she revealed in an interview with the Daily Mail.

She tried to wean Jonathan off the habit at age 3, she says, but failed.

"I explained to him, 'This is the last time you can breastfeed," she told the paper. "He was like 'yeah, alright Mum,' and went to bed. When he came to feed in the night, I said, 'You're 3 now, you don't breastfeed, you're a big boy."

But Hurst reveals she herself didn't want to stop, and it was her husband who convinced her to continue.

The practice was sporadic for a few years and Hurst thought Jonathan was growing out of it -- until she had her second baby.

At that point, Jonathan began to demand breast milk more often to keep up with his infant brother.

"If you'd not had cake for three years and someone put a slice in front of you, you might want to have a bit," she said.

Hurst complied, not knowing how long her son would want to keep going.

"At first I thought I would only do it for four months then it was six months. He started walking at nine months and then he was a year, but he was still enjoying it, and I was too, so I just carried on," she said. "I didn't set myself any deadlines for stopping...It seemed normal, nobody said anything to me, I'm not sure whether people even noticed. It wasn't until he was 3 that I thought 'maybe this is a bit weird.'"

Hurst acknowledges that some may find her decision bizarre.

"I know some people think it's strange," Hurst told the Daily Mail. "But I think it's perfectly natural...There are people who find it hard to understand, including my mum and dad, but they respect me for standing up and being counted."

While the Mayo Clinic recommends that mothers breast-feed until their infants are 1-year-old, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises there is likely no risk to continuing past that recommendation.

"There is no upper limit to the duration of breastfeeding and no evidence of psychologic or developmental harm from breastfeeding into the third year of life or longer," the AAP states on its website.

That's good news for Hurst, who has no idea when she'll be able to stop.

"My opinion is that you should carry on until the child doesn't want it anymore, within reason," she told the Daily Mail.

"I would like him to grow out of it," she added, telling the paper that Jonathan is asking for breast milk "less and less" these days and even has his own age-appropriate 7-year-old girlfriend.

But she does admit she may have cut it off earlier if she had known it would go this far. "If I thought he would still be breastfeeding now I probably wouldn't even have started."

nydailynews.com