I found from 6 months onwards people felt they had the right to ask!
I stopped feeding DD2 when she was 13 months because i felt a lot of societal pressure to stop at 1, as if that was some magic cut off and you must stop then. This was 10 years ago nearly and I had no BB or any other resources sadly. I did manage to keep feeding her while I worked P/T from when she was 4 months old which i was very proud of but a lot of people thought was weird.

When I had DS I had no real plans about when to stop feeding him, he self weaned at 14 months and I really think our trip to Tresillian when he was 12 months hastened that because they were very much of the belief that he should only get 2 BFs a day and I was so insane with sleep deprivation I did it. I really regret it now because I think if I had left him to feed when he wanted he would have BF for longer. He is my last baby so I will never get the chance again
Starskky - LOL at the "feeding thru the fence" remark - good on you! I wish i thought of clever comebacks like that!

Mrs Mac - concentrate on the time you DID bf your child for, he DID get 14 months worth of all that liquid gold, the wonderful immunity you have given him, that's a great start to life. I understand you must feel "cheated" from whatever time he might have chosen to self wean at, but it's done now, so to find something good, in what obviously causes you grief, i encourage you to find solace in the 14 months of bm he DID get.

i went to what must be our state's version of Tresillian with my child at 19 months old, and they basically bullied me into only feeding bilby twice a day (we were previously on about ten feeds per day at that stage) and the medicos were horrified at that. In my state of sleep deprivation, i also bowed to that pressure. I have no idea HOW, cos i was frightened of my supply drying up, but the minute we got out of there (it felt like ESCAPING, the bullying of the staff was so intense, cry it out, weaning - you name it) we went back to "feeding by request" - bilby was SO HAPPY, i felt relieved and i coudl'nt believe it, my supply built up again too. i was mentally prepared for the milk to have dried up (which i was distraught about). I felt like a renegade, like the medico's would pop up out of the wardrobe and tell me off for feeding her (in my own home).

we're still feeding about three times a day (at 3.5yrs old) and i can see it petering out now, but that's quite a recent thing.

it's amazing, how what is such a private thing (between you and your child), is so commented on, so talked about, by people who have nothing to do with how your child's health, in the long run. the paed dietician who told me, there was NOTHING beneficial to my child, (at 19 months) in my milk, was so uninformed. and in the PND clinic, without access to internet or phone, i had no way to prove him wrong. felt so powerless. all the staff were working under a protocol that said "wean at six months", they thought i was a freak, to want to feed at 19 months old. i actually got told that i was doing it for selfish reasons! bilby didn't think so, she LOVED her breastmilk. and was so upset when she was denied the breastmilk.

that two weeks in the PND clinic was the worst two weeks of her life. took us a long time to get over it. and she STILL didn't sleep after all their interventions!

in time, her sleep patterns improved. that's what it took, time, not crying it out (which is what the PND clinic did, except they called it a different name).

in retrospect, i wish i had paid for a lactation consultant to help us with the sleep issues, instead of going to the PND clinic.

hard to think straight when you're sleep deprived, plus being a first time mum.