How do I explain BF to my 5 year old boy?

So #1 and #2 are 15 months apart and I EBF #2 until she was 11 months. He never really bothered me when I nursed. Never received any questions or anything. #1 was on a bottle until he was 17 months and never thought to try and give it to his sister.

Now my kids are just shy of 5 and almost. Everyone around me bottle feeds. My niece is 1 and at her birthday party last week they watched me feed her. Now, DS tells me he can't wait to help feed the baby with the baby bottle.

In the past I tried to pump but never got more than an oz. or two with #2. With #1 I was able to get about 5-6 oz a session, but I think that was because DS barely ate. I only nursed him for 5 weeks.

How do I explain this?

Re: How do I explain BF to my 5 year old boy?

This is the perfect time to explain what your breasts are for. Very simply explain that he will be able to feed the baby a bottle but he has to be patient because Mommy will be feeding the baby with Mommy's milk first. When the baby is ready to use a bottle then he will have that chance but Mommy milk is very special and helps the baby be strong which is why Mommys have breasts (or boobs whatever he understand).

My son picked up on this (4) very quick and he was funny...if the baby cried he would say Mom...give her the boob! When grandma was to watch her he asked if grandma was going to feed her with her boobs...lol. I said no only the Mommy's can make the milk.

When the time does come, pump whatever you can and let him try, he probably wont be as interested and plus you can give him plenty of other jobs to help you.

Re: How do I explain BF to my 5 year old boy?

In my experience, it was like the girls barely even noticed. I never mentioned anything about it while I was pregnant--and they'd never seen anyone BF before and Kate was too little when Abby was born to notice.

This time, about 3 or 4 days into it, Katherine finally noticed and said, "Mommy WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?" I just explained to her that mommies make special milk for babies. Really that was it. In fact, I weaned him about 3 weeks ago and they never even asked about that either!

There's nothing to hide or be ashamed of and they are so innocent at this age that I don't think it's going to be a big deal for you.

Re: How do I explain BF to my 5 year old boy?

Thanks ladies...I will try both approaches and see how it goes.

This should be interesting since he laughs when he says nipples..

Re: How do I explain BF to my 5 year old boy?

Glad you asked this, bc I have a feeling DD is going to wonder about that too. She'll be 4 when baby #2 is born.