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Topics: Parenting, News, Celebrity, Entertainment, Pregnancy
Madison Burgess
Topics: Parenting, News, Celebrity, Entertainment, Pregnancy
Coco Austin has doubled down on her decision to breastfeed her daughter until she was six years old in a new podcast interview.
The model and TV personality, 46, has been married to rapper Ice-T, real name Tracy Lauren Marrow, since 2002 and the couple share daughter, Chanel Nicole, now nine.
She's since faced a barrage of social media abuse for deciding to breastfeed the little one for longer than a mother traditionally would - and everyone has their own opinion on it.
Back in July 2021, when Chanel was five, Austin told US Weekly: "Chanel still likes my boobs. It’s a big bonding moment for a mother and your child. Why take that away from her?
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"If she doesn’t want it, all right, that’s where you stop it. But I’m not just going to say no."
As we say, this caused an outpouring of both negative and positive opinions, and now Austin has hit back at the haters once again.
Speaking on the Dumb Blonde podcast on Sunday (November 9) Austin explained that she breastfed Chanel until she was six.
She explained: "It wasn’t like I was feeding her because she needed a meal.
"She was able to eat by a year, full solids. It was more of a bonding experience. More of like, ‘OK, I’ll give you the milk,’ but it was more that she wanted to be around me."
The model explained that her way of thinking was simply leaving it down to her daughter, saying: “I’m going to let her stop when she wants to stop."
Austin added: "She’s not going to be 16 on my boob. She’s eventually going to figure out that this is kind of strange or weird and stop. And that happened around 6 - which was still an extremely long time.
"In Europe, they’re doing it until 7. There, it’s nothing to them. We Americans think that’s weird. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it as long as it’s just in your home, you know?"
She later added: “It was mostly when she went to sleep she wanted me to be there. So it was more of a comfort thing. I got so many people who loved it."
When asked what her response would be to critics, she simply said: “It’s not a big thing. It’s a boob."
She continued: “To this day, she is obsessed with boobs. She’s always sitting and laying on me. It’s just a really nice moment because it’s not going to be like this when they get into the teenage years. I’m loving every moment I can with Chanel."
The World Health Organisation recommends that children initiate breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and be exclusively breastfed for their first six months - meaning no other foods or liquids should be provided to them, including water.
Infants should be breastfed on demand, meaning as often as the child wants, day and night and no bottles or dummies should be used.
The organisation outlines that from the age of six months, children should begin eating safe and adequate complementary foods while continuing to breastfeed for up to two years of age or beyond.
The NHS also advises that you breastfeed your baby exclusively for the first six months of their life.
However, it stresses that breastfeeding still has lots of benefits for you and your baby after six months as it protects them from infections and there's some evidence that it helps with the digestion of your baby's first solid foods.
The NHS website also says that there's no right or wrong way to stop breastfeeding and for lots of mothers and babies, stopping breastfeeding happens gradually as the child grows and eats more solid foods.