Coco Austin is tired of people sharing their unsolicited breastfeeding opinions on her social media timelines.
Coco still feeds her 5-year-old daughter, Chanel, nourishing breast milk. The socialite is proud that she can still express milk from her nipples whenever her daughter is hungry.
Coco, wife of rapper-turned-actor Ice-T, sparked intense debates over nursing her daughter, who is old enough to attend kindergarten.
Many people claim Coco is doing “psychological harm” to Chanel by not weaning her off breast milk.
Coco explained that Chanel is calm and emotionally stable on her steady diet of warm breast milk, which contains no hormones or antibiotics like store bought milk.
“Chanel still likes my boob. It’s a big bonding moment for a mother and your child,” she told Us Weekly.
“Why take that away from her? … If she doesn’t want it, all right, that’s where you stop it. But I’m not just going to say no.”
Coco added that her daughter’s demand for breast milk makes her feel wanted and youthful.
Breast milk is nutritious and easily digestible. It is 95% water and contains fat, protein, carbohydrates and no artificial sweeteners or preservatives.
Ice-T defended his wife from critics in a 2018 interview with PEOPLE.
“Coco absolutely breastfeeds because she just wanted that mama connection with the baby,” he said at the time. He added: “Chanel’s drinking everything in the refrigerator right now.”
READ ALSO: Coco Austin Still Breastfeeds Daughter Chanel Austin
Coco says Chanel eats traditional food like “steak and hamburgers,” but she sometimes chooses to wash it down with breast milk direct from the source.
Coco, 42, previously said she and Ice-T, 63, share their bed with Chanel and their dogs. But they do have nights when it’s just her and her husband alone.
“We call it the family bed. We have Chanel and all four dogs.”
Coco is confident that her daughter will grow up to be emotionally and psychologically stable as a result of not weaning her off the breast too early.
According to the CDC, only 75% of babies are breastfed in America. And only 5.7% of children are still breastfeeding at 18 months.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months with continued breastfeeding for 2 years or more.
The Who advises that continued breastfeeding (even beyond age 2) is fine as long as it is beneficial to both mother and child.
