Tamara in new storm over breastfeeding
IT’S meant to be natural, relaxed and most importantly, precious time just between a mother and her young child.
But breastfeeding for Tamara Ecclestone and her daughter Sophia, who is nearly three, is a little more complicated, it seems.
Miss Ecclestone, whose father is billionaire former Formula One tycoon Bernie, posted a picture showing herself breastfeeding Sophia at her London mansion on a giant sofa crammed with cushions and cuddly toys.
She was dressed in a floaty white gown, with perfect hair and makeup while her toddler daughter, who recently learned to ski, snuggled up to her in a frilly pink dress.
Hardly, then, the average mother and baby grabbing a moment for a quick feed.
Sophia, whose name is emblazoned on the wall of the nursery, turns three next month and her mother has no intention of weaning her, insisting: ‘I’ll carry on until she’s done’.
Miss Ecclestone, 32, met a barrage of online criticism yesterday after posting the picture on social media. In defiance she posted a second glamorous picture of her feeding Sophia, whom she also calls Fifi.
‘Find it a very sad and surprising sign of the times and the world we live in that the act of breastfeeding your child evokes such hatred in so many bitter people,’ she wrote.
Earlier Miss Ecclestone had written: ‘Breastfeeding is a powerful demonstration of love and nurturing and it has become so normal to hide. I want to take that normal and toss it.’
In a recent interview with Hello! magazine she said she believed prolonged breastfeeding helps to safeoutgoing guard against diseases such as Crohn’s – her husband, former stockbroker Jay Rutland, 35, whom she married in 2013, suffers from the debilitating intestinal condition.
Miss Ecclestone added: ‘Jay mocks me, but he is supportive. But I feel it’s not about nutrition; it’s more about a bond. Fifi is so and isn’t clingy at all but this is her comfort.’
It seems she may breastfeed Sophia for at least another year, as she said: ‘I do want another child but 2017 isn’t the year.
‘You never know what is going to happen in the future but right now I’m so consumed with Sophia and I’m still breastfeeding. I personally don’t feel ready. My body doesn’t feel ready.’
It is universally accepted that breastfeeding is good for babies. But there is no consensus on when a woman should stop feeding her child naturally.
Although many British women might feel three is old for a child still to be breastfed the World Health Organization and Unicef strongly encourage breastfeeding through toddlerhood. The NHS recommends that parents start weaning their babies at six months.
Before that age, babies should be fed exclusively on breast milk or infant formula.
NHS guidelines say that breastfeeding will protect babies against infections and will carry on protecting them for as long as the breastfeeding continues.
Breastfeeding is also beneficial for a mother, lowering her risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and obesity.
Most western women set goals for breastfeeding of between six months and a year.
At a year old, babies should be eating three meals a day and can drink whole cows’ milk as their digestive systems are more developed.
‘I’ll carry on until she’s done’