Chanel, the daughter that Coco Austin shares with husband Ice-T, is now 9 years old, but her mom is looking back on a time when she received a lot of backlash for her choices as a mom. While appearing on Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde podcast this week, Coco opened up about her choice to breastfeed Chanel until she was 6 years old. Despite the amount of hate she received for her decision, Coco has no regrets.
In fact, according to Coco, Chanel was eating solid meals the whole time, just like any kid that age would be — for them, breastfeeding was more about the time they got to spend together.
“It wasn’t like I was feeding her because she needed a meal,” Coco said. “She was able to eat by a year, you know, full, like, solids. It was more of a bonding experience and more of like, ‘Okay, I’ll give you the milk.’ But, it was more like she wanted to be around me. So I was like, I’m gonna let her stop when she wants to stop.”
She knew that Chanel was “not gonna be 16 on my boob,” so she decided to let her daughter decide when the time was right for her to stop. Though she acknowledged that breastfeeding until 6 was an “extremely long amount of time,” she also noted that outside of America, she’s heard that people have different views of this.
“In Europe, they’re doing ’til 7. Like, it’s nothing to them. I mean, Americans think that’s weird,” she said.
“It was mostly when she went to sleep, she wanted me to be there,” Coco explained. “So it was more of like a comfort thing with her, but I got so many people that loved it. Like, they were on my side. I had everybody come out of the woodwork when it comes to breastfeeding ladies.”
Though it’s been years since Chanel was nursing, Coco said that she and Chanel still have a close relationship, and to this day, her daughter is still “comforted” by her.
“She’s always sitting there laying on me and then it’s just a really nice moment because it’s not gonna be like this when they get into the teenage years,” Coco said.
