Coco Austin is standing by her choice to breastfeed her daughter, Chanel, until age 6.
The model and TV personality, 46, opened up about the decision during Sunday’s episode of Bunnie XO’s “Dumb Blonde” podcast, calling the experience “a bonding thing” between her and Chanel, now 9.
“It wasn’t like I was feeding her because she needed a meal,” Austin explained. “She was able to eat by a year…full solids. … It was more that she wanted to be around me.”
Austin, who shares Chanel with husband Ice-T, said the nursing continued mostly at bedtime. “It was mostly when she went to sleep and she wanted me to be there,” she said. “So it was more of a comfort thing.”
The mom of one said she always planned to let her daughter decide when to stop.
“I’m going to let her stop when she wants to stop,” she recalled. “She’s not going to be 16 on my boob. She’s eventually going to figure out that this is kinda strange or weird and stop. And that happened around 6.”
Austin acknowledged the timeline was “an extremely long time,” but says she’s proud of how natural it felt for them. “In Europe, they’re doing it until 7,” she noted. “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 also pushed back at critics who have “sexualized” her breastfeeding journey.
“It’s not a big thing,” Austin said. “It’s a boob.”
Despite the public scrutiny, Austin says Chanel still has a special closeness to her.
“She’s always sitting and lying on me,” Austin shared. “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.”
Austin and Ice-T, who have been married since 2002, have long defended their family’s unconventional choices. In 2019, the Law & Order: SVU star told TMZ, “Every once in a while … she wants to get close to her mom, [and] that’s what they do. She eats food. She eats f–king cheeseburgers.”