Coco Austin Recalls Backlash Over Breastfeeding Daughter Chanel Until Age 6

Coco Austin is doubling down on her decision to breastfeed her daughter, Chanel, until she was 6 — despite the fervent online backlash.

“I was feeding her because she needed a meal … she was able to eat at a year [old], full solids,” Austin, 46, recalled on the Sunday, November 9, episode of the “Dumb Blonde Podcast.”

“It was more of a bonding experience,” Austin added. “So I was like, ‘I’m going to let her stop when she wants to stop. She’s not going to be 16 on my boob.’”

She went on to explain that her daughter ultimately decided around age 6 that she was finished breastfeeding.

Ice-T's 7-Year-Old Daughter Chanel Still Sleeps With Him and Wife Coco Austin

“Which was still [an] extremely long amount of time, apparently,” Austin continued. “But in Europe, they’re doing it until 7. It’s nothing to them.”

Austin and her husband, actor and rapper Ice-T, welcomed Chanel in November 2015. “Surprise!!! Look who came early!!” Austin wrote via Twitter at the time. “Welcome the new arrival of Chanel Nicole. A beautiful healthy 5.7 pound baby girl.”

Since then, Austin has attracted a barrage of attention — both positive and negative — when it comes to her decision to breastfeed for what many would consider to be longer than usual.

(The World Health Organization recommends parents exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months of a child’s life, adding that breastfeeding should amount to half or more of the child’s “nutritional needs” for the following 6 months and “up to one third” during a child’s second year of life.)

“Chanel still likes my boobs,” the model exclusively told Us Weekly back in July 2021 while discussing her breastfeeding journey. “It’s a big bonding moment for a mother and your child.”

She added, “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.”

In March 2020, Austin posted a photo of herself nursing a then 4-year-old Chanel via Instagram.

“I say when she is ready, she will let me know,” she told an Instagram user who asked the proud mom when she planned to stop. She also noted that her daughter had been potty-trained since she was 2 years old and wrote in a separate comment, “Europeans ween around 7.”

“At this point in nursing, it’s just for comfort,” Austin captioned the post. “Believe me, the girl loves meat so its not like she isn’t eating real food. Thank you to all that understand my view. I see most of you are so eager to side with me and I too root for you in your journey as well. Us moms are connected.”

In September 2019, Austin reflected on how she and her daughter were able to bond through breastfeeding, telling Us exclusively that people who don’t understand might need to have a kid and therefore can’t really understand her point of view.

“[They] just have some time to kill [and] need to say something to get a reaction from you, and I don’t want to give them any time,” she explained to Us at the time. “I want to give lovers time, not the haters. … [Nursing is] about giving love to your child and bonding with your child and also giving them good nutrition. Breast milk is like liquid gold. All around, it’s a good thing.”

Coco Austin and Daughter Chanel Twin in Matching Bikinis

Ice-T also told Us, “What I think confuses people is they [see pictures] and they think Chanel doesn’t eat food. And she eats cheeseburgers. She only breast-feeds … like, when she cries [and] she just wants to get close to her mama. She throws the boob out and … holds on. She’s not doing it for nourishment. This chick eats chili fries, OK?”