Nicole Curtis Still Breastfeeds Her Almost 3-Year-Old Son But Says Less Frequently These Days

Karen Mizoguchi
Updated

Nicole Curtis, 41, tells PEOPLE she is still breastfeeding Harper, who turns 3 in May and continues to cosleep with him.

The Rehab Addict star is breastfeeding him less frequently, though, as a result of her practicing baby-led weaning, which is the practice in which children who are still breastfeeding or taking a bottle are encouraged to self-feed appropriate finger foods rather than being slowly introduced to purées with a spoon.

According to the World Health Organization, exclusive breastfeeding for six months is the optimal way of feeding infants. Thereafter, infants should receive complementary foods with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or beyond.

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The baby’s father, Shane Maguire, 54, first asserted his parental rights when Harper was 6 months old and was awarded visitation two days a week. Until that point, their child had been exclusively breastfed, forcing the HGTV personality, who is also mom to 20-year-old son Ethan, to seek other feeding arrangements.

“He had never had a bottle before, and then all of a sudden that was his only option while he was with his dad. I had no idea that a judge could say, ‘You’re court ordered to not feed your exclusively breastfed child,” Curtis told PEOPLE in November 2017 after Maguire accused her of continuing to breastfeed Harper as a way to prevent him from getting time with his son.

WATCH: Rehab Addict’s Nicole Curtis: Why I Won’t Stop Breastfeeding

“It’s important that children have both of their parents. But [preventing] me from breastfeeding my child just so he can see the dad is not right,” she said of the custody battle which began in 2015.

Curtis continues to defend her decision to breastfeed her toddler.

“Every single day I have to weather criticism about how my child is too old to breastfeed,” she previously stated. “But when he weans, it’s going to be his decision. I truly believe it’s the child’s choice.”