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It isn't a matter of being ashamed so much as not wanting to deal with comments and criticisms from ignorant people who should be minding their own business anyway.
It shows a VERY old child breastfeeding and CLEARLY demonstrates the problems it can lead to in later life. Anyone who thinks it's OKAY to breastfeed an older child needs to watch this video!
It isn't a matter of being ashamed so much as not wanting to deal with comments and criticisms from ignorant people who should be minding their own business anyway.
I am not an ignorant person and if I saw someone nursing a 7 year old child I would think there was something wrong with that mother. I breastfed both of my girls. The 7 year old until 1 and the three year old until 2. It was a wonderful experience. I love my girls, I love being with them. However, at some point a mother needs to separate herself from that child and allow the child to grow as a person. I know that my girls need to grow into strong individuals, even at 7 and 3. IMO, if a mother continues to nurse a 5/6/7 year old, she is trying to keep that child in a "baby state".
I am not an ignorant person and if I saw someone nursing a 7 year old child I would think there was something wrong with that mother. I breastfed both of my girls. The 7 year old until 1 and the three year old until 2. It was a wonderful experience. I love my girls, I love being with them. However, at some point a mother needs to separate herself from that child and allow the child to grow as a person. I know that my girls need to grow into strong individuals, even at 7 and 3. IMO, if a mother continues to nurse a 5/6/7 year old, she is trying to keep that child in a "baby state".
Well, the point of the post you quoted was that you probably WOULDN"T see a woman nursing her 7 year old because it is probably something they did in the privacy of their own home. Someone asked why be ashamed of it and I pointed out that it is ignorant and unsoliciated comments that make people not broadcast it to the world. Thank you for making my point.
There is NO proof that extended breastfeeding, for however long, interfers with a child "growing into a strong individual". The girls in the video that sparked this whole debate did not appear to be socially stunted to me.
As for a mother trying to "keep their child in a baby state", the only thing I can respond to that ridiculousness with is this: You can't FORCE a child to breastfeed. It is not the mother forcing an unpleasant act upon a child, the child is willing doing something that provides comfort to them. I guess you should stop letting them sleep with stuffed animals, sleep with a nightlight and stop giving them hugs when they reach a certain age too! They will outgrow breastfeeding when they are good and ready, the same way they outgrow all of those other childish things.
Any woman that would keep an 8-year-old child breastfeeding is sick in the head.
I think that all mothers should *have the choice* to feed their baby in whichever way they think is best.
I guess that depends on your definition of "best", now doesn't it?
And how do you "keep" an 8 year old breastfeeding? It is not like the mother is forcing her to continue nursing to achieve her own agenda.
I love how people feel free to say that a woman breastfeeding her child for however long she likes is "sick in the head", but the minute someone points out that formula is just the crap that is left over from overprocessing dairy products and mixing them with the cheapest, unhealthiest oils available, all hell breaks loose.
This is a very interesting piece on the natural age of weaning in mammals. The natural age of weaning is dependent on multiple factors such as the age that the child gets their first permanent molars, length of gestation, size of adults (larger mammals such as humans wean when their children quadruple their birth weight or reach 1/3 of their adult weight). Based on these studies the minimum predicted age for a natural age of weaning in humans is 2.5 years and a maximum of 7 years.
Based on this research, any woman who is still nursing her 7 year old child is within the range of normal. A Natural Age of Weaning
Children will all assert their independence on their own timetable if we allow them to do so. Extended breastfeeding is not going to hinder that.
Extended Breastfeeding Fosters Independence
"The independent child is the one who has been held close when that was what he needed."
Norma Jane Bumgarner Mothering Your Nursing Toddler, p. 38.
Independence should not be defined according to when a child weans from the breast, sleeps alone or leaves diapers behind. An independent child is one who has her dependency needs fulfilled, then separates gradually on her own terms to become a child who feels right and confident in the world. As one noted pediatrician points out:
"Contrary to the popular belief that extended attachment hinders independence, we notice that babies who are not prematurely rushed through any attachment stage and weaned before their time actually become more independent."
William Sears, M.D., and Martha Sears, R.N. The Discipline Book, p. 55.
According to Sally Kneidel in "Nursing Beyond One Year" (New Beginnings, Vol. 6 No. 4, July-August 1990, pp. 99-103.):
"Research reports on the psychological aspects of nursing are scarce. One study that dealt specifically with babies nursed longer than a year showed a significant link between the duration of nursing and mothers' and teachers' ratings of social adjustment in six- to eight-year-old children (Ferguson et al, 1987). In the words of the researchers, 'There are statistically significant tendencies for conduct disorder scores to decline with increasing duration of breastfeeding.'"
According to Elizabeth N. Baldwin, Esq. in "Extended Breastfeeding and the Law":
"Breastfeeding is a warm and loving way to meet the needs of toddlers and young children. It not only perks them up and energizes them; it also soothes the frustrations, bumps and bruises, and daily stresses of early childhood. In addition, nursing past infancy helps little ones make a gradual transition to childhood."
Baldwin continues: "Meeting a child's dependency needs is the key to helping that child achieve independence. And children outgrow these needs according to their own unique timetable." Children who achieve independence at their own pace are more secure in that independence then children forced into independence prematurely.
As 2girlsand2boys correctly stated in a pp, you can not force a child to breastfeed. A mother who is still nursing her child past the point that society deems as acceptable does so because she believes that it is the best thing for her child and is willing to wait until her child outgrows the need rather then push them into weaning before they are ready.
Well, the point of the post you quoted was that you probably WOULDN"T see a woman nursing her 7 year old because it is probably something they did in the privacy of their own home. Someone asked why be ashamed of it and I pointed out that it is ignorant and unsoliciated comments that make people not broadcast it to the world. Thank you for making my point.
There is NO proof that extended breastfeeding, for however long, interfers with a child "growing into a strong individual". The girls in the video that sparked this whole debate did not appear to be socially stunted to me.
As for a mother trying to "keep their child in a baby state", the only thing I can respond to that ridiculousness with is this: You can't FORCE a child to breastfeed. It is not the mother forcing an unpleasant act upon a child, the child is willing doing something that provides comfort to them. I guess you should stop letting them sleep with stuffed animals, sleep with a nightlight and stop giving them hugs when they reach a certain age too! They will outgrow breastfeeding when they are good and ready, the same way they outgrow all of those other childish things.
Encourage and force are completely different. At seven years old that child does not require breastfeeding for anything. Comfort can be given in so many different ways that does not require a child to be kept at an infant emotional level. Any mother who is continueing to breastfeed a 7 year old is doing it for her own emotional needs.
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