Breastfeeding a 6 year old? (legal, baby, support, parents)

[djacques]

It's supposed to be a free country. If they're both happy with it, I'm happy for them.

[haggardhouseelf]

I am a big advocate of natural parenting... we did family bed for a few years while our children were very young and we breastfed and did cloth diapers and all the other crunchy bits... but I honestly feel 6 is too old. I put bandaids on my girls and told my kiddo that they were "broken" when he turned 3. My oldest actually stopped on his own at around 18 months, but my youngest just wanted to keep on nursing... The last year and a half it was really only at naptime and bedtime that he wanted to nurse, or if he was just having one of those days where he felt a little "off"... or he was fighting off a bug or something... I could always tell when something was going on... but I felt his nursing was more about comfort by that time. I felt that he needed to learn how to comfort himself at that point... After I put the bandaids on, he found other ways - like first holding on to my hair as I lulled him to sleep, and eventually sleeping with a stuffed animal. Which he still does even now, and he's 8.

Anyway, personally, yes, I feel like 6 is too old. I think at a certain point it's more about the mother not wanting to give it up, or being afriad to, more than it having anything to do with the child's needs. But I also feel like it's a family's personal private decision and nobody else's business so long as the child is otherwise happy and healthy. Many mammals nurse their young for longer stretches of time. We're just not accustomed to it because we've lost that memory or that part of our humanity. It's strange to us now.

[HIF]

I've heard that it could cause the children to become cross-eyed when they are nursing and playing video games at the same time. An now that Wii is out there......

[TouchOfWhimsy]

Originally Posted by HIF

I've heard that it could cause the children to become cross-eyed when they are nursing and playing video games at the same time. An now that Wii is out there......

Ouch, you'd need elastic nipples!

[charz]

Ewwwww! Really, we don't expect a 6 year old to drink a bottle, so why should a six year old breastfeed? In addition, I've got kids who are 5 and 7 and I don't let them see my bare breast. Why would I let them suck on it at that age? Ewwww!

[Whyte Byrd]

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by joe moving

................................that kid is going to have issues.

Issues? That's putting it mildly.
I saw the video of the 8 & 5 year old that have names for them.
When they realize what they've been doing even without knowing, wow.
A a female, I'd wonder if I was into women or something; to say I'd be disturbed is putting it mildly.

[Woof Woof Woof!]

Originally Posted by Roselvr

Issues? That's putting it mildly.
I saw the video of the 8 & 5 year old that have names for them.
When they realize what they've been doing even without knowing, wow.
A a female, I'd wonder if I was into women or something; to say I'd be disturbed is putting it mildly.

There certainly is a lot of "back woods" paranoia going on around this breastfeeding stuff.

[Whyte Byrd]

Ok, I've collected myself. I'm over my speechlessness. I have something to say now. I say when they're old enough to hold a cup, they should be weened. And my kids were weened within a year so I know they can hold cups that young.

[rickers]

I'm 57 and I'm not compleatly weened either. It's that urge when I see a nice pair ! Oops I'll shut up now !