Breast Feeding Older Children
78ABC 20/20 News Story
- http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6551439&page=1
Breast Feeding Past Infancy
Breast Feeding Older Children: Is it wrong?
I saw this great story on abc's 20/20 on women who continue to breast feed their children past infancy. I have attached the link so you can watch the video or read the article; I would suggest watching the video because the images disturbed me a bit. The story is of a young woman with 3 children who she breast fed past kindergarten. You see her young son asking his mother for the breast, and this sight disturbed me a bit. Maybe it’s because I have never hear of this before, but it caught me off guard and therefore I reacted harshly. I just don’t get why a mother feels the need to continue breast feeding after your child can walk, and talk. I don’t have children so I shouldn’t judge parent’s for the decisions that they make but it just doesn’t look right to me. I feel that it might affect the child mentally. How will they learn to deal with tension, fear, disappointment, independently? There aren’t studies showing the results of a child who was breast fed after infancy, but children are mentally vulnerable and childhood events affect them as they grow. We just don't know which way it will affect a child. Will it be bad or good for them?
I do believe there is a large amount of women who breast feed their children after infancy. Like I said before, I don’t understand their reasons but just the other day I met someone who breast fed her children till they were 5 years old. I think many of the women feel somewhat shy or maybe embarrassed to mention the fact that they do this. I wish it wasn’t so though, if more women came out it probably wouldn’t of shocked me so much. Plus, people like me want to understand why this is going on. I want to know how they decided to do this; do you hide it from other? Do you feel embarrassed? When do you stop? Or do you just keep going till your child decides to quit? I want to know.
It’s also surprising to hear that the husbands of these women feel it’s no big deal. They say they can differentiate between breast for children and for breast for pleasure. Isn’t it hard to look at your wife breast feeding your older child and then feel turned on? But I guess it’s like any mother, the sex doesn’t fade because of childbirth. Men will be men and they do like naughty time. Don’t the men think it’s strange though? We hear a lot from the women but what about the men. Do men hide their real feeling, or is it true that they don’t mind?
I think I’ve said this before but I don’t feel completely comfortable judging a mother because I haven’t been there but I want to express my feeling so that someone can explain to me what is behind this.
|
The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
Price: $17.95
List Price: $24.95 |
|
Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
Price: $14.18
List Price: $24.95 |
|
The Accidental Entrepreneur: The 50 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Starting a Business
Price: $9.76
List Price: $17.95 |
|
Weekend Entrepreneur: 101 Great Ways to Earn Extra Cash
Price: $3.54
List Price: $19.95 |
|
Entrepreneur
Price: $11.97
List Price: $59.88 |
Let's hear from you!
Do you feel breast feeding after infancy is appropriate?
See results without votingPrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
How can it be wrong, when a child's natural weaning age is so much later than a year or so?
My sisters, brother and I were all still breastfed at 2, and all managed to leave Mummy long enough to get an education, leave home, and all the rest of it.
I can see how this upsets some people. It is a natural form of birth control as long as mama is lactating. May be that's why some do it for so long a time.
My youngest son was breast fed until he was 3 1/2 and he is now a strong marine in service to our country. I was not in support of this but my wife knew it would be her last child and she had decided to rather spoil him, it did bother me.
I hope that helps you foxility. Great hub too.
Yeah, it seems men have bigger problems with the idea than women.
'I just don’t get why a mother feels the need to continue breast feeding after your child can walk, and talk.'
Because it is actually a lot of fun, according to my wife :)
I would assume this would mess up a child's pyshcologically, isn't there specific sexual stages a child is suppose to go through to become a normal, healthy adult?
I would be terrified of messing up my child for life by doing this.
So you mean we are not messed up for life anyway?
Those that went without breastfeeding at all, those that were deprived of the breast too early, those that never seen a naked body, those that die believing sex is evil - all those are not messed up? Gimme a break :)
Why is it wrong to breast feed a child when he is 5 but it is ok if he takes a bottle or has a dummy at the same age? Breastfedding is just a way of nurturing your child.
I breastfed my children until they were 1 and they decided to stop by themselves, otherwise I would not have stopped, it was a great experience we both enjoyed. My grandmother breastfed my father until he was 5 and he is an equilibrated man, married for more than 30 years to the same woman and excellent father and a very responsible person.
Great food for thought hub!
I fed my daughter until she was a year, and my son until he was nearly two, and I know quite a few mothers who have breast-fed for a similar amount of time. I don't actually know of any Mums still feeding their babies much beyond two, but I suspect that many Mums would be too embarrassed to let people know, as people do look down on it.
"I would assume this would mess up a child's pyshcologically, isn't there specific sexual stages a child is suppose to go through to become a normal, healthy adult?"
You know what they say about assuming, it makes an ass out of you and me...
Why should it be psychologically or sexually damaging, for goodness sake? Not being breastfed at all, now there's damaging.
Oh! well I don't think that not being breast fed is damaging, and I don't see why it would be
My son actually breast fed until he was two, so he's only been off a few months, I didn't find anything really wrong with it except that when he didn't sleep through the night because he wanted to be fed and I know it drained my wife everyday. In my household, her lack of sleep, affected everything.
"Oh! well I don't think that not being breast fed is damaging, and I don't see why it would be"
It damages a baby's health. Breastmilk is perfectly designed to be suitable nutrition for a baby. Formula is an inadequte approximation. Formula-fed children are more likely to get ill, more likely to develope allergies, more likely to die in infancy.
"Oh! well I don't think that not being breast fed is damaging, and I don't see why it would be"
It damages a baby's health. Breastmilk is perfectly designed to be suitable nutrition for a baby. Formula is an inadequte approximation. Formula-fed children are more likely to get ill, more likely to develope allergies, more likely to die in infancy.
I now have three children and my third is now two months old. All three were breast fed and my baby still is. My first was weaned at 11 months because she weaned herself (she supplemented with a bottle at nights and when we left her with a sitter on date nights), my 2nd barely took a bottle and nursed till he was 18 months old and I weaned him when I became pregnant with my third because he was biting me for one and for the other I was concerned that I was losing too much weight from nursing and thereby depleting nutrition from my pregnancy. He loved to nurse and probably would've nursed a lot longer if I let him however. But I remember when I nursed in the Mother's room at church getting some odd looks when people found out how old he was. I would say on average most Mothers rarely nurse past the age of 1 yrs old, which is actually the recommended age to nurse to minimum by most Doctors standard, all though they are happy if your baby is nursed to at least 6 months. Here's my take on breastfeeding past infancy. I believe that God created breastmilk as a perfect nutritional supplement to provide for your baby before they are able to take solid food. Once they can adequately eat solid food there really is no nutrional reason for them to "need" breastmilk. I don't think it will hurt them physically in any way, however physcolgically is another story. How far back to most people have memories of their childhood. The earliest age I believe most of us remember is let's say 4 years of age. Well frankly I don't think I want memories of me sucking at my mother's breast. I would be quite embarassed, possibly even traumitized by that memory. I'm okay with seeing pictures of me nursing as an infant because that just seems natural. But I would be a little weirded out to see myself as a six or seven year old breastfeeding with my Mom. It just doesn't look "normal" to me. I also don't think it's fair to the husbands to have to "share" with their kids for that long of a period of time. Most men seem to think they have ownership of their wives breasts I hate to say it, but it's true.
It also bothers me to see children using a pacifier or bottle way past the age of 3 years old. I think that should end by at least two years old for the sake of their teeth if nothing else.
Nursing a child until any age is not in any way damaging them psychologically or emotionally. But it is completely unnecessary. A child who can eat solid foods themselves and is getting a wide variety of healthy foods has no need for breastmilk any longer.
I feel that most moms who nurse their children past about eighteen months, do it for their own sake. It's something emotionally that they don't want to let go of. And then you get to the point of no return. You reach a point where you're now ready to stop, but the child will not. And they're too old to easily wean.
I breastfed my first, and am breastfeeding my second, until they're one year old. But when your child is old enough to lift your shirt and say, "Give me some milk, Mama!", it's time to stop.
I think your right Sarah, a mother shouldn't breast feed if the child can eat solid food. It's just selfish for the mother to breast feed past necessity.
The WHO recommend breastfeeding until the age of 2 as a minimum.
londongirl says formula is "inadequete".Well, I believe nursing is natural,and I have four-year-old twin girls that I would have loved to breastfeed,but my body did't produce milk,so I fed them formula.I believe them to be in great health, despite the "formula"I fed them.Also, I'm agreeing with Sarah on this, breastfeeding is totally unnecessary past the age of one.And I think, really pretty strange to think about.
Formula is great if the mother can't BF, and has saved a lot of babies' lives. Had it not been invented, we'd be worse off.
But it's not as good as breastmilk. A hell of a lot better than normal cow's milk, but not as good.
I find it strange that so many women, and mothers, condem something completely natural and healthy.
I have no strong feelings either way. My son made up his own mind about it and we went from there. In some of the Pacific islands where I worked in we definitely referenced WHO and encouraged moms till about 2 - mainly because they were using formula as they perceived it as being 'better,' and were also spending unnecessarily on it (and sometimes mixing it incorrectly or with water that wasn't well- boiled) when often they were able to BF.
I have had four children. I breast fed them all. They all stopped themselves at different ages. Starting with stopping during the day time and then eventually just to go to sleep at night and then no more. It is actually a necessary bonding experience between mother and baby. It is also the best nutrition for a baby. God just made it that way. There is plenty of research on it. Have you ever sucked on a rubber dummy / pacifier. It is horrible. It tastes horrible and leaves a weird film inside your whole mouth. My kids never had dummies or bottles. A man made formula could never compare with a mother's milk. Of course it is sometimes necessary but should be a last resort. What does it matter what another mother does anyway. It is her choice. If a husband can't handle it, he shouldn't have planted his seed in the first place.
LondonGirl "It damages a baby's health. Breastmilk is perfectly designed to be suitable nutrition for a baby. Formula is an inadequte approximation. Formula-fed children are more likely to get ill, more likely to develope allergies, more likely to die in infancy."
well said!! 2 thumbs up. out of my 5 i have breastfead 3. they were almost 2. am still breastfeeding now shes 13 months.
wow read some reliable info about the subject before posting shear nonsense and then you won't be making uneducated and rather silly remarks about breastfeeding. So much disinformation is out there being spread not as personal opinion but as fact. 2 Years is a MINIMUM reccomendation by WHO and they also state that it is up to every INDIVIDUAL mother and child to decide the time for weaning. Show me the study that says it is harmful to let a child wean themselves and i will show you 120 studies that say it is the only perfect food for humans, the ONLY perfect food. Not to mention tthe emotional benifits and health benifits. It is quite obvious that Foxility is not well read on this subject and has therefore made some glaring errors in judgement. It is a sad day when we can not tolerate the most natural act of any animal, nourishing our young(physically and emotionally).
The "up to 2" breastfeeding reccomendation was meant for mothers in developing countries with infants that would not get a proper nutrition or immunization otherwise. Children who have proper food available, and live in a healthy environment do not need to breast feed for that long. I do think it could be psychologically damaging, but then again most things are considered so by some, so I guess each mother should decide what's best for her child.
There is a video on youtube of a woman in England breastfeeding her daughter at the age of 7 (almost 8). That is just wrong and severely disturbing! Breastfeeding is a beautiful part of a child's life but not when they're walking and talking. No offense but any child 3yrs and older is too big to be breastfeeding! They already got the nutrition they need. It's just wrong!
Breast feeding is the first preference for children growth.
goldentoad says:
11 months ago
Its wrong, definitely wrong. A kid shouldn't be able to walk up and start suckin. cut the kid off at an early age and give those chi chi's back to poppa.