Originally posted by: Isla
(First, excuse the egocentricity of my post... it is easier for me to talk about this from experience than it is to postulate from a third person perspective. )
This is my experience with breast feeding.
I breast fed my first for 8 months, my second for 5 months, and my 3rd for a year.
The first time, I quit because I was stressed out from getting divorced and wanted to start smoking again, so I cut her off. (I also never smoked around her, and I quit again once I was settled back down again)
The second had digestive problems and was allergic to everything I ate. It was easier to give her a formula that I knew she could handle rather than eat the wrong thing and be up all night with a colicky baby.
The third, I vowed to nurse until HE wanted to be weaned. I wanted it to be up to him, and not me. He learned to walk at 11 months and one month later, he was done with nursing. I was a little sad but I'm very sensitive to my children's needs. He didn't want it anymore, and wasn't going to guilt him into nursing. I respected the choice he freely made.
Now my husband, on the otherhand, refuses to be weaned... my breasts are never going to dry up at this rate....
(Seriously, some of us can keep making milk indefinitely.)
I see the point of raising a child as being to help them become healthy, happy, confident, and independent. One must constantly look to see if they are doing what is truly best for the child or if they are doing something for selfish purposes. And breast feeding a child is lovely. It is one of the most truly loving and beautiful experiences I have known.
Extended nursing is a normal occurance in developing countries, but in modern society it
could be considered a form of sexual abuse. I think each case should be looked at individually, because there are some whacked out women who do become moms. I know of several cases of mother-son incest. It happens. There is also emotional incest, which can be just as damaging. Personally, I would be concerned if my kids still wanted titty after a certain age because I would interpret that as them being too dependent on me. But that's just me. I can't judge anyone else, and I would need to know the details of a case before I could say it was a problem.
<---happy to breast feed and happy to wean