Originally posted by: Tommunist
Originally posted by: alchemize
Originally posted by: Tommunist
Originally posted by: alchemize
My wife still nurses our 2.5 year old boy, and my 5 year old daughter self-weaned. I've never had anyone give us a dirty look in public, or say a word. I'm waiting for the day someone tries and I'm around - I'll likely end up in jail :evil:
are you saying your 5 year old only recently stopped breastfeeding? maybe i'm just reading this wrong.....
She was pretty much night-weaned at 2 1/2, when my wife was pregnant with my boy and most of her milk was gone. But she technically hasn't become 100% weaned - although her nursing now is extremely infreuqent and the durations between each are growing longer and longer (2-3 months or more).
What's a riot is I just asked my wife when my daughter was weaned, and as we were talking about the 5 year old said "I want some baba!". So she took a little snack while I typed this.
When do you think most children were weaned 50 years ago? 100? 200? 1000?
i don't have any kids but this sort of thing seems really weird to me. i was under the impression that breast feeding ended generally between 1 and 2 years of age but after some investigation there are some seemingly rare cases (like yours) where it goes on up to 5 years old. it only seems strange b/c it is getting into a time where the chile will REMEMBER breastfeeding. thank god I don't remember anything like this - i think i would be traumatized.....
Do a little googling - children that "remember" breastfeeding characterize it as a wonderful bonding experience between them and their mothers. Why would a child be "traumatized" by taking nourishment, snuggling, and being held by a mother?
I don't remember BF'ing - probably because my ignorant mom only went 6 weeks because of all the ignorant boneheads that were extremely prevalant (and still so to this day obviously) in the early 70's. But some of my fondest memories with her were snuggling as a young child.
As far as it being a rare case, again look at what "uncivilized" cultures do (eskimo, south american tribes, african tribes) - they feed well into toddlerhood and often longer. It's what is best for the child.
What does Mother Nature say? She's usually the ultimate authority on what is "natural":
According to the research of Smith (1991), many primates wean their offspring when they are erupting their first permanent molars. First permanent molar eruption occurs around 5.5 to 6.0 years in modern humans. It is interesting to note that achievement of adult immune competence in humans also occurs at approximately six years of age, suggesting that throughout our recent evolutionary past, the active immunities provided by breast milk were normally available to the child until about this age (Frederickson).
Our evolutionary past has produced an organism that relies on breastfeeding to provide the context for physical, cognitive and emotional development. The non-human primate data suggest that human children are designed to receive all of the benefits of breast milk and breastfeeding for an [/b]absolute minimum of two and a half years, and an apparent upper limit of around seven years.[/b] Natural selection has favored those infants with a strong, genetically coded blueprint that programs them to expect nursing to continue for a number of years after birth and results in the urge to suckle remaining strong for this entire period.
An Anthropological Look at Nursing Beyond Toddlerhood
Time Period Who and Where Nursing Duration
Ancient Times Egypt 3 years
Early 1900s China and Japan 4-5 years
1940s Burma 3-4 years
1950s Kenya up to 5 years
1950s Siniono (Bolivia) 3-5 years
1950s Inuit around 7 years
N/A Chimps/gorillas 5-6 years
[/quote]
