I watched a documentary the other day about women who breastfeed thier children for a longer term than most. By 'a longer term' , I mean there was a woman who was breastfeeding her 7yr old daughter. Now, I'm totally for breastfeeding in public places and I believe breastfeeding has good health benefits blah blah,and I've heard all the issues linkied to it, and have always seen it as healthy and natural. For Babies. Not seven year olds. This, THIS, was utterly creepy in my opinion. I watched in disbelief. However, after speaking to friends I had a mixed reaction.....what do you all think?
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AmethystLady
Pro - 2008-08-22 @ 13:55:40
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Zappy5971
- 2008-08-22 @ 14:08:02
I think that once they get teeth it's time to stop! Ouch.
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SeasideMan
Pro - 2008-08-22 @ 14:39:39
It doesn't seem even remotely creepy to me. It's their decision and it's very natural. In some cultures it's not so strange.
Tom. -
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SarahWB
- 2008-08-22 @ 14:44:10
Well, I personally thought there was something very strange about watching a girl of nearly eight with her head under her mothers top. But as I said , it's been a mixed reaction, I took the time to ask twenty people what they thought, and 16 out of 20 thought it was decidedly odd.Of the remaining four, 3 said they weren't bothered if it was kept behind closed doors but that they would be shocked to see it in public, and only one said it was fine.
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 2008-08-22 @ 15:25:51
4 out of 20 not bothered then - that makes it almost mainstream!
Tom. -
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joebangles
- 2008-08-22 @ 15:00:32
To me its not normal in a normal community whatever some other cultures do.
What harm is it doing to the mothers health?
Is it doing any harm to the child mentally or physically?
Are there other children in the family that may feel they are missing out on the closeness between the mother and the child on the breast?
I did not see the program but would like to hear what any "expert" had to say. -
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grumpus
Pro - http://grumpus.blog.co.uk
- 2008-08-22 @ 17:33:43
For my two-penn'orth, it sounds like child abuse. It can only be the mother who is perpetuating a ritual that should normally have stopped at about 12 months after birth.
The practice is ridiculed in a running gag in the comedy sketch show "Little Britain" where a 40 year old man still insists on breast feeding from his mother and refers to it as "Bitty".
I can see this 7 year old girl getting horribly bullied at school and being given the nickname "Bitty". Shame on the mother. -
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SarahWB
- 2008-08-22 @ 17:42:10
There are clips of it on Youtube if anyone is curious enough to watch. The most disturbing part for me was that the two girls (one was younger and had been weaned off by around 5yrs, but the elder one was 7 and still at it?!) had nicknames for the mother's breasts and insisted on drawing pictures of them all the time, at home, at school, on the bus.It was like an obsession. I'm sorry but no. Just no.
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- 2008-08-23 @ 10:22:47
It would be interesting to see how many of those individual who were breatsfed to a much older age, grow up to have major psychological issues?
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safriz
- http://www.conspiror.blog.co.uk
- 2008-08-23 @ 11:28:06
how could she lactate for such a long time? Amazing woman.
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Surely once a child is capable of taking solid food breastfeeding should be gradually phased out, and by that I mean over a few months, not years.
Two years and older children still being breastfed just seems wrong to me.
But what would I know? I'm a (thankfully) childless single bloke. -
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MarikaSunSeeker
- 2008-08-25 @ 10:10:08
I'm with NotBob on this one, 2years seems a reasonable "maximum" time for breastfeeding. In my own experience some babies like to keep their milk feed for longer, but it is easy to wean them off very gradually over a couple of months. 10, 12 and 14months that's all my lot got and it was more than enough! (oddly the length of time increased with each child, good that I didn't have a dozen kids then eh?)
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MonkeyPie
- 2008-08-25 @ 20:25:33
I think that a) teeth and b) being too heavy to hold comfortably should be indicators that maybe it's time to move on and let the child have its nutrition from other sources. Don't the experts say that peak nourishment time is 18 months or somethign and then after that the child needs a wider variety of food sources for its own good?!
Also, a seven year old is aware of its identity as a person and that their mother is a person and also, the connotation of breasts- which is unfortunately in this culture, geared more towards sex than to feeding. She's going to have a messed up adolescence and be a huge target for bullies. Not in public and I would hesitate to encourage it in private- breast milk, sure, but not directly from the breast for the two reasons I listed above. -
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- 2008-08-27 @ 18:07:19
I suppose it depends on your culture but I can't think it's healthy for mom to keep this up. Then again, what do I know. I would not think it normal at all in our culture.
I'm all for breast feeding but personally I wouldn't want to see kids of an older age feeding. But if it's done in the privacy of their own owns, and not being forced on others ,then thats their perogative.