From HealthCentral.com-commentary from Dr. Dean Edell Show today, and an
honorable mention to Kathy Dettwyler.

Maurenne Griese, RNC, BSN, CCE, CBE
Manhattan, KS  USA

Is Breast Feeding My Three-Year-Old Still Beneficial To His Health?



November 12, 1998

Jean: Hi. I?m calling because my three-year-old son is still
breast-feeding, and I?m wondering if it?s beneficial health-wise? Should I
keep doing it? Should I let him just wean himself, or should I stop?

Dr. Dean: Oh, it?s a hard question, Jean. Well, obviously, you?ve done the
right thing in breast-feeding your child.

I keep bringing up the work of an anthropologist in Texas, and I should
pull up her studies, who calculated what the ideal length of time would be
to breast-feed a child based upon everything we know about the animal
kingdom, like primates and other mammals. And so, if you take an animal
that normally lives seven years and they breast-feed their young one for
one year, that?s one-seventh of a lifetime, which means that we should be
breast-feeding it for 10 or 15 years.

Well, obviously, the numbers are off there, but using her calculations, it
comes out to even beyond what your child is. So you are well within the
range of what many cultures on earth have considered to be normal, and I
use the word ?normal? loosely.

Now in our culture, of course, it?s discouraged, and I?m sure you?ve come
across this. I?m sure you?ve been looked at by people who just think 'Oh,
my gosh, how could she ... ? Oh, my gosh. That?s just terrible.'

I want to encourage you. I think it?s a positive thing and it?s strange -
we had a call from another woman like you with a three-year-old, and the
way she described it on the air, it just seemed, and I hate to use sappy
words, but it seemed very, very sweet and positive to me. And this was
usually a nighttime ritual before the child went to bed. Is that like it is
 with you?

Jean: Yeah. He nurses before naptime and at bedtime.

Dr. Dean: Yes. Well, I cannot think of a reason to tell you to stop, and I
don?t think anyone else out there could make a cogent reason, other than a
bias.

From a health point of view there is no deficit. I can think of lots of
positives, although, currently most of the positive health benefits a child
 gets from breast-feeding, your child has already gotten.

But I think there is something else here that we don?t know squat about,
and that is the emotional part of it. We?ve never investigated that. We
have no idea what this means to a three-year-old. It?s a moment of great
closeness for you and your child. It?s something that obviously gives you
both pleasure as well as nutrition, otherwise, you wouldn?t be doing it.

Some women say well, his teeth are all of a sudden getting a little out of
hand here, and you kind of know. You kind of know when. I think it will
naturally start happening on its own within the next few months.

You seem to be at the limit, which is probably why you?re asking the
question. And little by little, I think you?ll find that he?ll forget and
your breasts will slowly start to respond by not making as much milk, and
then this will all be a sweet and forgotten, hopefully not forgotten,
memory.