Katherine Dettwyler has info about this statistic on her website,  http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html:

"One often hears that the worldwide average age of weaning is 4.2 years, but this figure is neither accurate nor meaningful. A survey of 64 "traditional" studies done prior to the 1940s showed a median duration of breastfeeding of about 2.8 years, but with some societies breastfeeding for much shorter, and some for much longer. It is meaningless, statistically, to speak of an average age of weaning worldwide, as so many children never nurse at all, or their mothers give up in the first few days, or at six weeks when they go back to work. It is true that there are still many societies in the world where children are routinely breastfed until the age of four or five years or older, and even in the United States, some children are nursed for this long and longer. In societies where children are allowed to nurse "as long as they want" they usually self-wean, with no arguments or emotional trauma, between 3 and 4 years of age."


> 
> Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 20:44:27 +1100 
> From: Barbara Glare & Chris Bright 
> Subject: Average Age of weaning? 
> 
> Hi, 
> 
> It is often quoted that the average age of weaning is 4.2 years (or similar) 
> But for many, this doesn't seem believable. Can anyone give me the short 
> history lesson on how this figure was arrived at, and if it is still 
> accepted truth? 
> 
> Warm Regards 
> Barb 
> 


Pam Pilch, JD, LCCE

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