I have served as an expert witness in the area of lactation and twice also
in the area of infant development several times in court matters involving
custody. It depends alot on the judge and his/her feelings about the matters
concerning visitation and custody. I was in one case where the judge refused
to hear my tesimony and sentenced ( excuse me, ordered) the baby who was 15
months old and still nursing to joint custody with 4 months with dad in
another state and then back home with mom for 4 months. The parent who did
not have the 4 month custody could visit 2 weekends each month. The baby left
on a plane the next day for 4 months with dad. In a couple of cases the
standard custody and visitation schedules were ordered and mom continued to
nurse around those times.   In two other cases the judges accepted the
testimony using LLLI's materials and mine to postpone overnight visitation
until aafter age 2. We had developed a plan and presented that so we ( the
attorney, mother, mother's family and myself) appeared to  cooperate with the
dad and his family--very proactive.  One  mom had to travel to the dad's town
every 2 weeks for a 3 day weekend and baby got to spend days with dad and his
family but mom got a lunchtime 1 hour visit to nurse on those days. Baby was
with dad from 8 am until bedtime. In one case involving a toddler, the
toddler was sent to dad's for one week 3 times a year, and one 4 day weekend
each month but mom got to visit every day for an hour to nurse. During the
weeklong visit Mom got to visit with the baby for 6 hrs on Wed aftenoon. The
attorney felt these were victories because the usual visitation is for a week
at Christmas, and  Easter and 6 weeks in the summer. In both these cases the
mom had to give in some and compromise and go to the time and expense of
traveling and staying in motels in the dad's town (one case the dad and mom
made a compromise that dad would travel once and mom once for the weekend
visits) but it met the dad's needs and made the court happy. Usually the hard
part is grandparents. I think in all cases we had to ask the court to order
the grandparents to not give formula, colas, ice cream etc.
Barb Whitehead, IBCLC

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