Yes, and I would also put forward the idea that it seems relatively common 
for children to wean for a time and then resume breastfeeding...in my study 
of long term breastfeeding 20% of children had weaned for some time and then 
restarted....there are of course many children who wean and then cannot 
restart so it seems.
My attitude with long term braestfeeding is that when to wean is something 
that is worked out between mother and child and children do all eventually 
wean...we do not have a lot of Harvey's about the place!
Finally, since I'm responding to Virginia I just wanted to send a personal 
but public message fo thanks to her. I've just been reading my latest 
Essence (ABA's members mag) and read that she has resigned as an ABA 
counsellor after 40+ years. Over this time Virginia would have assisted 
probably thousands of women in this role.  I know that I greatly valued 
Virginia's support and encouragement when I was starting out doing 
breastfeeding research. I'm sure that you'll be plenty busy Virginia and 
will continue to inspire in the breastfeeding world but ABA will miss you.
Karleen Gribble
Australia

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "vgthorley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 8:39 AM
Subject: The Atrophy of The Suckle Reflex?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 Morgan Gallagher asked whether there was an end point at 
which the suck reflux atrophied.
See my case series on children aged 12-48 months who returned to the 
biological mother's breast, mostly on the *child's* insistence.  (It was 
published under my previous surname, Phillips.)
* Phillips V. Relactation in mothers of children over 12 months. J Trop 
Pediatr 1993; 39(1):45-48.
Karleen Gribble has also published on older adopted children who went to 
breast.
* Gribble K. Post-institutionalized adopted children who seek breastfeeding 
from their new mothers. Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and 
Health 2005;19: 217-235.
While the fact that children do return to the breast in toddlerhood and 
beyond doesn't prove anything, it does raise doubts about a generalisation 
such as that being canvassed in the UK.  I believe there are too many 
factors for a generalisation, some of which we don't yet know.

Virginia Thorley, OAM, MA, PhD, IBCLC
IBCLC Lactation Consultant (original cohort of 1985).
Cultural Historian of the History of Medicine.
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
[log in to unmask]

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