Lori Passwater wrote:

>Hello, my name is Lori Passwater and I am a nursing student with Ivy Tech 
>College.  We are currently in our Maternal-Child class and discussing 
>breastfeeding.  I am really interested in the topic of mothers breastfeeding 
>their toddlers.  As a former breastfeeder of three children, I was always told 
>to wean my children off the breast around the age of one because there was 
>no added benefit to breastfeeding past that age. 
>
How silly is that advice?  Something is good until age one and then 
immediately looses it's goodness?  :-)  I aways wonder about people who 
say such things.  Would we say "brocoli is good until 4pm but not good 
after that."

> After much research, boy 
>was I wrong!  In one article on the kellymom.com website it stated that 
>breast milk continues to provide substantial amounts of ket nutrients well 
>beyond the first year.  Also, it discussed the fact that children that wean off 
>the breast before the age of two are a higher risk for illness and developing 
>allergies.  Indoing this research, I was astonished to see that the American 
>Academy of Pediatrics only recommends breastfeeding while the WHO 
>recommends a minimum of two years.  Is it our culture that isn't able to 
>accept breastfedding toddlers? There was another article by Summer Minor in 
>the Associated Content web site that according to research done by 
>Anthropologist Katherine Dettwyler, PhD "the natural age of weaning for 
>human children is between 2.5 years and 7 years.  I am interested to hear any 
>other opinions on this subject.
>  
>

I say something to new moms...  I have known a LOT of breastfeeding moms 
in the nearly 13 years I've been helping moms breastfeed.  I know a lot 
of moms who have said "I wish I would have breastfed my children 
longer."  I have NEVER meet a mom who said "I wish I would have weaned 
earlier."  The only type of mom who says "I breastfed for the right 
amount of time" were those who nursed about 2 1/2 years or longer. 

Joylyn

>
>Lori Passwater, SPN
>
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