Good point (Anne? I forgot....) about child being ABLE to vocalize what
he wants. We sometimes forget in our busy lives as moms that our kids are
people, and that people, even little ones, have this - oh, I'll go so far
as to call it a NEED - to control their surroundings. "Breastfeed" is
hard to say, "nuss" is a lot easier. I'll never forget when I was working
on a kibbutz and taking care of 10 toddlers. One was the son of a woman I
knew very well (a very controlling person). This kid was a very difficult
personality UNTIL THE DAY that he learned how to walk unassisted. This
mastery of a skill seemed to turn his whole personality around and he
became a much sunnier kid. To get back to the subject, I'm all for
bringing breasts out of the chamisole closet, but let's always think
first about our kids - don't eliminate the easier-to-pronounce word from
our vocabularies and make it harder for them to be "in control" of
expressing their needs. My opinion - anyone else? Judy K