Hi everyone,

I have been following this thread halfheartedly at best, but I just thought
I'd throw my two cents in here.  I just wanted to say that many, many
mothers who nurse older children do not make it common knowlege for exactly
the reason Tony says (people think it very odd), as well as the very real
threat in this country (USA) of actually having your child taken away from
you for doing so (even if they do give them back eventually).  I am
currently tandem nursing an 18 mo. old and a 4 yr. old who does not show any
sign of weaning any time soon (he declares that he likes my milk even better
than ice cream, which is saying a LOT!).  Most people simply think my 4 y.o.
has weaned because he usually only nurses before a nap and to go to bed.  A
close friend nursed her son until he finally weaned at age 7.5.  Needless to
say, only a few people knew that he continued to nurse.  One interesting
thing that I have seen in older nurslings is that many of them simply nurse
a couple of minutes once or twice a day, often beginning around 3 years of
age, but this kind of infrequent nursing can last several years if the
mother is comfortable with child-led weaning.  I think that because older
children can usually wait to nurse until they are somewhere private, and
because many older children nurse only during the evening or morning hours
in the privacy of their own home, it is easy to assume that because we do
not see it, it is not happening.  Thankfully, though not the norm, it does
happen!

As far as having problems persuading people to keep breastfeeding over 3
months, I find that a substantial percentage of the mothers that have come
to our LLL meetings seem to "keep going" despite their original estimations.
I think the single most persuasive thing that does keep them going is seeing
other nursing mothers interact with their older babies and toddlers, and how
much easier "mothering through breastfeeding" makes the job of handling the
difficult toddler years.  Though I strongly believe that breastmilk may very
well prove to be the "cure" to many of the ills that have plagued modern day
society, I vehemently believe that nursing (the act of taking baby to
breast, whether milk transfers or not) is the most basic way we teach our
children about the value of people and of giving.  If we, as parents, do not
have the time or desire to nurture our babies and children in this most
fundamental way, how can we expect them to grow into adults capable of
giving to others fully?  There is so much more to breastfeeding than just
milk!

Anyway, sorry to ramble - my brain doesn't function very well with a baby
latched!

Carrie Otterson
LLLL

> I would be seriously interested in seeing how you arrived at the figure of
> 2.5 - 7 years [the oldest I have seen is 5 and people thought that VERY
> odd!].
<snip> <snip>
I foresee some problems in persuading people to keep going for so
> long [over 3 months is often hard to support] and wonder if some
> might feel
> that if you need to feed for so long to get benefits they might not bother
> at all. This would require very sensitive and persuasive linguistic
> expertise.

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