Dear Melissa:

Thanks for your funny stories.  They really help brighten a typical Monday.
 I, too have stumbled on the nursing "longer than a year" line.  I don't know
who or how I came to use it, but I find it serves me well.  I usually try to
put weaning into a developmental perspective just like walking and talking.
 If a baby does not walk by 12 months, we do not initiate physical therapy.
 We accept that sometime between 8-18 months that most babies will walk.
 Language development and toilet training also enjoy the same "window" of
learning type of approach.  Whenever we try to equate age and development
within narrow confines, we risk over and under treating "problems".  As a
dietitian (please don't throw tomatoes!!), I see daily  the effects of
over-control of eating behavior, learned ignorance of satiation and feeding
signals ("clean your plate so you can have dessert), equation of food with
emotions and many other neurotic associations between food and behavior.  I
tell my prenatal classes that one of the best gifts anyone can give to a
child is good eating habits--these are built by careful attention to feeding
and satiation cues, individualized weaning, etc.  I leave them with the
thought that while the older baby can eat other foods, that the immunologic
effects of mother's milk may be more important in the second year since the
child is willing and able to eat dirt and anything else that gets into his or
her hands.

Jumping down from the soapbox,
Queen Martha du bubbles