Katherine,
Your post brought an old friend to mine. She breastfed her first child
for 2.5 yrs, which seemed extremely long to me back then, but her second
child persisted in the nursing for 7+ years! (she never has told anyone
exactly how long, but he is in high school now and no longer nursing! :-)
The interesting part is that it became apparent after a couple of years
that Daniel had speech problems. In fact, as he learned to speak, he
uttered only vowel sounds, missed the consonants entirely, and so only
his mother could understand him for several years. He did enter speech
therapy at 5 or 6? and now speaks fairly clearly, and the only theory was
that he may have had hearing problems that interfered with his language
development at a crucial time. As we watched this child continue to
desire to nurse for several years on a fairly dry breast, his mom and I
concluded that he may have needed that connection with her because he was
so alienated from the rest of his world communication-wise. In fact, as
his speech improved over time, his need for the breast lessened.

Some might look at this situation from the outside and conclude that
since he breastfed longterm, that must be what caused the speech
problems. But then there are those of use who feel that the long term bfg
met an unusual and intense need in an abnormally developing child who saw
this as his safety chain to his world.

-Lisa

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Lisa Marasco, BA, LLLL, IBCLC
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