Hi friends,
I want to pose what might be a touchy question.
I spoke with a mom yesterday who is nursing her 14 month old toddler. We were speaking about weaning issues, and she told me that she definitely wants to wean before her boy is two and a half because she wants him to have NO memory of suckling on her breasts. She says that breasts are so erotizied in the US that she feels it might make her son
uncomfortable to have memories of sucking his mommieīs "boobies". I asked her what she would feel if her toddler was a girl instead of a boy, and she said she didnīt know if it would be the same.
Since I am still working on my paper about bfing and sexuality, I thought this was very interesting. First, the issue of not wanting your child to remember the, letīs say, carnality of breastfeeding, the actual closeness of being at the breast. In this motherīs mind, the action of suckling is clearly given a sexual or erotic meaning, and that is why
she does not want her son to remember. Have you seen other moms give this reason for wanting to wean? If the breastfeeding dyad is mother-son, is that a psychological barrier for the mother per to the continuation of breastfeeding?
As for the impact on the boy... those of you who know boys who have breastfed and can remember having breastfed, what memories do they have of it? Has it hurt them, personally or socially, to remember that they suckled on their motherīs breast?
And then, the issue of gender. Are girls breastfed longer because of their gender? Does a mother feel it is less "sexual" to breastfeed a daughter? Does the public frown more on a breastfeeding toddler boy than on a breastfeeding toddler gril?
What are your thoughts on this?
Kika Baeza
MD, FP
Madrid, Spain
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