Just to further clarify a point made about LLL's weaning statment of philosophy
and the terminology used.  The actual philosophy statement says:

        Ideally, the breastfeeding relationship will continue until the baby
        outgrows the need.

One of the things a mother does is help her baby learn to distinguish wants
from needs from habits.  At birth, wants and needs are the same.  Habits grow
on you and on the baby.  As a baby grows, wants and needs and habits are
different things.  (Habits are not necessarily bad, either!)  A baby/child may
want to eat ice cream twenty times a day.  The  need for the child to eat ice
cream may not exist at all.   An older baby/child may WANT to nurse for many
reasons, and may in fact NEED to nurse.  Or it could be a want or
a habit and the mother/child have not put any effort into figuring out
something else to do.

My own preference is for the term "natural-weaning" - a weaning that the mother
and baby are both comfortable with.  My daughter's weaning was so wonderful
that it still brings tears to my eyes.  I suggested to her one morning that
instead of having night-time susu, we read some books and rock instead.  She
agreed and didn't even ask for it that night (age 31 months).  The next night
she asked, and I asked if it was ok to have books and rocking and singing
instead.  She agreed with alarcity, and never asked to nurse again.  She also
toilet-trained that same week.  If I had known the potty was going to be part
of the week's agenda I would have held off on suggesting the weaning for a
couple weeks.  It all worked out wonderfully, and she really blossomed with
those two huge self-confidence-building steps under her belt.   My feeling is
that nursing had become a want instead of a need, so it was easy to replace it
with something else.
And that's more than you probably ever wanted to know!


Beth Hilleke
2425 Spring Garden St.
Charleston, SC 29414-5535
803-556-6131
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