Hey all,
   Wow, coercing to nurse may be possible, but coercing them to stop fighting
and clean their rooms is causing me serious trouble.  It does seem that we
can coerce only when they are willing to comply.  Even bribery as one
mentioned, mommy won't love you if you stop? Well, that won't work for
cleaning rooms and bickering either.  They look at me and go Yeah right. See
ya.
    I too nursed a child to almost five and he always wanted to "keep it
secret" after about 3 or so.  Not all "secrets" are evil and going to do
great emotional harm.  I think more harm is done by outsiders telling little
people that continuing to nurse is bad, nasty, yucky, only for babies, etc.
Is five or six to old?  Who knows in this instance.  Maturity levels for
children vary and some six year olds are much younger in behavior and needs.
This mom is said to be of German descent, and perhaps for her this is normal.
 My husband has an uncle who nursed till almost six and a cousin  who was
still nursing in kindergarten--small town in Italy and was not considered out
of the ordinary.
    The rest of this child's life seems chaotic, perhaps this was his only
touch stone of sanity and now people have made him feel it was "dirty" and
wrong. Even if he was being coerced, they should have found a better way to
deal with it than separating him from his mom and turning it into a circus.
We are NOT talking sexual abuse and it was already said the child was in no
danger. More emotional harm has been done by the separation and interrogation
than any amount of "coerced" nursing.
    Meanwhile, somewhere another child is burned with cigarettes, locked in a
cage, beaten to death, drowned, doused with boiling water, and no one bothers
to "save" them until they are dead.
    If there are other issues, than those other issues should be the only
issues being discussed.  Breastfeeding is being used because we are a long
way from accepting that women have the capacity to use our bodies and brains
on multiple levels and they most often do not revolve around sex.  As usual,
when a mom is nursing, blame the breastfeeding.  It's an easy target and sure
to stir up controversy.

Pam MazzellaDiBosco, IBCLC
Davie, FL      Mom of five, soon to be six  (Just realized I have been
pregnant and or nursing for 14 plus years and still counting--good thing I
have more than one. LOL)

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