>She next gave birth in 1992, when Faustino
>was only 3.5 years old.  The abrupt drop in maternal attention and
>opportunities for nursing caused unprecedented tantrums in Faustino.  To
>him, life definitely must have seemed 'unjust.'

Kathy,
This bit about a chimp tandem feeding was really interesting. The story got
me thinking about the possible reasons (and querying the normalcy) of human
two-year-old tantrums. Is this a normal stage of exerting new-found
independence and will as we are told by the child psychologists, or is it
that a two-year-old is programmed to still be the baby at the breast, and
he or she is objecting as did this chimp baby??

In my small sample size of 2 children - they were both breastfed for about
2 years and there was no new baby on the scene at this stage for each, and
they never had tantrums that I can recall. I wonder if these are more
common with children weaned early and who have siblings close behind them
in age.

Still, I'm glad human mothers don't resort to the tactics of the chimp
mother to stop tantrums!!

Joy Anderson IBCLC, NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia