My third adopted child, Thomas, kept nursing a little bit until he was four 
and a half.  It was very sporadic for about the last year and a half.  There 
were many times that he went such a long time without asking to nurse that I 
thought he was done.  Once, when he was just over three, I went up to 
Washington to my grandfather's funeral.  I took Julia, who was 17 months old 
and nursing several times a day, with me, but didn't feel like I could 
manage both her and Thomas, where I was going, so I left him home with his 
dad.  By the time I left, it had been almost a week since he had asked to 
nurse.  He did OK while I was gone.   However, when I arrived back home, 
after about 5 days of being gone, he was playing on the opposite end of our 
half acre yard.  As soon as I stepped out of the car, he hollared, "Mommy!  
Nurse me!"

The most important thing that came of nursing Thomas so long was what it did 
for his tantrums.  He has always had a terrible temper and could be 
impossible to manage when he lost control of himself.  I have rarely seen 
another child who flew off the handle so completely.  I believe this problem 
is largely due to the fact that he was oxygen deprived for a long period of 
time before, during and after birth.  None of the strategies that had helped 
deal with the tantrums of my first two sons did anything but make Thomas 
madder.  However, I could nurse him for literally only a minute or two and 
he would have himself under control and be back to charming everyone!  There 
were times when he would fly off the handle out in public, and I would duck 
into a restroom and nurse him for two minutes and bring a totally different 
boy out.  (I wasn't comfortable nursing a child that old in public, and 
believe I may well have gotten arrested or report to DFS, had I done so.)  I 
had never dreamed that I would nurse him anywhere near as long.  He finally 
weaned when we adopted two week old Joseph, saying "Mommy's nursies are for 
the baby now'.

Darillyn

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