Hello lactnuts, Just caught up with about 8 days of lactnet in last 2 days. Wow you folks are really wise and wonderful. I love the posts from Rachel in Norway, Cynthia the psychologist and cultural wise woman, Jennifer Tow, and many others. I am proud to be a part. The weaning poem: sad. The child was not ready to wean, nor the mother. Culture likely pushed the mom to do it. Sounds like the child was going to day care and [someone felt that] the child needed to be weaned and potty trained. I have been there, sorta. My daughter recently weaned at about age 5.5 yrs [she's a little bit past 6 now]. The last year or so I was ready for her to wean, and gently encouraged it at times. It was difficult to nurse her several times at night, I did not sleep well and my back ached. I had no milk and at times it really hurt to nurse. Neighbors who knew she bf long-term would ask if she was weaned and I did not feel comfortable nursing her in public anymore. I truly was scared someone would find out and report it to child protection and she would be taken away. Only a few of my LC friends here locally (and of course some lactnetters) had bf that length of time. It is such a unique experience but shouldn't be. Now she is sick with a virus, URI, whatever, with some vomitting, a nasty cough, and not eating hardly a thing. I swear I'm this close to asking her to nurse. Laurie Wheeler, RN, MN, IBCLC Violet Louisiana, s.e. USA _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html