Wasn't this on Benny Hill?

[dillon]

dillon, as long as there is demand then lactation, once started, can continue pretty much indefinitely. There are enough stories of women still breastfeeding children of 5, 6, 7 or more. Women can be induced to lactate even if they haven't given birth. Nipple stimulation for 15 or 20 minutes several times per day will induce lactation without the intervention of any drugs. Of course that amount of stimulation, oral or otherwise, is likely to produce very sore nipples and hence beyond the tolerance of most women. Very few are able to devote the time needed also. There are also instances of grandmothers or even men lactating to feed children where the mother isn't around to or isn't able to breastfeed. So the caveat "use it or lose it" still applies here.

I’m not a psychologist and don’t even play one on TV, but I have to think that if a woman is still breastfeeding a seven year old child, one or the other of the parties has issues. Maybe understandable in the direst of conditions under prolonged famine in some lands, but not in the western world.

[denimini]

I know a few kids (now adults) that were breast fed until 5 years old, not their only food source but a long weaning process. They are nowstrapping young people.
I got chucked off the breast at 18 months when my brother came along. I still resent him for it but we get along well now.

[STEVIE]

I just wonder if Benny Hill was behind the idea of Café Mammary?
That would be his style.
Steve.

[dillon]

I know a few kids (now adults) that were breast fed until 5 years old, not their only food source but a long weaning process. They are nowstrapping young people.
I got chucked off the breast at 18 months when my brother came along. I still resent him for it but we get along well now.

Still makes me wonder if the mother wasn’t the one having the difficulty letting the child be weaned away.

[pelmut]

If the child wants to be fed that way and the mother wants to feed it (and there are no medical implications), who are we to impose a time limit?

A friend of mine was told by her doctor that there was really no reason why she should still be breastfeeding her four-year-old because it didn't serve any useful purpose.  She retorted that there was really no reason why the doctor and his wife should continue to have sex as they were too old to want any more children, so it didn't serve any useful purpose.  I don't think the discussion was continued beyond that point.

[dillon]

First, the woman was factually wrong. Non-procreational sexual intimacy, especially in marriage, serves many purposes and contributes to health.

Second, the child will naturally remain attached to the mother if not encouraged to other sustenance. It is the psychological condition of a mother still breastfeeding a four- or five-years-old child that must be questioned. At the least, it would make lunchtime in preschool very interesting, I suppose.

[pelmut]

First, the woman was factually wrong. Non-procreational sexual intimacy, especially in marriage, serves many purposes and contributes to health.

So does breastfeeding, it creates a bond between mother and child which also contributes to health.

Second, the child will naturally remain attached to the mother if not encouraged to other sustenance. It is the psychological condition of a mother still breastfeeding a four- or five-years-old child that must be questioned.

She wasn't providing a significant part of the child's dietary requirements, it was more of a social/bonding/comforting thing.  She was a breastfeeding counsellor and had plenty of experience of what did and did not work.

At the least, it would make lunchtime in preschool very interesting, I suppose.

That is one of the standard breastfeeding jokes: asked when breastfeeding should be stopped, the reply is that it could become inconvenient when the child goes to school.

[dillon]

Pelmut, I don’t think you and I will come to any agreement on this, so I’ll let this be my last comment. Unless the child has some developmental issue, I suspect that mother-child bonding will not improve much by breastfeeding past about 18 months. My kids were walking around eight to nine months and talking up a storm by eighteen months. Neither clung to breastfeeding. They were bonded a’plenty and both became well-adjusted successful young adults and collegiate scholars. Breastfeeding until five years seems unlikely to have improved that, and frankly would have worried us. Aside from the aforementioned developmental issues, I can’t possibly believe there would be any essential benefit to breastfeeding for years. If a child is developing normally and still breastfeeding at age four, I’d suspect the issues are more likely with the mother.

[pelmut]

Faced with conflicting views between a woman who has breast-fed all of her children and has specialised in the psychology of breast feeding, and the unsupported opinion of a man who has never breast fed but who considers certain perfectly natural aspects of breast feeding to be indicative of mental issues ...guess whose side I would come down on.

Whatever next? We shall have people saying we are mentally ill for wearing skirts.          .....Oh, hang on, some already have.

[Sinned]

Nothing wrong in breast feeding young children past Primary School age. I side with pelmut on this. If the mother and child still want to bond in that way then who is to say that it's abnormal? Unusual maybe and most children do wean off the breast by two years but to suggest that either of them has mental health issues is plainly wrong. Am I mentally abnormal because I wear a skirt? Or does the woman who doesn't want to breast feed at all after having a baby have mental health issues because she isn't using the breasts for their intended purpose?

[dillon]

“Mentally abnormal” is the sort of subjective term that I’d find difficult to apply. And those are your words, Dennis, not mine. As for your inquiry, you’ll first have to define what is regarded as “mentally normal” on your side of the Atlantic so that I might venture an opinion about you.

It is not unusual for breastfeeding “coaches” and advocates to approach the topic with a religious fervor. That does not certify an opinion as more than opinion. In my own profession I did likewise, and despite my obligation to employ empirical science, I am certain that at times my professional opinion reflected bias for my avocation.

There is, however, typical and atypical, and healthy and unhealthy, and I’ll stand with the opinion that breastfeeding for five years borders on unhealthy and is well past atypical.

The World Health Organization recommendation is that a child be breastfed exclusively for the first six months and gradually weaned off between one and two years. Study data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development shows that only 2% of women who breastfed reported doing so up to a child age of 24 months. Three out of four mothers reported some breastfeeding, but the average length of time for breastfeeding was 17 weeks. The studies suggested that children breast fed for greater months exhibited greater attachment security, but differences were observable only through toddler years. The effect on the mother appeared to be more enduring, and diminished maternal neglect for most of the childhood and adolescence. The sample set naturally grew smaller as the breastfed age increased, and was also indexed for maternal neuroticism. Thus, statistical analysis eventually became inapplicable; it is dubious enough in any study of human behavior.

The case may be quite different, of course, on your side of the ocean, as your responses have led me to imagine that British children are weaned from the teat only at the point when they’re packed off to boarding school!

[skirtyscot]

Not true, dillon. Every good school employs a couple of wet nurses!

[Sinned]

Sorry, dillon it was pelmut that mentioned mental health. Still as we advocate here "What's normal anyway?". I certamly am not normal and am not offended by that. We are all different and have different expectations needs. Atypical, maybe, abnormal? Semantics now and shades of the meanings of words.

[Fred in Skirts]

What is normal for you may not be for me.. As for the current topic of breast feeding men never stop trying to feed at the breast.

Hi My Name Is Abby Normal and I am the same the world over.

[dillon]

Am I mentally abnormal because I wear a skirt? Or does the woman who doesn't want to breast feed at all after having a baby have mental health issues because she isn't using the breasts for their intended purpose?