Why do you think breastfeeding beyond a year is wrong, or gross?

Question

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnFoAvJlrPEGtcbBXjKHCNU8.Bd.;_ylv=3?qid=20071227195022AAyeYoE
Take a look at this question and some of the answers.
I just don't understand why some people are so certain that babies still need milk after one year, but it shouldn't be breastmilk because it's gross and creepy. I'm not criticising anyone here, I just really want to know why people think it's : inappropriate, gross, creepy, wrong etc...

Answer 1

Say it with me, mama: M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G. Blind faith in marketing and the refusal to become educated about the world's most natural food.

I can't believe someone had to speculate about the sex lives of breastfeeding moms! I totally let that one piss me off.

Answer 2

Close to when my first weaned (had many issues and she chose to not bother with my dryed up milk after 10 months), I had wanted to nurse her till she chose to stop (preferably older not at 10 months). When I had my second, I felt the same. Then as time went by, I was excited to have breastfed longer than my first, but also felt awkward after I hit his 1st birthday. Even now, when I really think about it, I look at it strangely. However, knowing what I know, I push those feelings aside and realize no matter his size this is what his body is intended to have. So it is entirely a cultural thing. Especially when I have annoying friends constantly asking, "Is he STILL breastfeeding?," or "When are YOU going to wean him?" It tends to take a toll on you and make you feel like less because you aren't joining the ranks of the norm! But in the end, my son is a healthier child than those friends' children, so I feel no shame!

Answer 3

Don't worry Chloe, she is probably high on drug.
I wish I could have breast feed the twins till they were at least 2yo, unfortunately I wasn't even able to feed for 6 months.
I think anyone who can breast feed until at least 2 is a hero!! It is the most beautiful thing in the world!!!! Those who disagree with it are under educated.
Have a lovely weekend
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx



*EDIT*
I developed Post Natal after I stopped b/f, even now I wish I could have continued (my boys are 2yo). My eldest boy has severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea, he is 80% deaf, and has a few other health problems (none that are incredibly serious). I often blame myself because of this. I feel like if I did try harder to b/f my babies would have been healthier!!

Answer 4

I dont think its wrong or grose..I dont see how it could be either. Its not needed anymore but how is it wrong? or grose!? I cant understand it either.

Those people are ignorant and clearly have not read the plethora of information out there about the benefits of nursing beyond infancy.
People generally aren't comfortable with the unfamiliar, and in our society. Breasts have two roles - sexual and nourishing. Unfortunately people tend to focus only on the former and ignore the latter.

I just found this...its interesting!!
Breastfeeding and the Courts
The issue of extended breastfeeding has been raised numerous times in United States courts, in both social service agency and family law cases. There are older reports of family law cases in which the court’s custody decision was affected by the belief that the child should have been weaned at an earlier age.1 However, a more recent custody case recognized that it was not inappropriate to breastfeed past infancy and discounted the father’s claims that it was detrimental to the child ’s development.2 It is not uncommon for fathers to raise questions about extended breastfeeding to gain leverage in custody decisions, even fathers who were supportive of long-term breastfeeding prior to the divorce. This tactic has been shown to work. After all, what do judges know about breastfeeding!

Social service agencies have looked at the issue of extended breastfeeding numerous times over the past ten years, but not one social service agency has upheld any finding that extended breastfeeding constitutes abuse or neglect, or is in any way harmful to the child. In only two situations has a child been removed from the home. Several years ago, a social service agency in Colorado removed a five-year-old child because the mother was still breastfeeding, but the court ordered the child to be immediately returned to his family. Last year, in Illinois, a child was removed from the mother ’s custody to foster care for over six months because a judge issued an initial finding that the child was at risk of serious emotional harm because of not being weaned. This case received a great deal of publicity. Though the case is still in the process of being resolved, the child has been returned to his mother, and the judge has vacated the finding of neglect.

In 1992, in a highly publicized case in New York State, a mother claimed that she had lost custody of her child for a year because she was breastfeeding at age three. This mother had reported experiences of sexual arousal during breastfeeding, and authorities removed the child from the home, for fear that this mother might sexually abuse this child. Later, the social service agency in New York that took this action issued a formal statement, saying that there was more to this case than could be disclosed to the press, due to confidentiality laws. The statement also added that extended breastfeeding or even arousal during breastfeeding were not reasons for removing a child from a mother’s custody. Over the next few years, other social service agencies have also investigated cases related to extended breastfeeding, but have not removed children from their homes. These cases have been closed once officials received accurate information about extended breastfeeding and natural weaning. Breastfeeding, at any age, is not abuse or neglect.

Answer 5

i'd get the thumbs down for this yet i think of 8 years previous is wayyyy to long to nurse your baby wouldnt even think of approximately nursing my toddler to that age, they'd drink commonplace milk at that age from a cup, i couldnt even watch the entire video, its no longer commonplace for a baby to feed from the breast at 8 years previous, if different young ones found out in college the baby would be afflicted by bullys! so NO i do no longer think of its suitable to nurse at 8 years previous "sorry"

Answer 6

I think it depends on your culture. I know that American culture finds breasts to be a sex symbol so having a baby breastfeed is somewhat awkward for many people because of the way we were taught to look at breasts.

It is good for the child to breastfeed at this age, but most people don't because of the way society looks negatively upon breasts in general.

Answer 7

Seems to me you should give as long as your breasts produce milk as a natural indicator or until the baby no longer wants any. Its all good and natural to do, cooperating with God's love gift and design.It causes an intimacy of relationship which is lifelong because of the neurological associations the baby makes with its comfort and warmth and you. By God's design breasts are two baby pillows with a warm heartbeat in between. Its probably a baby's favorite consolation. Would you rather your baby love your breast or love a bottle?

Answer 8

Well, honestly if my child wanted breast milk I would give him/her breastmilk. I am planning on breastfeeding and if that is what they want and I am comfortable with it and have it then I see no problem to do it. Not for extermely long but for a little bit longer. It in my opinion makes them more comfortable etc.

Answer 9

Mikelley said it beautifully. If God hadn't intended for me to breast feed, then my breasts wouldn't be producing milk right now. For that matter, I wouldn't have breasts.

For some reason unknown to my husband and me, our daughter was upset last night. She was sreaming crying. Now, at fourteen and a half weeks, she only does that when something was majorly wrong. When my husband's attempts to calm her didn't work, I tried feeding her, which is usually successful. Nope. So I got out of the glider and just paced the room with her and talking to her. It didn't matter what I said, not because she couldn't understand much, but it was just being with Mommy and hearing her voice. It may have also helped that she was just in her diaper and I was just wearing an ancient pair of gym shorts (we were going in to give her a bath) and she may have liked the skin to skin with me. (In the early days, I didn't dress her at home since most of her clothes were too big and she was constantly nursing so I didn't even wear a shirt and we were always skin to skin.)

I probably won't breast feed after one and a half years. Even if my daughter wants to naturally wean before that, I will pump as well as I refuse to give formula. (Formula, by the word alone, just conjures up stuff created in a lab.)

I also have no qualms with nursing in public. I sat in my in-laws' living room and nursed while the whole family was around. I also covered myself at least, but looking back, it was in part to distract my daughter as well. My daughter is used to calm environments for eating and for living. So if she's not happy in the environment while not nursing, then I won't feed her there. Our favorite restaurant has a separate family/handicapped restroom that I've taken my daughter to. I don't like that my daughter has to eat in a restroom, but at the same time, it's quiet and out of the way with no distractions other than my husband coming in or an occasional knock from somebody else. (It was our favorite restaurant before our daughter was born, too.) Even in church, as long as I'm coverd, I could sit in the back pew or the meeting room behind the sanctuary to nurse, but it's easier to go to the back Sunday school room where we set up our stuff for the morning.

People say that giving human babies human milk after one year is gross. Yet, they have no qualms with giving human babies milk that is intended for baby cows. Go figure.

If I do give my daughter cow's milk (my husband eats meat and dairy and eggs but not often and understands my reasoning for shunning conventional meat and dairy) it will be organic and hopefully I know the source as well. That also goes with meat and eggs and other forms of dairy. (Somehow my husband and I were talking about that last night and he agrees. We want to ward off early puberty and thinks that part of it is from hormones in conventional stuff.)

I digress.

Answer 10

I couldn't do it personally. I have a 1yo son and am currently trying to wean him, but he isn't having any of that, but we are down to 1 feed a day, so it isn't too bad. I could never feed a 2 + child, if they could ask me for it then they can have milk in a cup. That being said, I have no opinion about other mothers who choose for feed their toddler or child from the breast. It is their breast and their milk, why should I inter fear with that??