<p>Romani - I agree with you. I find it creepy and it’s not because of what “society” tells me. But so what? That’s not this woman’s problem, that’s mine. She doesn’t need my approval. In fact that’s the worst part of mommy wars - that supposedly we all need to approve and support and you-go-girl other mothers’ choices. No, we just need to mind our own business unless there is abuse or neglect involved.</p>
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<p>It is NOT Food, either, what comes out of old breasts. How can we have a conversation if we mix up nursing an infant with nursing a toddler? That’s two different activities.</p>
<p>Old breasts?
Actually as I mentioned before, the mothers milk changes the constitution depending on the child’s needs, whether they are a premie or a preschooler.</p>
<p>Yes, and that’s why for a preschooler there’s little food value. Breasts adjust to produce to the age of a baby and really not much toward the end of the first year, I believe. That, I think, we all agree.</p>
<p>^^^ no, we don’t agree on that. There are several years between “infancy” and preschool that you seem to be leaving out.</p>
<p>In case anyone has forgotten the original poster’s question:</p>
<p>“What do people think, about attachment parenting as well as the cover photo?”</p>
<p>So, I really think EACH of us is perfectly right in expressing our opinions of either disapproval or approval of “attachment parenting” as well as the cover photo without being accused of judging this mother for her choice or trying to legislate what constitutes proper parenting.</p>
<p>In my opinion, this picture is creepy, the child is not a baby and is way too old to be attached to a breast, especially on the cover of a magazine. In my opinion, this picture may have negative consequences for this child later. In my opinion there is no nutritional benefit for a four year old (or even 3 years and 11 months) to be breastfed…spare me any articles to the contrary please…and as far as comfort, seriously…I would hope a child who is this age would be learning to comfort himself and cope by some other means. This child is far removed from being a “baby” and is on the far edge of even being what I would consider a toddler. This is certainly NOT the norm in the U.S. In my opinion, this mom is NOT a victim of Time magazine in any way and she new perfectly well what she was doing. Each of us is free to form our own opinion and express them on this discussion board just as we are to make our own choices for parenting, but because we don’t agree doesn’t mean we are persecuting this mom or each other. I’m just happy my children don’t require my breast in their mouth for comfort if they’ve had a bad day…that is NOT what I consider breastfeeding. Feel free to disagree.</p>
<p>If mother did not get paid for this picture, sorry, she is stupid IMO. If she got paid, why not? She does not care beyond that, it is her own business. I do not care about this magazine, I will never open it, whatever picture is on a cover, there were much more stupendious pictures on the cover of Time, none of my business, I am too busy enjoying my own life to be bothered with this. Apparently it is legal, otherwise, somebody would get sued.</p>
<p>I’m far more concerned with co-sleeping than extended breastfeeding. The dangers of rolling over on and suffocating an infant are real. Anecdotes about how lovely this may be for some does not make it safe practice.</p>
<p>[Fat</a> and Energy Contents of Expressed Human Breast Milk in Prolonged Lactation](<a href=“http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/3/e432.full]Fat”>http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/3/e432.full)</p>
<p>Above is a link to a study on nutritional / energy content of breastmilk after one year. Here is an exerpt from the discussion:</p>
<p>“Therefore, it seems theoretically that, during prolonged lactation, the contribution of breast milk to the infant diet might be significant, from an energy intake standpoint. Indeed, a reduction in the volume of milk consumed by a child who is also eating solid foods might well be counterbalanced by the increase in energy concentration.”</p>
<p>Essentially, while their study group was not large, they found that nutritional energy concentration of HBM increases with mothers who have been nursing for a longer duration.</p>
<p>Again, certainly a choice matter, but one that can not be dismissed by the idea that there is no nutritional value after 1 year and nursing is solely a soothing mechanism in toddler years.</p>
<p>adding . . .
Also, if we look at the milk/dairy habits of non-nursing toddlers they probably fall into or close to the 3-5 servings a day range. If 3 of those “servings” come from morning, nap and night nursing I don’t see how that would be less nutritionally valid than a bottle or cup of cow’s milk.</p>
<p>Only 33% of babies in the US are exclusively breastfed, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be the norm for babies that age to be exclusively breastfed. </p>
<p>I did a lot of the things attachment parenting advocates, but not all of them. Everyone needs to figure out what they are comfortable with and feels right to them.</p>
<p>Having done about six months of tandem nursing, I do wonder what my toddler thought when suddenly there was lots of milk again!</p>
<p>“The dangers of rolling over on and suffocating an infant are real.”</p>
<p>I don’t think this is true. Can you document? In the 80’s there was no Dr. Sears. The ideas of attachment parenting were based on the studies of Bowlby and his rhesus monkeys and Ashley Montague. There were evangelical and fundamentalist moms who tried to negate what science had proven. Same with the “old breast” comment. Unscientific, imo.</p>
<p>Parent, a mother was recently sentenced to prison after rolling over and killing her second child. Yes, deaths do happen from cosleeping.</p>
<p>First thing on Google [Cosleeping</a> and Your Baby](<a href=“Parents (for Parents) - Nemours KidsHealth”>Bed-Sharing (for Parents) - Nemours KidsHealth)</p>
<p>Since you aren’t unconscious when sleeping, I expect that those adults who weren’t aware of children sleeping in the bed with them, had their awareness compromised in some way, whether from drugs/drinking, or illness.</p>
<p>I slept with my oldest & she didn’t even weigh 4 lbs when she came home from the hospital.
Not saying everyone should do that by any means, but since she had to nurse so often, & since I was also working, if I hadnt nursed her in bed, I would have been comatose from lack of sleep.
<a href=“http://cosleeping.nd.edu/[/url]”>http://cosleeping.nd.edu/</a></p>
<p>People sleep with their kids all over the world and the practice existed way behave the Internet could print any idea. </p>
<p>People should do what their doctors recommend.</p>
<p>Romani- the parent in the case you cited was on heavy medication.
Not a normal or healthy circumstance to be cosleeping.</p>
<p>It also was their 2nd child to die that way. </p>
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<p>Yeah… I gave up on trusting doctors a long time ago. If I listened to my doctors all the time, I’d have been dead a long time ago.</p>
<p>Ek, I said it was the first link. I was just looking at the statistic. I’m on my phone so wasn’t able to look through it much.</p>
<p>Fwiw, I’m not against co sleeping. I’m an anthropology student and well aware of how common it is worldwide. I was just pointing out that it does come with real risks.</p>
<p>If anybody questions benefits of extended breasfeeding, they are tremendous, I do not care about studies. It is especially very beneficial for working mothers, as a kid does not get sick while breastfed. Alos, immune system of kid is much stronger for the rest of his life.
Picture on Time is another story. I have only one issue, why anybody pays so much attention? Apparently, it was done at free will. We cannot impose our values on others if others did not get out of legal limits. My answer is because we have so much real problems now, somebody decided to derail our attention, and it worked just perfectly.</p>