<p>Really, I nursed in public all the time, when the kids were little, but generally only other breastfeeding Moms knew what I was up to.</p>
<p>I breastfed my babies all the time in public, but I always used a lightweight/airy/open weave blanket to cover. Other breast-feeding families knew what was going on…others didn’t.</p>
<p>I breastfed for nearly five year and I never once nursed a child standing on a stool!</p>
<p>lol…so true! </p>
<p>I’ve breastfed while cooking, cleaning, pushing a vacuum…but never with the child on a stool!</p>
<p>The photo is ridiculous and sensationalistic and doesn’t represent what Dr Sears was all about back when I read The Baby Book. Both our kids nursed until about 2.5 - 3. They didn’t just nurse at will when they were old enough to eat table food - it was a morning, nap and night time thing just like many parents who give their kids a bottle at nap or bed long after they are eating table food. Neither kids would drink out of a bottle even when we tried to get them to for times of convenience, so they nursed exclusively as infants. We co-slept for a period as well, because that’s how we all got the most sleep. It is possible to do these things without being militant or nursing and sleeping with your kids until they go to kindergarten.</p>
<p>Every parent is different and every infant / toddler is different and I believe that one must find a balance of what works in your particular case.</p>
<p>I breastfeed all three of my children and two were twins but there is no way this picture has any reason to be on the cover. I find it disgusting and I don’t nomally find breastfeeding disgusting. It is staged and by far not natural. In fact, I think it does more harm than good for the cause of breastfeeding.</p>
<p>another mom who nursed each of my three a little longer…as I became more committed to it and more confident as a mom. my third went til 18 mos, of course as others have said, with a brief nighttime nursing before bed the only remaining nursing at that age. </p>
<p>I recall with fondness going out to a local diner with my mother’s group and we all nursed our babies, discretely, yet proudly, as we had talked about not being willing to be relegated to the ladies room each time our babies were hungry. After all, we were hungry too, simply caring for our babies on top of being paying patrons. We never received any complaints. It has saddened me each time I’ve read about young women being hassled for simply feeding their babies. This magazine simply adds to the negative perceptions.</p>
<p>I strongly respect each mother’s choice to do what seems right for her and her baby/toddler. I see this magazine as yet another sensationalized way to indirectly bash breastfeeding. It invites criticism as it is a dramatic example of breastfeeding and is manipulative as it feeds ignorance about the true value of breastfeeding and our value as women and mothers. And just in time for mother’s day.</p>
<p>By the time a child is getting the majority of his/her nourishment from things besides breast milk,nursing is more of a first aid application.
They aren’t going to be standing on stools.
Mine used to like this book though.
[Amazon.com:</a> Amie (9789995167417): Terry Stafford: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Amie-Terry-Stafford/dp/9995167417]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Amie-Terry-Stafford/dp/9995167417)</p>
<p>I’ve been around plenty of mothers who were nursing older toddlers and, as stated above, not one of them did it while their child was standing on a stool. </p>
<p>I think a more natural pose would have been far better “advertisment” for extended nursing.</p>
<p>If the intent was to make breastfeeding a toddler look ridiculous, TIME succeeded.</p>
<p>But it isn’t ridiculous. It’s normal. It happens in more families than you realize because some kids who breastfeed beyond infancy only do it to calm themselves down before going to sleep at naptime or bedtime. And those are not times when the mother and child are likely to be out in public.</p>
<p>One of my kids breastfed until just before turning 2, the other until just before turning 3. But almost nobody knew it. I wonder how many other families there are like mine.</p>
<p>I breastfed for the first year with each of my kids, and my cousins breastfed until their kids were 3-4. None of us ever whipped it out for the world to see … although all of us breastfed in public at times (discretion is not difficult). I think the picture is ridiculous. Who is going to bare herself in public and pull up a stool for her kid to stand on so he can latch on while everyone watches? And what kind of mother thinks it’s okay to memorialize this ridiculous pose for all posterity … you can bet the kid will be teased about it. Kids get enough c**p from other kids without their parents setting them up for it like this.</p>
<p>My aunt breastfed her daughter until she was five… Yeah… Now that she’s 17, we tease my cousin about it alll the time ;)</p>
<p>Nursing is a relationship that doesn’t have to be mother led. Sometimes the child wants to continue nursing longer than is needed for food. I was fine with that, as I mentioned, my first was ten weeks early, taken out by emergency cesarean section, stayed in the hospital for eight weeks & was four months old until she was strong enough to nurse.
( thanks to our insurance company, which paid for me to rent an electric pump which kept the milk going)
Breastfeeding was one thing I could do! Once I got the hang of it I was willing to continue as long as she wanted to.</p>
<p>The kid is well fed, just look at him. And he might be smarter too. Good for both, at least healthwise.</p>
<p>I had four kids and breastfed a total of nine years. The youngest nursed until right before his fourth birthday. It changed a lot over time. During the last two years or so it was an at-home activity only. When he was an infant, I nursed discretely in public because babies can’t wait to eat. But when they are older, it’s a comfort thing and a three-year old can find other ways to self-soothe when out and about. The picture is ridiculous as has been pointed out. And it’s also ridiculous to act like this is something new or that the Western World is somehow blazing a new trail. Women in other parts of the world have been doing this without fanfare for thousands of years.</p>
<p>Well I think the picture may have accomplished a goal. People are talking about it and admitting how long their kids breastfed. I had no idea how common it is that kids breastfeed until they are 3-4-5 years old. I have found this thread enlightening. My daughter had nothing but breast milk until she was a year old. She had no interest in anything else. My family pressured me into trying solid food over and over again, but she spit it out every time. Finally my doctor got through to me that if she’s healthy and at the proper weight, let her decide.</p>
<p>It says he is about to be 4. He looks very well nourished, all the more reason he can stop breast feeding…</p>
<p>Mom’s breasts still look quite perky. Is that normal with all that nursing or is it because she is 26, or is she not really nursing that much at all? </p>
<p>At what age do boys start to know breasts are a female part? Don’t kids learn about modesty and privacy by 4 years old? I think 2 years old is plenty long enough. Cuddle and read the kid a story at night.</p>
<p>I always thought it was a myth that breastfeeding caused sagging or negative changes to the breasts.</p>
<p>All I have to say and of course it is my opinion, is “ewwww” and “yuck.” Another example of guilting people into thinking if alittle bit is good then a whole lot more is better. By mid-threes my boys were able to get into the (low) cupboard, pour a bowl of cereal and open the fridge and put milk on it for breakfast, albeit sometime messily, but really breastfeeding at that age? ewww and yuck. I’m a plenty good mom without suckling a 3-4 year old. Wonder if the kid is wearing diapers?</p>
<p>I dreaded opening this thread this morning because I remember the inflammatory 20-20 piece about extended nursing from two decades ago. How sad that this should still somehow be considered a topic worthy of debate by the mainstream media, on the front page of Time yet. Why should anyone care how long a woman nurses a child? Unless the world has changed much from my LLL days, the average worldwide weaning age is 4 years. The mother in the story may be unusual in this country, but she isn’t approaching Guinness Book of World Records territory yet.</p>
<p>Really, Time - put a news story on the cover. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>The weird thing about the photo is that the kid is standing up by himself and she is barely touching him. That’s why I’m uncomfortable with it – the photo doesn’t demonstrate that she’s using nursing to comfort him or be close to him.</p>