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<p>zoosermom, you crack me up.</p>
<p>Did you get what I meant there, VeryHappy? I could call my husband Goombah Joey, too, and it would fit just as well. The only difference is that her husband hadn’t been trained yet.</p>
<p>Oh, I did get what you meant. I am familiar with your neighborhood (only generally and only stereotypically), so I got it right away. I know those people!!</p>
<p>I practiced child-led weaning and attachment parenting and my daughter nursed for years following La Leche League’s approach of “don’t offer, don’t refuse.” In this approach, children wean themselves on their own schedule by naturally, instinctively nursing less and less frequently over time. When my daughter finally weaned herself, she was nursing maybe once every two weeks. </p>
<p>Once when she was two, I asked my daughter what my milk tasted like. She let go of my breast for a second and said, “Candy.” Then one day when she was three, I asked her what she felt when she was nursing. She stopped nursing, thought for a moment, and said, “Love.” So, at least from my daughter’s perspective, breastfeeding meant candy-flavored love. </p>
<p>My daughter clearly remembers her early childhood and is the most fervent extended breastfeeding advocate I know. By the way, she is now a freshman at one of the most elite colleges in the U.S. and living on the opposite side of the country from me. We are very close but, at the same time, she is a strong, independent person who knows her own mind and who is wonderfully in touch with her feelings. </p>
<p>The best book I have ever read on breastfeeding is called Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives, edited by Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine Dettwyler. The essays it contains were written by zoologists, primatologists, pediatricians and anthropologists. They clearly explain the science behind breastfeeding in great apes and humans including mathematical calculations of the expected duration of breastfeeding based on length of gestation, time it takes for human and ape children to double, triple and quadruple their birthweight, age of eruption of first permanent molars, age of onset for puberty, and other factors. Their conclusions: human children can be expected to nurse for no less than two years and no more than seven. </p>
<p>In traditional societies, children often nurse for years. It is only in modern society that we have derailed our instincts in favor of consumerism, and argued that it’s better and “more liberating” --or at least just as good – to give our children breastmilk substitutes. While it is, in the final analysis, a completely personal choice, unless prospective parents have access to complete, unbiased information about the biology, psychology and benefits of breastfeeding, it is impossible for them to make a truly informed choice.</p>
<p>P.S. Regarding mastitis, making sure your baby is able to nurse day and night can help prevent it. I got mastitis once when my daughter was maybe six months old because I fell asleep and she didn’t nurse for eight hours straight. When I woke up in the morning, I had a lot of pain and hardness in my breasts and developed a fever shortly afterwards. My pediatrician told me to make sure she nursed at least once during the night to prevent a recurrence. It never happened to me again.</p>
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<p>At the Time Magazine website they have a search feature by Cover going back to 1923. A search for SEX brings up 27 Covers (meaning that issue also had a related Cover Story on sex). They start in the 1950s and include a Cover photo of a pregnant child, a nude couple behind a torn fig leaf, etc. </p>
<p>The Cover stories include “Reflection in the Mirror of Venus (1954) check out the Rose symbolism!,” “Sex in the USA (1964),” “The Sex Explosion (1969)”, “Sex Education for Adults (1970),” “Sex and the Teenager (1972),” “Sex in the 80’s - The Revolution is Over (1984),” and “Sex Busters (1986).”</p>
<p>Time Cover/article smashing a taboo? I can see that—probably ruffles a few feathers, but Time is what Time has always been.</p>
<p>You also have to be careful of positioning the baby at the breast and making sure nothing is obstructing the flow of milk from the ducts. People who wear too-tight bras or position incorrectly (the baby should be brought to the breast and not the other way) are at greater risk of clogged ducts and mastitis.</p>
<p>Good heavens…I meant what I said…mothers did it for themselves…you all are interpreting that to suit your proclivity…perhaps they did it because they thought it was the right thing to do and I’m sure some did it to keep weight gain down, some did it because they felt good, some did it because they thought it was a good thing for baby, some did it because it cost less than formula so yes there are different reasons why someone would continue this activity for years. I explicitly said that I believed it was a personal choice. If you want to know what I think, I think when they start to take solids, which correlates to teeth and 6 months is a good time to wean but that, of course, is an opinion. I was also a working mom, and didn’t want to hassle with pumping and leaking breasts in the middle of a meeting and all that stuff. If you stay at home it is also easier to nurse and just carry on. Breastfeeding should not be a polarizing thing and there is no RIGHT answer.</p>
<p>Cover photo is just to sell more magazines, that is all any cover does. Brestfeeding way after age of 1 y o is very beneficial, results in great immune system. It has nothing to do with parenting right or wrong or whatever. Adult in a photo made money, I do not see any other reason to expose yourself this way. I also do not see any connection between photo and parenting. It is just a photo that was placed on a cover to make money, there is nothing else that could be concluded from this photo. Whatever story follow is a story, nothing else, who cares what others are doing, even if they breastfeed until 10. None of our business IMO.</p>
<p>Seriously!!! (post 88) Mothers who breastfeed do it for their children, believe it or not. Breasts produce milk for a reason, and the milk that is produced is made by nature to be exactly what the child needs. Some women choose to keep nursing as long as the child will nurse … and that is done because they believe it is best for the child. I did not nurse that long, but that is neither here nor there. </p>
<p>I don’t care that mothers choose formula over breast milk - that is their business - but that does not change the fact that breast milk is the ideal food (unless there are extenuating health issues, of course).</p>
<p>Making a mother feel bad because she chooses not to nurse is just as bad as making a mother feel bad because she chooses to nurse. It’s disheartening that mothers are so hard on other mothers. And, really, often you see this recurring theme all over CC – let your child go across the country and you’re a bad parent, keep them close and you’re a bad parent, etc. Why does everyone think their way is the right way for every family?</p>
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<p>Because of the unquestioned health benefits to children, I think it is understandable that some women don’t understand why everyone at least doesn’t give it a try. I have plenty of friends who did both and I have never voiced judgment to those who chose not to breastfeed, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed.</p>
<p>I think confident parents aren’t bothered by those who chose to parent a different way, every family has their own criteria when deciding what to feed their baby, just as they have their own criteria 18 years later when looking at colleges.</p>
<p>However some are just ill informed, like the goombah dad. Some men are tweaked out by their wives breasts being anything than a source of their own sexual pleasure. They don’t like it when they start leaking at in opportune times, when their wife wants a break from others wanting her body, or reminder that as parents they can’t be as egocentric as they were 9 months ago.
Most men transition quite nicely to their new role even though they haven’t had their own body changes to help them along, but there are still some who do enough of a head trip on the mother of their children so that she ignores what her body is designed to do.</p>
<p>One thing that I think is really cool is how the milk adapts to the babies needs. For instance, I had a preterm baby, my milk was higher in protein & some vitamins & minerals than full term milk.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention something in my earlier posting: The World Health Organization’s global recommendation is for mothers to breastfeed a minimum of two years, with solids forming part of the child’s diet starting at six months of age, no earlier. That is a GLOBAL recommendation for optimal infant and maternal health, not only for third-world countries. Draw your own conclusions.</p>
<p>Same as cartera. It always makes me sad when a woman thinks she can’t breastfeed without really trying. Especially women who really do want to and are persuaded otherwise by well-meaning family and friends.</p>
<p>My daughter was very colicky. She cried almost 24/7 for the first 3 months. Then she just cried a few hours a day for the next 3 months. I became very depressed because so many well-meaning people tried to tie the colic to the breastfeeding. Even though I knew she was thriving, I kept trying cereal and formula on a regular basis for months because so many people pressured me about it. My D refused it every time, pushing it right out of her mouth. At 6 months, it was like someone replaced the crybaby with a sleepy, happy baby. She still wanted nothing to do with solid food, however.</p>
<p>Getting a baby used to a bottle, expressed milk if you wish, is a really great thing. My husband came home from lunch every day when the boys were born the whole time I was home from work on maternity leave. My most precious pictures are of him feeding the boys in his “office clothes”. I tell young moms who are reluctant to express to think hard about that decision. It also gives you freedom not to be locked into being the sole caregiver and gives grandparents, siblings, sitters the opportunity to be in that close relationship with the baby.</p>
<p>I tried so hard to get my D to take a bottle - using expressed milk. I had been told that it was common for the baby not to take it from the mom so every time anyone visited me, I stuck a bottle in their hand and asked them to give it a try. The time was approaching when I had to go back to work and I had no idea what I was going to do. I was interviewing baby sitters in my home and there was one woman I liked right away. I decided on the ultimate test. I handed her a bottle and she went into another room with my D. I heard no crying and fussing and walked in to see her happily on the bottle. I cried and hired her right there. I pumped at work for another 8 months and that always leads to some amusing stories. I would do it while on personal calls and people would often ask why someone was vacuuming during the day.</p>
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<p>Other people have different experiences.</p>
<p>I tried very hard to learn to express milk with my first child and failed. At the one-month visit to the pediatrician, I expected to be told to switch to formula feeding because I had been unsuccessful at breastfeeding. But the pediatrician said “Why not just breastfeed? You haven’t failed at breastfeeding if you can’t express milk.” I decided to accept that conclusion.</p>
<p>It took a long time for me to be successful at getting more than a few drops. Again, my D forced me to try everything longer than most. It seemed ages before I got to the point that expressing really worked. I would have given up long before had she let me. It definitely doesn’t happen easily for everyone and I’m not sure a lot of young mothers understand that. It is such a vulnerable time that it is easy to feel like a failure if things don’t go perfectly.</p>