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Breastfeeding grown children is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard. Like that kid on your video who described the taste of breast milk to be like vanilla ice cream. It’s like, if you’re old enough to know what it tastes like, you’re too old to be breastfeeding. DISGUSTING and I would argue that it’s detrimental to a child’s development.

Breast feeding does have huge merits (for umm BABIES?!) It’s cheap, it’s super healthy and it creates a bonding that is almost impossible to achieve otherwise. You talked about women who had orgasms giving birth, some women have orgasms when breastfeeding. It has to do with the increased circulation of the hormone oxytocin pumping through the brain and body. This hormone is known as “the bonding hormone” because it creates bonds between partners (between sexual partners during sex and between mother and child during breastfeeding.) The way God has set up the body is amazing 🙂 If a women can breastfeed, I really recommend it.

I’m a proud lactavist, I nurse in public without a cover, and I’m going to write you a little novel here. ☺ I very much believe that breastfeeding is the ideal, and that while formula has it’s place (for the extremely rare cases where mother cannot nurse, or where there is no mother), I think it should always be a last resort. Formula companies try very hard to imitate breastmilk, but every year or two they discover some new thing that they need to include–that tells me that breastmilk is still better than any formula.

I’ve never passed my baby around the circle, nor would I want to, but I am ok with nursing someone elses child or having them nurse mine (assuming I know them/don’t have allergy concerns, etc). My sister and i have babies 2 months apart, and we’ve both nursed each others kids when we were babysitting for each other. It’s just more convenient than pumping and heating bottles!

I think that is one of the biggest perks of breastfeeding–it’s so darn convenient! Always available (I’ve never forgotten my boob at home or in the car!), always the right proportions, always the right temperature…you don’t have to be very awake to pop a nipple in a baby’s mouth and go back to sleep yourself, and by the time they’re a few months old they can find the nipple themselves and then you get to sleep through the night (even before the baby does!)

I do agree that nursing a 6 year old is wild. Really wild! That said, I feel that 1 year is a minimum, and 2 years is actually more ideal for breastfeeding (WHO recommends 2 years–I can give you a stack of scientific reasons for it, starting with brain development needing the high-fat content in order to properly mylenize the cells…even whole cows milk is lower fat than breastmilk). My son will be 2 this week, and he loves “nurn”. He nurses for bedtime and naptime, and occasionally in between for comfort (or if he notices me changing and sees the nurn then he wants it LOL!) We’re working on night weaning because he still wakes at night for the comfort of it. Sure, sometimes I think it’d be nice if I didn’t have to bother, but on the other hand we have this precious relationship and I can ALWAYS comfort him, even when no one else can. Nursing is an amazing cure-all for kiddos, long after it ceases to be needed for nutrition.
*Breastmilk is gentle on tummies–so if the child is sick and won’t eat anything else you can still nurse and know that they are getting the nutrition they need.
*Breastfeeding lowers the mother’s risk for breast cancer.
*Breastfeeding bolsters the baby’s immune system by sharing mom’s antibodies, so especially if you have a winter baby I recommend breastfeeding.

Hmm, I think I need to go write a post of my own. LOL!

Audrey came out of the womb and latched on as soon as she was in my arms. She nursed amazingly. Perfectly, and even on a schedule from the start. The problem was, she was severely lactose intolerant. It was awful. Every time I fed her, she’d begin to scream after about 10 minutes later and didn’t stop for about two hours. Then, she’d fall asleep for an hour, wake up starving, and the cycle began again. She also threw up a lot. Not spitting up, throwing up. Exorcist style. My boobs couldn’t keep up with her. She was screaming, I felt like a bad mother. I couldn’t understand how the breast could be best if it was causing my child so much pain! So, I gave in and tried the soy formula sample they gave me from the hospital. Guess what? She didn’t scream after she ate it. She was happy. She burped well. She didn’t throw up. She slept through the night (12 hours a night since she was 8 weeks old). She was a whole new baby.

Don’t get me wrong; I loved breastfeeding. I breastfed for 5 weeks before I stopped. It was sad to quit. I missed those special feedings. Formula is expensive, too. But, it was the right thing to do.

Now she is 15 months old and perfectly healthy. She is bigger and stronger than most kids her age and a genius (she has a vocabulary of 10-15 words, whereas most kids her age only know 5 or 6). She is very advanced. I do not feel like I made a bad choice by feeding her formula; I made the best choice for us. Our family was better off for it.

Anyway, it’s a decision you’ll have to make for yourself. But, I do recommend at least trying it, because the colostrum that comes out at first is VERY nutritious. Every little bit helps. It is the way God intended, but I also believe that he inspired formula as well.

Before opening yourself up the debate aspects of it, I would encourage you to educate yourself about the benefits of nursing, the risks of NOT nursing for both YOURSELF and the baby. For example African-American women have high rates of breast cancer. We also have the lowest rates of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is one way that you can reduce your individual risk of this and other cancers. This is just one example.

Consider that the natural age of weaning around the world is between 4 and 7 which corresponds to the time that the immune system is mature. Google Katherine A. Dettwyler for an introduction to the science/anthropology and history of extended nursing.

As someone else pointed out, we think that breastfeeding and especially extended breastfeeding is “weird” because the formula companies have spent the last 60 years convincing us that cow’s milk (which is breastmilk from another SPECIES) is more “natural” for our babies. We have been brainwashed to think that formula and breastmilk are equivalent, but they just aren’t. Obviously formula fed babies do fine (and in some rare cases formula is necessary) but if you can give your baby that little advantage/protection why not?

Finally look up Jennifer James, who currently blogs for mothering magazine. She has done a lot of work digging up old pictures from a time when breastfeeding was normal and has documented in photos the transformation of our culture that was perpetrated by the formula companies. She currently blogs at http://www.mothering.com/jenniferjames/ . She has also done a lot of blogging about black women and breastfeeding.

I’m so glad that someone else mentioned Jennifer James, I love that woman; her work is remarkable.

I was working full time when I had my first. Even though I couldn’t be there for him all the time, it was important to me to give him the best nutrition possible. I was able to pump so that my sons have never had to have formula. It was a commitment I made to them. Sometimes it took a little organization, but it was worth it. Coming home and picking up that baby, nursing him, it just let the world melt away–let us reconnect on a primal level–heaven.

I loved nursing my babies. And like anonymous said, it’s not just about the incredible benefits to your babies, it’s also about your health. I have a family history of breast and ovarian cancer, nursing cuts those risks (along with hundreds of others) significantly.

Most women can nurse, but many women lack the support to be able to do so. If you educate yourself enough ahead of time, and make a commitment to do all it takes (because those first 8 weeks can be rough) you will succeed with breastfeeding.

Oh, and HELL YES I nursed my toddlers. Why would I purposely wean them to put them on cow milk? Makes no logical sense. But don’t worry about that, get through the first year first.

I highly recommend nursing, especially if you’re a working mom.

Ask the American Indian’s in what they did about breastfeeding, it was even brought up in a movie in passing babies around to evey woman in the camp. They thought it was right thing to do.

What do you think a Wetnurse is. Come on ladies get real and leave these mothers alone. It is a tough world out there for kids and they need all the confort they can get.

Here is my wifes story. She was in the military and we had our third child, ten months after being born she was deployed to the Middle East for four months. She was breastfeeding before she left, when returning, my daughter wanted nothing to do with her for about a month after returning. Yes there are seperation issues with this but the bottom line is breastfeeding is definetly for confort. You decide what you want to do.

Before opening yourself up the debate aspects of it, I would encourage you to educate yourself about the benefits of nursing, the risks of NOT nursing for both YOURSELF and the baby. For example African-American women have high rates of breast cancer. We also have the lowest rates of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is one way that you can reduce your individual risk of this and other cancers. This is just one example.

Consider that the natural age of weaning around the world is between 4 and 7 which corresponds to the time that the immune system is mature. Google Katherine A. Dettwyler for an introduction to the science/anthropology and history of extended nursing.

As someone else pointed out, we think that breastfeeding and especially extended breastfeeding is “weird” because the formula companies have spent the last 60 years convincing us that cow’s milk (which is breastmilk from another SPECIES) is more “natural” for our babies. We have been brainwashed to think that formula and breastmilk are equivalent, but they just aren’t. Obviously formula fed babies do fine (and in some rare cases formula is necessary) but if you can give your baby that little advantage/protection why not?

Finally look up Jennifer James, who currently blogs for mothering magazine. She has done a lot of work digging up old pictures from a time when breastfeeding was normal and has documented in photos the transformation of our culture that was perpetrated by the formula companies. She currently blogs at http://www.mothering.com/jenniferjames/ . She has also done a lot of blogging about black women and breastfeeding.

I’m so glad that someone else mentioned Jennifer James, I love that woman; her work is remarkable.

I was working full time when I had my first. Even though I couldn’t be there for him all the time, it was important to me to give him the best nutrition possible. I was able to pump so that my sons have never had to have formula. It was a commitment I made to them. Sometimes it took a little organization, but it was worth it. Coming home and picking up that baby, nursing him, it just let the world melt away–let us reconnect on a primal level–heaven.

I loved nursing my babies. And like anonymous said, it’s not just about the incredible benefits to your babies, it’s also about your health. I have a family history of breast and ovarian cancer, nursing cuts those risks (along with hundreds of others) significantly.

Most women can nurse, but many women lack the support to be able to do so. If you educate yourself enough ahead of time, and make a commitment to do all it takes (because those first 8 weeks can be rough) you will succeed with breastfeeding.

Oh, and HELL YES I nursed my toddlers. Why would I purposely wean them to put them on cow milk? Makes no logical sense. But don’t worry about that, get through the first year first.

I highly recommend nursing, especially if you’re a working mom.