Yesterday I was in the same room as several mothers who nurse their school aged children

[Babieseverywhere]

This was the annual LLL social coffee morning for nursing mothers of children over 4 years old !
It was so nice to discuss the good and bad points about nursing older children. :D

Roll on next year :)

Activate. Breasts, being the wonderfull things they are, are capable of making copious amounts of milk. Enough to feed twins, triplets and even a newborn and a toddler or two. That is why there is no need "to make way for the next one"

As for natural term bf being about the mothers needs/keeping them babies, sadly there are women for whom this is true. Just as there are women who use food or affection manipulativly. In every walk of life there are people who do things for the wrong reasons. Gladly they are always few and far between.

btw my last paragraph was paraphraseing jack newman. Iirc he thinks he has seen one woman in his entire career that used bf in this way, and he has seen a lot of bf women!

I'd find it odd if my nursing mares (horses) allowed their 2,3,4 year olds to continue to nurse. A quick swift kick at the yearling who is sniffing at mum sends them out into the big world. There's nothing more natural than nature.

It's not natural, imho.

Bitty, anyone?

Humans are not like horses (well, I'm not anyway. Can't speak for everyone). Humans are primates and there has been research into the natural weaning age of other primates here.

Natural term weaning is not for everyone, granted. Some people don't like the idea of BF at all. There are many complex issues surrounding it but to suggest it's not natural is just plain wrong. You could say it's not normal in our culture or that it's not socially acceptable but it's definitely natural.

Scheherezadea - studies on wild horses in South Africa have shown that this doesn't happen 'in the wild' the foals feed for much longer and live within the goup much longer too.
But, we aren't horses, at least my physiology is rather different from a horse's. Bit like saying that an orange can't be ripe because it hasn't gone red because strawberries aren't ripe til they're red.

I wondered what age horses become adults (physically speaking of course not when they are allowed to vote!) - apparently 4-5 years. As if they only feed to about 1 year in captivity and live to between 25-33 years they have only a third of the life span of humans. Not a great comparison to humans.

This table is interesting to as it suggests that a comparative age for horse weaning (1 y/o) would be 6.5 human years and a two year old is approx 13 human years old. No wonder their mums are giving them a quick kick at 13+ if they are trying for a sneaky feed.

Not that we are horses or even distantly related to horses apart from being in the same class of organism. If you were saying Gorillas or Chimpanzees were turfing their 1y/o off and refusing to feed them I might concede you have a point.....

Oh, that's very interesting trthsweet, and of course relative maturity comes into it.

There are some clues as to when mother nature might have intended nursing to come to a close. Loss of sucking reflex around age seven, maturity of immune system around age six (it makes sence to support an immature immune system with bf imo) though these vary between children.

Culturally we don't loose milk teeth till how old? There's a lovely blog thing somewhere out there called "bf in the land of gengis khan" which shows how natural term bf is culturaly normal elsewhere. Plus the world wide average age for severage is four, but that must be dramatically brought down by relively early sessation in the west.

I wouldn't really like to proscribe when a mare should stop nursing a foal.

There are some clues as to when mother nature might have intended nursing to come to a close. Loss of sucking reflex around age seven, maturity of immune system around age six (it makes sence to support an immature immune system with bf imo) though these vary between children.

Culturally we don't loose milk teeth till how old? There's a lovely blog thing somewhere out there called "bf in the land of gengis khan" which shows how natural term bf is culturaly normal elsewhere. Plus the world wide average age for severage is four, but that must be dramatically brought down by relively early sessation in the west.

I wouldn't really like to proscribe when a mare should stop nursing a foal.

Moonface - Oh but we should proscribe. What happens if those mares are getting sexual thrills from their nurslings? Or if they just want them to stay foals? If we don't intervene they will be out to stud and STILL coming home to mummy to feed

Don't forget man know better than nature especially when it comes to women's doings....

Just joking/being sarcastic before I get lynched!

truthsweet

Haven't read the entire thread, but this is all obviously very interesting. Sorry if somebody has asked this earlier, but when you think back to your own childhood, do you remember bf ing? How old were you when you stopped bf ing? Just wondering if any body knows how it feels to be the child bf ing at age 6 or 7?

gem there has been some research into this, and also some discussions with verbal children while still children. "Breastfeeding Older Children" has some info. Delicious taste and lovely and snuggly, very special time with mummy are common themes.

Gem - I know a couple of people who remember nursing and have no problem with it. there is also a thread from way back with a poster who said she remembered I'll try and find it.

Thanks. :)

Ds has no recollection of being bf till 4 - he is now 15. Dd is 7 and doesnt remember being bf till 3.
Dh was bf till 4 and has a vague recollection.

Should add none of them have a problem with it at all.