Page 4 | ^^Extraordinary breastfeeding - tonight on C4 ^^

JendleWendleBells · 01/02/2006 20:15

My point is that there comes a time when you need to give your child a push in a certain direction e.g. no more bottles, nappies, dummies, thumbsucking, spoon feeding, babytalk, nosepicking, eating food off the floor etc etc. So why is BFing different? At 8 the survival suck reflex cannot be the reason she wants to breastfeed! There is no way that breastfeeding is necessary for the physical survival of an 8 year old.

puff · 01/02/2006 20:16

fab JT

Can we have one with the bat breastfeeding too

cod · 01/02/2006 20:16

Message withdrawn

wantedmyboobsback · 01/02/2006 20:16

mine both had dummies but followed general advice and got rid of them and bottles by 12 months im not cruel taking away there comfort they are both very happy little girls

Piffle · 01/02/2006 20:16

most people knew at my school and I never ever heard one other kid mention it, obviously when we were sneaking cigarettes and bourbon at lunch behind the bike sheds, we had better things to talk about

laughinglil · 01/02/2006 20:17

i think thumb sucking is very hard to get rid of because a thumb is permanent (duh obviously) I remember my friends sucking their thumbs at 14 in their sleep..thats something that has to be stopped yourself

ruty · 01/02/2006 20:18

sorry wantedmyboobsback - it was just the 'having a responsibility to my husband to be attractive' as a reason for stopping breastfeeding i didn't quite get - i don't see why continued breastfeeding should stop you being attractive to your husband - my boobs are in quite good shape surprisingly [breastfeeding for 17 months now - shock horror] but even if they weren't, i think my DH would still find me attractive! I don't criticize any woman's choice to breastfeed or not, but i just found this reason a bit odd.

Piffle · 01/02/2006 20:18

View it as another parenting choice, different to your own choice, but not wrong.

drosophila · 01/02/2006 20:20

I really don't care how or why people feed their children. Who are they harming if they Bfeed their child to whatever age. As long as they don't try and preach to others on the best way of feeding a child good luck to them.

hunkermunker · 01/02/2006 20:20

Eh, Cod? Was that to "me"?

wantedmyboobsback · 01/02/2006 20:23

he loved them when i was pregnant and feeding as they were huge and im sure he is happy with them now they have vanished but im not happy with them and i feel less attractive now i have no cleavage at all! i was never flat chested before and now i am and i hate it

fastasleep · 01/02/2006 20:23

This thread is already too long but can I say in regards of pointing out that African/Latin American women BF to 7/8, this is because the poor buggers are starving and quite often BM is all the child is going to get that day, even if it does weaken the mother.... so really that should have no bearing on the English 8 year old's argument, although obviously I'm sure that some African/Latin American women enjoy it too, but it's a secondary reason, if you look at breastfeeding length you'll find it corrolates pretty well with how poor a country the people are from...

I really do wonder (as a few have said) what the psychological benefits/damage of breastfeeding such an old child are... still reserving judgement but feel a bit as if the mother might be placing herself somewhere where she can be suprememely important to her child in a very unhealthy way, especially with the home-schooling, which could have long term effects on that child's mental health.. I would love to see an unbiased psychological profile of that family, and I'd love to see the child in 10 years time...

Breastfeeding to 4 doesn't bother me though... it's around then that I would think a natural mutual ending point would occur (2-4 sounds very sensible)

laughinglil · 01/02/2006 20:23

piffle i completly understand if you don't want to share your information but what age were you and your brother breastfed from? i don't mean to sound rude its just tbh I didn't know that breastfeeding for a longer amount of time was quite as popular and reading other peoples views i do agree that it is a comfort thing i have nothing against it i just think that in this society that we live in now how the little girl will be treated in the on coming years..

laughinglil · 01/02/2006 20:23

*until not from you were obviously breast fed from birth!

JendleWendleBells · 01/02/2006 20:24

I care about this issue b/c I think (absurd, stupid, ignorant) people will use it as a reason to attack public breastfeeding in general and view us all as freaks! Do you remember the Gordon Ramsay show where one of the top 10 things people object to in restaurants is BFing? What kind of a society do we live in if we think mothers need statutory protection to BF their babies in public?

hunkermunker · 01/02/2006 20:25

I asked an eight-year-old who'd bfed till she was four why she'd stopped. She shrugged and said she'd grown out of it.

No big deal, to her. To some sections of society, massive deal. Who has the problem? Not the little girl! She's one of the nicest children I know.

Blossomhill · 01/02/2006 20:25

I cannot get my head around this at all.

I am certainlly not anti-bf, far from it but this is taking it too far.

Reminds me of "Bitty" on Little Britain

laughinglil · 01/02/2006 20:26

i do not think breast feeding a 'baby' is wrong but breastfeeding a toddler in public i think is wrong as they don't physically need to be fed.

Piffle · 01/02/2006 20:26

I stopped at 7 - I got a pony so no spare time for it then I was outside first thing in the morning and out after school til dinner, then out again...
My (16 mths younger) brother went on til 6.5 yrs until my littlest brother was born and as he was seriously ill my brother got bumped out of the pecking order.

Piffle · 01/02/2006 20:26

I stopped at 7 - I got a pony so no spare time for it then I was outside first thing in the morning and out after school til dinner, then out again...
My (16 mths younger) brother went on til 6.5 yrs until my littlest brother was born and as he was seriously ill my brother got bumped out of the pecking order.
Curiously my youngest bro only fed for 14 mths

JoolsToo · 01/02/2006 20:27

so being close to mum wasn't 'all that' eh piffle - the pony had more attraction?

Piffle · 01/02/2006 20:27

my toddler needed to be fed in public or wherever, whenever

laughinglil · 01/02/2006 20:27

your mother sounds like super-women to me piffle wow that is quite truly amazing!

wantedmyboobsback · 01/02/2006 20:28

i agree it is best to give breast feeding a go and there should be more support i have been asked to stop in various restaurants and other places to stop and i was feeding very discreetly but they were babies and seeing the size of my 2 year old i dont see how you could breastfeed her discreetly plus she also has a thing about "boobies" at the moment and has great delight pointing mine out and shouting about them! the whole world would know if you were feeding her!

laughinglil · 01/02/2006 20:28

a toddler does not need to be fed in public nor bottle fed how do they physically need to be breastfed there body doesn't HAVE to have it