do you remember being breastfed as toddlers

[ilovemuffins]

Just wondering really! Am hoping to bf DS (16 mths) until he weans off bf naturally. If he keeps bf'ing beyond, say, 2.5 years, he will probably remember. I hope these will be positive memories, of a warm cuddly lovely kind of feeling... At the same time, I wonder if, for a Western child, these memories might occasionally be a bit cringeworthy??

If you were breastfed into toddlerhood, do you remember it clearly? And if so, how do you feel about it?

Elastic - The figures your book is quoting are more than four decades old. That is 2-3 generations. Of course things change in that time.

What you belittle as "internet" is World Health Organization's database. I believe it to be a serious and credible source of information. So should you, actually.

Whatever your source, you still can't answer my questions:

WHICH countries are these where a majority of children are breastfed to ages 3, 4 or even above? And what percentage of world children are they?

Swallow your pride, look at the hard data, and see for yourself.

welliemum - I believe it is fairly clear by now that I am indeed skeptical about the assertion frequently written on MN that in many countries, majority of children are BF over the age of 3 or even 4. (I haven't used the word 'normal' at all, by the way, and neither has anyone else until you)

Looking at WHO figures, I struggle to see which these many countries may be, where vast majority of children are BF over the age of 3 or 4.

I assure you, Turkey is not one of them.

It is just another MN myth, quoted time and again.

My DD is 5.3 and has very clear memories of being breastfed - and we talk about it often, as I want to keep the memory alive!

Anthropologist Sheila Kitzinger also refers to extended bf of several years being the norm worldwide, naming China as one country but not giving research data, in her book Breastfeeding. I could quote exactly from it but can't be bothered so if you want her exact words get it out of the library Cote.

"No no, not the state of them, the SHAPE of them."

Sensible use of bottles to feed babies will not result in orthdontic problems - my brother and I were both bottle fed and had no such problems. My mum had us off the bottle for everything except our bedtime feed by the time we were 1. And we both have straight teeth! (Just one anecdotal case I know, but you can't make sweeping comments about bottle feeding affecting teeth as it simply isn't true in the majority of cases).

I have straight teeth too, and was bottle fed.

I have a friend whose DD was bfed until she was 3. She is now 5 and said the other day that she would still bfeed now if she could, so she obviously has good memories of it Don't know if she'll remember when she's an adult though.

Elastic - I have not asked "If someone named Sheila has said so in some book". I asked "WHICH are these 'many' countries you speak of where breastfeeding over the age of 3 or 4 is the norm?"

You can't answer.