'Mother breastfeeds 5yo son' Is this really news?

[Disenchanted3]

BBC article here

Really amazes me the stuff that is classed as news these days

can't even believe you made that comparison doodleydoo almost choked on my beer

dp says it would have to be a headline like '5 year old breastfeeds mother to make mumsnet news.'
It is kind of news, being a little bit out there and all.
Just saying.

Bit strange to bf a 5 year old tho

Saw it on Look North. It was bit as it wasn't exactly a pro-breastfeeding news, more a freakshow news.

Dis - I guess because it is "unusual" in day to day practice they seem to think it is news and the reasons being that

1. it is unusual
2. it is unusual and therefore some might find it icky
3. they are a bunch of numpties
4. everyone in barnsley is fed up with the election?

I am very pro bf, and fed for a year, not sure I would have gone to 5 years but.. this woman is not bf in public (therefore no reason for anyone to find it icky or offensive) so therefore I really don't see the point of the story at all.

Well, it's extremely unusual to be breastfeeding a 5 year old, despite some efforts to pretend it isn't. So from that perspective, it's news.

Hardly earth-shattering, though.

It's not 'news'.

I don't find it 'icky' as Doodleydoo puts it.

I do find it odd. So shoot me.

Sorry my comparison was that imo neither are particularly news in any way shape or form but stories about the more unusual aspects of bf are more likely to be seen in chat,closer and the like than on the bbc. And it did come across as a bit of a freakshow article in that there was absolutely no point in reporting it - as it had obviously come from some other source which hadn't been named.

I like my news to be news iyswim, find it disconcerting that the BBC is trawling the mags for stories, that is something more along the lines of the DM!

surely though, the woman herself must have gone to ... whoever reported this first? Why? Why would you want to do that?

But it is a bitty unusual.

it says she told her story to a magazine, if she didnt want people to make coments maybe so shouldn't have told her story to a magazine?

my personal belief to which i am entitled 9she states before getting thrashed) is that bf ought to stop around three at the latest. I personally believe at that point it has more to do with the comfort and attachment of the mother not necessarily the child.

i believe breast is best btw - but not when you are 5

Isn't the average global weaning age something like 5-7 years old? (or something similar) It's only here it's unusual.

good question wannabe
leningrad, i don't agree, surely by going to the media she must have known she was setting herself up for "slightly outrageous freak" story - more divisive than normalising
at this being the bbc though
can you imagine the star's headlines?
"Woman puts husband's playthings IN HER CHILD'S MOUTH"
Man, 37, traumatised

Weird news article, its like a joke with no punchline.

In case my comment above is misinterpreted, I don't mean bf a 5 yr old is a joke (obv seeing as I am currently feeding my nearly 3 year old). I just meant it has no point. Its not really news is it?

i agree, but just don't think the right place to talk about them is in the 'freaks'-stylr article. After all the only point of the article is that it's nasty, weird and downright wrong. Adds fuel to the fire of people who think its wrong imo.
preggers i do swym! i read through it, waiting for the 'point', it never came.

Oooooooh I breastfed until my dd was 5...I could have been on the BBC news!

I know it is considered a bit strange, but neither me or dd wanted to stop so why should we???

Coolfonz - lol at bitty ! sorry, childsih steps out of thread