1. >But nursing until our kids didn't want to
>anymore meant about 12 months for most people we
>know.

Was that "until the kids didn't want to" or until the mother didn't want to? Or didn't have time, or couldn't be bothered, etc., etc. I don't have any direct memory of nursing, so it certainly stopped before I was two-and-a-half or so, but I think (and/or my mother once told me) that I continued well into my second year.

(My adopted daughter, on the other hand, was with her foster mother starting at five days old, and I don't *think* the foster mother nursed her, though I could be wrong.)

>Nursing into grade school seems like a rather
>extraordinary effort to keep one's kids babies.

I think the supposed point is that the kids *are*
babies ("biologically") until around that age. I
don't know if that's really true, or if the persistence of "milk teeth" is evidence for it. (I always thought that your milk teeth fall out when your head gets big enough for permanent teeth, but maybe that's correlated with other aspects of being "biologically a baby.") It's certainly *socially* "odd" in our culture to breastfeed that long, but then again from about 1950 to 1980 it was socially odd in our culture to breastfeed at all. Certainly the age of beginning school has little or nothing to do with when kids outgrow "babyhood" in any other sense.
(And in Germany (hardly a "primitive culture"), and German-inspired schools in this country (Rudolf Steiner / "Waldorf" schools), at least the "academic" part of schooling -- the three Rs etc. -- doesn't start until age 7.)

>P.S. How about that amazing officer in China who
>breastfed nine baby quake victims?

Or, the last scene of "The Grapes of Wrath" (;-). But extraordinary acts of charity in extreme circumstances are not the point here.

dr jay at 5:05PM on May 22nd 2008

2. Creepy.

Captain Negative at 5:51PM on May 22nd 2008

3.
Why isn't she my Mom.

I braest feed off my wife and I'm 43...OK ther's no milk there, but I try.

mac at 5:54PM on May 22nd 2008

4. Just lucky she isn't in the U.S. where her children would be taken away and put into a foster home, and she would be paying money to have supervised visitation once a month.

Titanium Chef at 5:58PM on May 22nd 2008

5. Who cares if this woman is breastfeeding until her kids are 8 - frankly, I do find it amazing that she had the patience to breast feed for that long. I also wish we could be free to be the kind of mothers we want to be without all of the judgement - I doubt the person who wrote "creepy" is a good parent and/or has the right to judge this woman. If she feels it is best for her & her children - so be it.

Roxy at 5:59PM on May 22nd 2008

6. Europeans. Go figure.

David S. at 6:01PM on May 22nd 2008

7. I doubt the person who wrote "creepy" is a good parent and/or has the right to judge this woman. If she feels it is best for her & her children - so be it.
===================================|

Bite me, Roxy. I happen to think that a parent's job is help their children grow up.

Captain Negative at 6:24PM on May 22nd 2008

8. Sorry, I have to agree with the Captain on this (this must be a first). It is downright creepy, and I'd love to know what the effects of this will be down the road, as the child grows up.

April at 6:27PM on May 22nd 2008

9. We Americans are really uptight about our bodies and basic natural body functions. Europeans don't seem to have all of our hang-ups, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

With us and breastfeeding, most mother's couldn't do it for long even if they wanted to with work, etc. so I don't think any of us have even considered the possibility of doing it longer than a year or two - so of course it seems creepy to some.

Is it, though? I have a hard time picturing it with an eight year old, but I don't think it's my business or anyone else's if a mother and her child decide it's what's best for them.

I was fortunate in that I got to take my son to work with me until he was eighteen months old, making it possible for me to do extended breastfeeding. At around fourteen months or so, he decided he no longer wanted to nurse throughout the day on his own, and now (at twenty one months) he only does it first thing in the morning. For now it still seems natural and I don't think he's being unreasonable about it and the fact is breastfeeding is good for the child if it is possible to keep it up. Many people have a problem with this, but I think it's a societal issue based on ignorance and not one that is a real problem warranting the intervention of CSS - give me a break! Breastfeeding is not some form of abuse or neglect, it's a personal choice and not anyone's business!

thinkin at 7:01PM on May 22nd 2008

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rosa at 7:27PM on May 22nd 2008

11. I also agree with Captain Negative. It is creepy and we should teach our children to grow up and to be independent.My son is almost 2 and can feed himself, and drink from a cup alone. We encouraged him to be independent. Of course we help him, but he is able to do it on his own.

Dee at 7:45PM on May 22nd 2008

12. This sounds like the perfect recipe for raising a gaylord!

Robeson at 7:53PM on May 22nd 2008

13. British women also fry up and eat their own placenta. Now that they've become a nation of anti-Christian atheists they are looking for something to beleive in. SO they are reverting to primitive caveman sorts of things. I want to see a teen boy in England feeding off his Mom's teets...but only in the mother looks like a homelier Tilda Swinton.

taylor at 8:11PM on May 22nd 2008

14. This is just the point I was trying to make! These woman are SICK. This has nothing to do with nutrition at all. It's sexual, pure and simple. Just think how well these kids are going to fit in to society.
I just read about a study in England where they found that something like 85% of child molesters were breast fed longer than 6 months. It's not normal to have a child walk up to you and unbutton your blouse and suck on your breasts. If you have convinced youself that it is, you're nuts! Sucking on your breast makes your uterus contract (like "coming"). Lots of sexual feelings down there and they has NOTHING to do with nurishing your child, it has to do with you "getting off" on it. This is why they want you to breast feed right after birth, the uterus contracts and the afterbirth comes right out.
Your babies are not your possessions to fool around with. They are not your sex toys. There is no proof that breastfed babies are: smarter (that's such a laugh), healthier, bigger, better or anything else. All the testing that's EVER been done has been done by a TOTALLY Pro breastfeeding group. Another words, FIXED. There is no way anyone could ever tell exactly what makes some babies healthier than others. All my nightbors breastfed babies had snotty noses and caught everything that came around. It's a lie, you've been fooled. READ, see who exactly wrote it and who they are hooked up with. There are all kinds of problems related to breastfeeding toddlers.

thinksmart at 9:05PM on May 22nd 2008

15. Titanium Chef, you obviously have no knowledge of what constitutes neglect and/or abuse. She could breastfeed her child up until the age of 17 if she pleased, as long as she wasn't forcing them to. And thinksmart isn't thinking very smart at all. Has it ever occurred to you that not everyone can afford a $30 canister of baby formula? Or that it's not even available in some remote areas? Or that had this practice never been started, none of us would be here right now?

James at 11:02PM on May 22nd 2008