Posted on 02/05/2006 8:58:44 AM PST by Millee
A PENRITH mum has appeared on national TV to explain why she is still breastfeeding her daughter who is nearly eight – and why she gave her older daughter breast milk as a ninth birthday present.
Veronika Robinson appeared on the Channel 4 programme Extraordinary Breastfeeding as a passionate advocate of allowing children to decided when they give up breast milk.
Mrs Robinson, a former journalist, her husband Paul, and their children, Bethany and Elizah, are all fans of organic food.
Elizah is approaching her eighth birthday and is not happy at the prospect of giving up her daily feed. “I don’t want to be weaned. I want to breastfeed for ever,” she said.
In the Channel 4 programme, broadcast on Wednesday, Mrs Robinson, 38, spoke frankly about her decision to defy convention.
She was one of several families interviewed after the World Health Organisation recommended that children should be breastfed until they are aged two. All share the belief that children should never be forcibly weaned.
While many people in the UK consider her decision odd, other cultures do not take such a dim view of prolonged breast feeding.
In an interview before the TV programme, 38-year-old Veronika described her reaction when Bethany asked for breast milk for her ninth birthday. “I was delighted, if a little taken aback,' she said.
“I'd stopped breastfeeding Bethany when she was five – though I was continuing to feed her younger sister, Elizah – but obviously she clearly remembered what a wonderful feeling it had been. It was the best thing she could imagine and, presented like that, it seemed like a great idea.”
Veronika, who edits an alternative-parenting magazine called The Mother continued: “My girls were brought up to think it was completely normal to ask for a breast in a shop,” she says. “That’s bad enough when they are toddlers, but when they are big girls, people get freaked out by it.
“I try to be discreet, but we have had some odd looks. People tend to be disgusted and disbelieving.”
“I can’t believe any mother wouldn’t love to hold onto that wonderful feeling you get when you are nursing your own child.”
Despite the Breast Is Best campaign, designed to highlight the benefits of breastfeeding to new born babies, only 68 per cent of mums routinely breastfeed. Of those around 80 per cent give up after just six months.
I have no kids, but my sister breast fed and it was quite difficult coupled with the fact that she had to work. I did see her squeeze some out into a baggy. YUCK!
Should`nt have said that,sorry all.
It is hard, but when children turn one it is about the time they want real food and regular milk. It will be tough but I understand. I've been there!
Holy wet nurse, Batman, surely she can find some socially acceptable alternatives to continue to "capture that feeling."
The problem is compounded by the fact that she had such a hard time breastfeeding our oldest son. The little one is eating finger food and we're giving him bits of chicken and hot dogs. Makes for a great change in poopies.:)
oh,, good grief. my children were breast-fed beyond 18 months, and they are all sturdy-boned, bright, and disease-resistant - I can count on two hands the occasions I had to take them to the doctor for an illness (there are four of them.)
Mrs VS
Haven't we all.
Just joshing, there comes a time when Mom's milk comes in second to apple sauce.:-}
Taking 4-6 weeks for a kid to get over a cold/flu doesn't sound healthy to me.
yuk.
>Taking 4-6 weeks for a kid to get over a cold/flu doesn't sound healthy to me.
Exactly. That's the typical point when these "Mothers of America" decide that something is (perhaps seriously) wrong with the kid and they seek medical attention.
you meant just milk and nothing else? It would be hard for a mother to supply enough calories for a toddler, let alone whatever else the child needs. Mine were nursing and eating.
Mrs VS
Exactly.
Mad cow.
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