How Old is Too Old to Breast Feed Your Child? Court Case

How Old is Too Old to Breast Feed Your Child? How old is too old to be breast feeding your child? A controversial case out of Illinois has re-ignited the debate. A young mother there is still breast feeding her eight-year-old. Should she be forced to stop?

Lynne Stuckey said she has been unfairly persecuted for doing something that is perfectly natural: breast feeding her son. But there's a twist - her son is now eight-years-old.

"I did nothing wrong with nursing my child. Kyle is my only son and I'm going to continue nursing him as long as he needs that and until he weens himself."

But child protection authorities did not agree. Her son Kyle was removed from her home for nearly six months and placed in foster care. Lynne and Kyle have undergone counseling and are reunited. Tuesday on Good Morning, America , she showed her face for the first time, saying accusations that the breast feeding was some kind of molestation are absurd.

"You don't nurse your child for yourself when that's something they are needing for comfort. When you do that, you're putting your child first."

An expert on Tuesday morning's show basically agreed, saying it's normal in some cultures for children to breast feed until they are five or six. But it may time for Kyle to be weened.

"There reaches an age when you have to help your child find more mature ways to comfort themselves," said the expert.

"This is a normal thing and people need to know that, and Kyle is a wonderful child," Stuckey said.

By speaking out, Lynne Stuckey said she fears the state may again move to take her child away. The American Academy of Pediatrics said roughly 20% of children are weened by age one, and the vast majority of toddlers are weened by age two.

This is more common in other countries. My friend's grandfather was weaned at age 7 in Mexico. I was in rural areas of Colombia and Mexico where women openly breastfeed and men are respectful enough not to look. Here they sometimes call the cops on breastfeeding women. In Japan and other countries, children sleep with the mother until 5 or older I believe. But in the US where society and parents SEXUALIZE EVERYTHING, ESPECIALLY THEIR CHILDREN, and dress babies like hookers, the State confiscates children for parenting outside of the Department of Socialist Services Instruction Book. Not long ago, they confiscated a 5 year old child because he still slept in the bed with mom. I think they gave him back when she agreed to let social services visit her house for the rest of her life and interrogate her child to make sure she wasn't in the same bed with him.

But if you're a sexual pervert Boy Scout leader or teacher, male or female, and preying on children, then you have rights.

She is very naive if she thinks that she is going to prevail. She better apply for Swedish citizenship fast and vote with her feet, or be prepared to have her child confiscated and given to some homosexual or lesbian couple. After all, they usually don't have lactating breasts.

Now when her kid goes to a public school and plugs into the school library's ask-alice-anything-about-sex-site and gets images of women having sex with monkeys and horses, she doesn't have to worry because American academia says that it will have no ill effects on his sexual development.

There is no medical reason to breast feed beyond six months of age. This is the most perverted thing I've heard in the last 15 minutes.

Really Doctor, I have known mothers who have nursed till the child is one or one and a half or two. Does that make them preverted as well? I don't think so.

My daughter in law nursed her youngest till she was almost two, with the doctors blessings. The child had been premature and has some medical problems such as a hole in her heart, among some other things and very tiny and she had enough milk so why not? I think that is between the mother and the childs doctor.

My personal preference was until they got teeth, which was between 9 months and one year. Then the ouch factor made the decision.

That's been my experience too. Doctors are given little information or conflicting information about breastfeeding depending on their specialty. My husband was in residency when two female doctor sisters asked him what he would recommend about breastfeeding and weaning since he at least has kids and there was so much conflicting information in the literature.

My son liked to drink a bottle until he was 7, but my pediatrician told me unequivocally when he was 2 that he was NOT to drink from a bottle anymore. She also got mad at me because he didn't brush his teeth twice a day. My dad is in the dental field and we never had to brush our baby teeth everyday. As bad as that flouride is for little kids to be swallowing, who is she to practically order me around? I changed pediatricians.

The longer a woman nurses, the lower her chances of female cancers. Doing what God intended, I suppose.

I have noticed when I go for my mammogram one of the questions on the form was asking if I nursed my babies. It seems woman who nursed have a much lower risk of developing breast cancer later on.

Another plus for nursing it helps a mother get her figure back.. I ate like a pig while I nursed and never gained an ounce and when I stoppped nursing I had to watch what I ate more closely or it went directly to my hips.

Nursing has as many benifits for the mom as it does for the baby.

Maybe this mom is just trying to keep her figure, but I do think she is carrying the bonding thing a bit far.

His specialty may not matter. Breastfeeding education in medical schools and residency programs is not necessarily very good. Some do an excellent job, but many offer little in the way of training about breastfeeding. Doctors have been responsible for a lot of breastfeeding failures by giving mothers bad information.

That's what I thought. The docs I've discussed this with previously have said that their training is basically limited to a chapter in a textbook during med school that explains the mechanics of lactation and nothing more.

My husband is a doctor. I taught him more about breastfeeding when I nursed our four than all of his medical training ever did.

Good for you! In a way, I understand how male physicians have very little interest in the subject, since it is exclusively a female experience. However, from a health perspective, it borders on incompetence that they are not more informed!

I wouldn't be interested in nursing a child for so long, but the fact that they take her child away is SO EVIL! Have they ever confiscated a child because their parents were swingers and recreational pot smokers. I haven't ever seen it.

I was at a birthday party and some other other mothers of kindergarteners were talking. Two of them let their kids watch Spanish soap operas with them and then told me that their little boys try to kiss them like men kiss the women on the soap operas. But they keep watching the soap operas with their kids (Spanish soap operas are mostly soft porn nowadays). I told them, "couldn't you tape it and watch it later when they're in bed?!!!!" I got some excuse in return.

When one of the children asked his mom who is pregnant, "where do babies come from?" she gave him all of the mechanics. Then she told me that he talks about sex at age six and gets jealous when her husband hugs or kisses her in front of him. I told her that maybe he wasn't ready for that information at age 5, maybe age 8 is a better age, maybe later. She told me that she doesn't want to "lie to him". That's the problem with American parents, we've been brainwashed by the left to think we have to tell our kids everything.

My child asked where babies come from and I told him: God puts the babies in the mommies' tummies. That's age appropriate for his innocence at five year old. I don't know why he has to know the mechanics so early when he wants to play with toys, not girls, and we don't live on a farm. Every child is different, and I thank G-d I don't have to send him to a public school.

Excerpt from Attachment Parenting in a Detached World by Jennifer Coburn:

(Fifteen month old) Katie joined me on a visit to my doctor. The nurse came in to take my blood pressure when she noticed Katie was nursing. "How old is that child?" she asked. When I told her, she confessed that her son nursed past a year also and immediately began reciting a laundry list of weaning techniques. She didn't stop for a moment to consider that Katie and I liked our nursing relationship. She assumed that I wanted to stop nursing, but just didn't know how. "Sometimes you've just got to give them a jalepeno cocktail, " she suggested. "Hot peppers on your nipple and they'll never come back." This one saddened me. "But I want her to come back," I replied. "Children need to know they can count on you for consistent loving care, not cruel tricks that violate their trust." Naturally, my blood pressure reading was a little high.

I am always disappointed when people tell me that they slept in a crib, or they were fed formula, or they were raised by a nanny, and they "turned out okay." I respond that I was hoping to do a little better than okay in the greatest responsibility I had. I get mixed reactions to this. Dr. Michael Commons and his colleagues of Harvard Medical School recently reported that children who sleep alone are more susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorders and personality disorders, and that these conditions are virtually unheard of in countries where co-sleeping is the norm. Violent crime is at an epidemic high in our country. American teens are seeking fulfillment through gang membership, drugs, promiscuity. More adults are on antidepressants than ever before. Would attachment parenting offer a panacea to all of our social problems? Of course not. But loving parents and a solid family would be a great start.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.