[Arthur McGowan]

Eighteen months.

[sonserae]

I think she's using it for comfort more than the boy is.
Where is her husband or the father of the boy? He probably skipped out of town thinking she's loonier than cartoons.

[VRWC_minion]

He is too old when his wife objects.

[gunshy]

There was an incident reported within the last 18 months of a group of shipwrecked passengers who were saved during their ordeal at sea by nursing on a young woman who had been nursing her child. She was their only source of water and nutrients.

[Prodigal Daughter]

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.

[mercy]

CREEPED me OUT!

[Consort]

What's the shelf life of silicone and what's the nutritional value for infants?

[NYCVirago]

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.

Could somebody tell this reporter that the word is "weaned"?

[windcliff]

thirsty?

[My back yard]

The problem here is not whether it is healthy to breast feed a child past a certain age. It is whether child protection agencies have a right to remove a child from his home and parents for this reason. This is sickening to me, more so than an 8 yr old still breastfeeding. Such agencies should invade and override our most PRIME AND RIGHTFUL of possessions -- our children and our homes -- only in the most severe of abuses. NOT FOR BREASTFEEDING!!!!

[Prodigal Daughter]

Apparently, that is referred to as "non-nutritive nursing" or similar terms.

I found an interesting website with articles written by a Texas A&M professor (anthropology and nutrition). She says that the average age of weaning around the world is 2.4-7 years old, and not always for nutritional purposes. It makes sense that G-d designed it this way because most children around the world have poor resources and dangerous water supplies. Thankfully, they don't have to contend with Freudian academia and they don't know that their toddlers are all obsessed with sex (/sarcasm).

Some excerpts: 4. One study of primates showed that the offspring were weaned when they had reached about 1/3 their adult weight. This happens in humans at about 5-7 years.

Studies have shown that a child's immune system doesn't completely mature until about 6 years of age, and it is well established that breast milk helps develop the immune system and augment it with maternal antibodies as long as breast milk is produced.

In terms of the benefits of extended breastfeeding, there have been a number of studies comparing breastfed and bottlefed babies in terms of the frequency of various diseases, and also IQ achievement. In every case, the breastfed babies had lower risk of disease and higher IQs than the bottle-fed babies.

Clearly, babies born in the U.S. don't have to contend with all the diseases and parasites and contaminated water that babies in Third World countries do. We have more supplementary foods that we can generally trust to be safe and clean. We can get our children immunized, and get them antibiotics for infections when necessary. The fact that we *can* does not mean that breastfeeding is unimportant. Breastfed babies still have the "edge" over bottlefed babies, even in a squeaky clean environment with wonderful medical care. They get sick less often, they are smarter, they are happier. Another important consideration for the older child is that they are able to maintain their emotional attachment to a person, rather than being forced to switch to an inanimate object such as a teddy bear or blanket. I think this sets the stage for a life of people-orientation, rather than materialism, and I think that is a good thing. I also can't imagine living through the toddler years without that close loving connection to a child going through enormous changes, some of which are very frustrating to the child.

From her supporting references page: Greer, F.R. and R.D. Apple 1991 Physicians, formula companies, and advertising: A historical perspective. American Journal of Diseases of Children 145:282-286. (This article talks about the history of collusion between doctors and the infant formula industry. The formula industry gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to doctors and hospitals to promote their products, sponsors doctor's attendance at medical meetings, etc. The use of infant formula also causes more infant sickness, thus benefitting the doctors financially. No one gains financially when mothers breastfeed and children are healthy, except the parents who don't have to pay for formula or medical care).

Another website about breastfeeding has a page: BREASTFEEDING AND THE BIBLE (Hint: late weaning is the norm)

I feel sorry for my grandmother and her generation. They didn't even get the opportunity to try to breastfeed because the medical community convinced them that the bottle was much better.

[Polonius]

Breastfeeding an 8-year-old is definitely creepy, but is it really the kind of thing child protective services should be involved with? This seems less like a case of an abuse mother and more like governmental micromanaging of admittedly bizarre but not apparently harmful parenting.

[zeaal]

I stopped breastfeeding when I was twenty-eight. How old is too old for the mom? My youngest was a little over one years old.

[Ditter]

When the kids at school find out, he'll stop & probably hate his mother for letting it go on so long. He'll be one of those super macho guys, trying to overcome the stigma. The kids will never let him forget it. Poor kid, his mother is warped.

[Terriergal]

Breastfeeding is great. I loved those times with my three babies. But there is something wrong if it goes on that long. I wonder is she going to kick the kid out when he's grown if he doesn't do it on his own too? Or is he going to live with his mom/parents forever? Occasionally you have a child that needs a push to go on to the next step in maturing.

[hunyb]

I don't have children, so I can't really say, but I do know that 8 years of age is WAY too old to be breast feeding........my gosh, that is so disgusting.......ladies, can you imagine an 8 year old.......never mind, i can't even write it.......NASTY........

[hunyb]

This woman is SICK!