Breastfeeding Past One

The story entitled Breastfeeding past a year: exploring benefits, cultural influences and more by Jen Davis was an extremely informative and beneficial story. The purpose of the writing was to persuade readers to understand her point of view, change their minds and take action against the myths and negative voice of others. Many new moms who chose to breastfeed are struck with the conflict of when to wean. Most are told past six months is unnecessary and often talked down on when they continue to nurse, especially in public. Jen Davis expresses her experience, views, and disproves many common myths about extended breastfeeding. Jen describes the first time she talked to a nursing mom of a toddler. The mother loved nursing her children but after she left, the room filled with comments of disgust for her choice. "There 's something seriously wrong with her. She must be deranged. Once a child can walk and talk, nursing is perverse." That comment left a strong impression on me and, unfortunately, from that time on I thought Lisa was a little off, maybe even mentally ill.” Sadly this is how many people think about nursing past six months and even more so past 12 months. At one time I came to the same conflict with my son who is only nine months old. I have no one near to me that have breastfed past six months. When that age came about for my son the first question on my family’s mind was “Are you going to wean him now?” My brother-in-law told me “past six months is just pleasure” this statement really boggled my mind. Jen Davis disproves this myth along with many others. "Once a child no longer needs mother 's milk solely for nutritional purposes, there 's no sense in breastfeeding." In truth, a mother 's milk is just as nutritious and continues to provide immunities to a toddler while being a source of comfort.
We seem to believe that the only legitimate excuse for breastfeeding is hunger and that anything else is a misuse of the goods...we see the need for

References: Jen Davis (Sept – Oct 2007) Breastfeeding Beyond a Year: exploring benefits, cultural influences, and more http://www.lalecheleague.org/nb/nbsepoct07p196.html Ondrack, S. Taking down the almighty bottle. Mothering 2006 Jul-Aug; 137. Sears, W. and Sears, M. The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby From Birth to Age Two. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2003.