BREAST FEEDING A 3 YEAR OLD !

Weylin · 11-05-2012 8:29pm #1

Here’s what the world thought of that Time breastfeeding cover…

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Front cover creates debate over 'attachment parenting'

Image: (Image via Twitter @TIME)

TIME MAGAZINE’S FRONT cover has sparked a global debate about breastfeeding.
This month’s cover features a 26-year-old mother breastfeeding her three-year-old son. The mother, Jamie Lynne Grumet, holds her son Aram to her breast while he stands on a chair. The article explores the issue of attachment parenting which encourages mothers to breastfeed older toddlers so as to establish bonds between mothers and children.
The news magazine featured the photo and article to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Dr Bill Sears book who advocated attachment parenting. Grumet is to appear on The Today Show in the US today to discuss the cover.
However, news outlets around the world have been contemplating whether the front cover is a step too far.
The San Francisco Chronicle asks that very question saying that the boy featured in the photo “looks old enough to pour himself a glass of milk” and claims that the the cover was clearly picked to attract media attention. The Sydney Morning Herald says the cover is “confronting”. They write that the Australian Breastfeeding Association said that women should be encouraged to make their own decision about breastfeeding.
The Mirror questions whether the front cover is “perfectly natural or child exploitation” while The New Zealand Herald said the article has “underscored a cultural rift between traditional childrearing and what some have deemed extreme parenting”.
The Los Angleles Times describes the cover as “the head-snapping checkout-stand stopper of the season”. According The Guardian, Gillian Tett of The Financial Times told Time Magazine’s executive editor Rick Stengel that it was a “cheap shot” adding that the article was about Bill Sears and not an “attractive blonde woman breastfeeding”.
Mothers have been venting their anger through social media at both the picture and the headline question. Actress Alyssa Milano, herself a new mother, echoed many of the mother’s complaints. She tweeted to her 2 million followers:

Praetorian Saighdiuir · 11-05-2012 8:29pm

Lucky bastard.

Micky Dolenz · 11-05-2012 8:31pm

I'm a grown man and I still get breast fed on occasion.

forfuxsake · 11-05-2012 8:32pm

I don't think it's natural.
She does.
I am wrong and she is right.

MagicMarker · 11-05-2012 8:33pm

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

I'm a grown man and I still get breast fed on occasion.

By your mother?

Pushtrak · 11-05-2012 8:33pm

This thread sucks.

mad m · 11-05-2012 8:33pm

BITTY

BBDBB · 11-05-2012 8:34pm

I reckon she'll say "enoughs enough" before he does

Weylin · 11-05-2012 8:35pm

wait until the guy is 16-18 ,he is going to get some slagging

:D

Micky Dolenz · 11-05-2012 8:36pm

MagicMarker wrote: »

By your mother?

Not my mother, possibly someone else's.

Ghandee · 11-05-2012 8:37pm

Dubhlinner · 11-05-2012 8:37pm

A lot more natural than all the women who go straight to bottle feeding

Chuck Stone · 11-05-2012 8:39pm

Thread sucks.

telekon · 11-05-2012 8:40pm

Made me titter...

notsobusy · 11-05-2012 8:41pm

There's a lot of women who can't breastfeed, they'd like to but they can't. I find that picture very disturbing.....I think 3 is way to old to be breastfeeding. But then again that's just my opinion.

mikom · 11-05-2012 8:42pm

This month’s cover features a 26-year-old mother breastfeeding her three-year-old son. The mother, Jamie Lynne Grumet

"It's the wrong tit, Grumet.... and they've gone wrong"

Pushtrak · 11-05-2012 8:43pm

Weylin wrote: »

wait until the guy is 16-18 ,he is going to get some slagging :D

He'll just have to make the breast of a bad situation.

dr.bollocko · 11-05-2012 8:44pm

It's the most natural food you can feed an infant.

I don't see the problem.

But sher whatever. Pass the kid a rusk or whatever other processed shoite they're trying to pass off as healthy these days in case a few ne'erdowells get offended.

forfuxsake · 11-05-2012 8:47pm

Off-topic but ironically women in Saudi Arabia openly breastfeed despite often being fully veiled.

Eggonyerface · 11-05-2012 8:48pm

Some people just prefer draught to bottle

My name is URL · 11-05-2012 8:50pm

That's a pretty piss poor attempt at a copy and paste

Also the Time cover is there to provoke a reaction. If it was a 3 yo that actually looked like a 3 year old there'd be no such reaction to it. Instead they made sure to get a much older looking kid, and stand him on a chair in order to reach sustenance! I doubt that's how she breastfeeds the kid at home.

It's a load of bollix really.

And I'd definitely suck on her tits.. what's weird about that?! :pac:

El_Dangeroso · 11-05-2012 8:51pm

Hunter-gatherers breastfeed their kids for minimum of 2 years and up to 5 years. This was likely the case for most of human evolution.

People who think that's weird have a problem.

It's only very recently where the done thing is breastfeed for 6 months then shove the child in a creche. Now that's weird.

mad m · 11-05-2012 9:06pm

That Chick should be in Slydice

My name is URL · 11-05-2012 9:11pm

Some of the reaction to this on Twitter is hilarious. People calling it sick & twisted without realising that they themselves are the ones sexualising what is a completely non-sexual relationship between a mother and her child.

If Freud were alive today he'd be sucking his own tit with excitement.

Abi · 11-05-2012 9:26pm

Weylin wrote: »

wait until the guy is 16-18 ,he is going to get some slagging :D

He will be getting it long before that I reckon..

laoch na mona · 11-05-2012 9:40pm

why breastfeed once a child can eat?

michellie · 11-05-2012 9:44pm

That child is gona be so pissed off when he is older.

grindle · 11-05-2012 9:48pm

laoch na mona wrote: »

why breastfeed once a child can eat?

Because it contains the precise nutrients a growing child needs to remain as healthy as possible?
I wouldn't expect anybody to do this, definitely not once teeth start mangling things (gums're bad enough), but this histrionic crowd-sourced disgust is so, so repulsively Victorian (not aimed at you, laoch).

Coal1978 · 11-05-2012 9:57pm

No bloody way, my little fella has gums like razor blades, that's bad enough, would you chance teeth!

laoch na mona · 11-05-2012 10:15pm

grindle wrote: »

Because it contains the precise nutrients a growing child needs to remain as healthy as possible?
I wouldn't expect anybody to do this, definitely not once teeth start mangling things (gums're bad enough), but this histrionic crowd-sourced disgust is so, so repulsively Victorian (not aimed at you, laoch).

I was looking at it from a biological view point
mammals wean their young once they can eat we are mammals

stovelid · 11-05-2012 10:19pm

My wife claims her friend was latching on to his ma until he was 5.

Canis Lupus · 11-05-2012 10:26pm

Holy crap she's hot. What's all the fuss about?

grindle · 11-05-2012 10:56pm

laoch na mona wrote: »

I was looking at it from a biological view point
mammals wean their young once they can eat we are mammals

I'm looking at it biologically too. Mammals wean once it's natural to, once the young either receives everything it's body/brain indicates it needs, or the mother pushes and snaps away due to (literal) exhaustion.
We wean once our culture tells us to, not when it's biologically natural to.

Neyite · 12-05-2012 1:28am

I think if a kid can manage to open a fridge, there is no need for breastfeeding.

TehDagsBass · 12-05-2012 1:38am

I don't really care one way or another, just wish it were kept to the privacy of the home and family and not something to bang your chest and push in other's faces about.

prinz · 12-05-2012 1:39am

Neyite wrote: »

I think if a kid can manage to open a fridge, there is no need for breastfeeding.

There's no need for it whatsoever and seems to be more about feeding some need in the parent, than any real benefit to the child.

Neyite · 12-05-2012 2:51am

prinz wrote: »

There's no need for it whatsoever and seems to be more about feeding some need in the parent, than any real benefit to the child.

I'm sure its just a coincidence that a breastfeeding mother can eat like a horse and stays really slim because breastfeeding burns through so many calories?

I knew someone who used to breasfeed her primary school going son - I think until he was about 7 or 8. He is now in his thirties and its a source of ridicule and constant embarassment for him that he is known as they boy who went home at lunch for the boob.

forfuxsake · 12-05-2012 7:54am

it's much more natural for a human child to drink milk meant for cows and goats than it is to drink milk meant for humans. obviously.

up for anything · 12-05-2012 8:09am

This thread! Like clockwork every three weeks. I breastfed three of my children till they were nearly three. So what! It wasn't sexual, it wasn't offensive or repulsive and it made us happy. Most people in my life didn't care one way or another which is how it should be.

Zulu · 12-05-2012 8:10am

What people seem to be overlooking is that the mother has gone and put him on the cover of time doing it.
Whatever about breastfeeding at that age; she didn't have to immortalise the oppertunity for him to be ridiculed, for a few moments in the spotlight.

THATS whats wrong with the picture. Nice parenting skills.

up for anything · 12-05-2012 8:27am

Zulu wrote: »

What people seem to be overlooking is that the mother has gone and put him on the cover of time doing it.
Whatever about breastfeeding at that age; she didn't have to immortalise the oppertunity for him to be ridiculed, for a few moments in the spotlight.

THATS whats wrong with the picture. Nice parenting skills.

It is your own prejudices that inform that post. Why should there be any ridicule? Most of the world wouldn't look twice at it, apart from thinking **** I wished I looked like that.

henryporter · 12-05-2012 8:46am

up for anything wrote: »

It is your own prejudices that inform that post. Why should there be any ridicule? Most of the world wouldn't look twice at it, apart from thinking **** I wished I looked like that.

Or thinking **** I wished I was on that stool:P

up for anything · 12-05-2012 8:50am

henryporter wrote: »

Or thinking **** I wished I was on that stool:P

That's pretty normal unless of course you were hoping there'd be breast milk coming your way.

Ellis Dee · 12-05-2012 9:02am

Different folks, different strokes. It is quite common for women in some parts of the world to breastfeed children until they are 3-4 years old. In societies with little or no access to modern medicines, diet supplements and various things like that, it gives the child natural protection in the form of antibodies and a lot of other things necessary for healthy growth. And it keeps the mother out of the pudding club for at least a while, because she is unlikely to become pregnant while still breastfeeding.:):):)

Teyla Emmagan · 12-05-2012 9:37am

I have no problem with this, they both look happy.

Zulu · 12-05-2012 9:47am

up for anything wrote: »

It is your own prejudices that inform that post.

Of course it is, would you have expected anyone elses?

Why should there be any ridicule?

There shouldn't, but children and immature adults do lots of things they shouldn't.

It's naive to suppose that "kids in the playground" won't tease.
It's stupid to go out of your way to create that scenario.

sh1tstirrer · 12-05-2012 9:54am

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

MagicMarker wrote: »

By your mother?

Not my mother, possibly someone else's.

That's cross suckling. Did your new mother let you suckle at first or did she reject you?

up for anything · 12-05-2012 12:55pm

Zulu wrote: »

There shouldn't, but children and immature adults do lots of things they shouldn't.

It's naive to suppose that "kids in the playground" won't tease.
It's stupid to go out of your way to create that scenario.

Do you really think that any breastfeeding mother stands on a chair and shouts out, "Hey look, I'm about to feed my child". Most of us are reasonably discreet about it and don't go out of our way to create any scenarios. Older toddlers and children feeding don't tend to do so in public because they have already got a sense of how some adults perceive it. In fact I never had children of any age saying anything negative about it - they were more interested in the mechanics of the process if they weren't already familiar with it.

You could say the same about any permutation of parenting. How could gay couples/single parents/May-Dec couples put their children through the slagging in the playground that they might get. If we can't teach our children that it's not the end of the world to stand out from the crowd we'll end up with a crowd of homogeneous, Disney reared clones.

BornToKill · 12-05-2012 1:00pm

up for anything wrote: »

Do you really think that any breastfeeding mother stands on a chair and shouts out, "Hey look, I'm about to feed my child".

It's the three year old standing on the chair in the photo.

Zulu · 12-05-2012 1:01pm

up for anything wrote: »

Do you really think that any breastfeeding mother stands on a chair and shouts....

What are you banging on about?
I was talking about the woman on the cover of TIME Magazine.

(I'd say she's getting more coverage than a breastfeeding mother standing on a chair shouting - wouldn't you?)

Dudess · 12-05-2012 1:03pm

It's just weird IMO. The child is not an infant.