What age to stop breastfeeding?

Dudess wrote: »

I agree boobs are great, but in this programme the girl was talking about how she couldn't wait to have boobs so she could breastfeed herself... :pac:

ah my 3 yr old says that all the time - she wants big fat boobs like mommy to make yummy milk - and she weaned at 6mths, but she feds her dolls bottles, go figure.

my 13mth old has 'asked for it' since birth with signs and motions, and he sometimes feeds standing up- kinda if he is messing in bed - and we have no intention stopping for awhile.
whenever suits the family is the right answer, but the AH answer is more like when the boobs hit your bellybutton?

Sort of related, my husband told me a relative of his gave him a couple of taka to relieve her of some breast milk when he was about 7 as her baby wasn't latching and she was engorged!:eek:

:cool:

Well I breastfed both of my kids until the oldest reached 13 months and the 2nd reached 12 months.
I wasn't really feeding them much once they started solids and then over 10 months it was only a morning feed and night feed. But once they were old enough to go onto cows milk at 1 year old, I stopped.

Jesus it's so much handier and cheaper then bottle feeding, once you get over the tricky few weeks starting out.

iguana wrote: »

But if a guy is happily sucking on his girlfriend's breasts and he gets a flashback to feeling upset and hungry and then sucking on his mother's for food and comfort I can see that ruining the mood.

I think you're stretching the realms of possibility with that! Seriously.

iguana wrote: »

Why? I remember so much from the year I was one, never mind up to the age of 2 and a half. I remember many of the meals I ate, friends I only knew at that age, what their houses looked like, the types of beds and cots they had. Do you really think I wouldn't remember something that would have occurred several times every day?

I'm not the only one either, look through the first memory thread. Lots of people have strong memories of their infanthood.

But then surely if it is possible for someone to have their normal sexual feelings about breasts interrupted by flashbacks about breastfeeding, then the same would be true of flashbacks about nappy changing during foreplay and sex? Nappy changing happens to every baby so there would be a lot more sexual dysfunction resulting from it then there might be resulting from being breastfed.

A lot of the first memories in the other thread could be down to being aided by photographs which they could have seen and forgotten seeing, if you get what I mean. Holidays and family gatherings were mentioned which would have been photographed or videoed.

up for anything wrote: »

But then surely if it is possible for someone to have their normal sexual feelings about breasts interrupted by flashbacks about breastfeeding, then the same would be true of flashbacks about nappy changing during foreplay and sex? Nappy changing happens to every baby so there would be a lot more sexual dysfunction resulting from it then there might be resulting from being breastfed.

I was out of nappies completely by 54 weeks so have no memory of ever having my nappy changed. There is a funny story about how I pissed in my dad's mouth once when he was changing me but I only remember it a story. I also don't have any sexual feelings about excrement or urine and my husband and I never play at bottom wiping and talcing, so it's not the same. Breast sucking however is a very common sexual act.

up for anything wrote: »

A lot of the first memories in the other thread could be down to being aided by photographs which they could have seen and forgotten seeing, if you get what I mean. Holidays and family gatherings were mentioned which would have been photographed or videoed.

No, I'm talking about full on emotional memories in context. Like how much I always wanted to get at my nana's sewing box because she had so many coloured threads that looked fascinating. Week after week I would try to get into her 'good room' where her sewing box was kept behind the couch. They used to keep a rocking horse in there for me so I would pretend I wanted that and really try and get at the sewing box. I remember how much I really, really wanted the threads, how frustrated I felt not being given them, how I'd come up with plan after plan to get at them.

I remember the day that I finally got into the room, pulled aside the rocking horse and crawled behind the couch to get them. I remember the triumph as I pulled it out after me. And then the horror as the door opened up and someone came in. I remember trying to come up with an excuse as to why I was behind the couch and then the absolute terror as I realised that the person in the door was a garda and the fear I would have to go to jail, followed by the shock and betrayal that the garda* was actually my uncle. I remember wondering is he was ever my uncle at all and had been setting me up all my life.

You don't get all of that emotion from photographs, you certainly don't get things like your plan to pretend you only wanted the rocking horse. Nobody ever knew I felt betrayed by my uncle in his uniform to tell me that. I was 15 months old but I remember it every bit as well as my wedding day or my first kiss or what I ate for lunch today. Lots of kids are capable of that kind of memory and having experience of strong early memory I know not to dismiss it.

*He'd actually just gotten a job as a prison officer and had been getting ready to leave for work when he saw me sneak into the room but the uniform looked the same as a guards to me.

Truley wrote: »

I wasn't even breast fed but I have tonnes of memories from my childhood of seeing my mother's breasts sunbathing, bathing etc and I never developed issues about my breasts in fact I would say I felt quite the opposite. If someone has non traumatic memories of getting food and comfort from their mother's boobs, or for example witnessing a younger sibling being fed then really, what's the problem? Children and adults should know that's what breasts are primarily there for and part of the reason people have such fetishes about them in this part of the world is the hype and taboo surrounding them in the first place. If breastfeeding was normalised than people wouldn't develop these hangups in the first place.

There is a big difference between seeing breasts and remembering suckling on them. I have loads of memories of seeing my mother feed my brothers or of hand expressing milk, I don't think that's at all the same as remembering my own mouth around her nipples.

And no we don't find breasts sexual because of hype and taboo, the hype and taboo began because they are also sex organs. I, along with many women, can orgasm easily from breast play, I certainly get wet within seconds of having my breasts played with (right). They are primarily for feeding our young but they do have a sexual function too and it is no less important than the fact that we can not only talk using our tongue but also taste and kiss with it.

In recent years a lot of time and effort has been spent rightly reminding people of the primary function of breasts. But to do so by ignoring the secondary functions is ridiculous.

Cherrycola wrote: »

As soon as child can eat solid food, is there any need for them to still have milk meant for babies?!

Yes there is. Breast milk has more functions than just as food. It is very important for the development of a healthy immune system and even has links to the intelligence of the child. It's not just something we eat until we can digest solids. Once a baby can eat solids they should ideally be doing so alongside still consuming breastmilk until they are about 2, or maybe even up to 4.