Holy Bat Breasts, Batman!
October 7, 2006 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under extended breastfeeding
I recently witnessed a live-bat program sponsored by the Organization for Bat Conservation. As my daughters and I marveled at the tiny fruit bat cradled before us, the presenter mentioned that bats are mammals. In fact, they are the only mammals that can fly (not counting flying squirrels or flying lemurs, which actually glide rather than fly). The fact that bats are mammals also means that they have mammary glands and nurse their pups up to six months of age. Studies of fruit bats show that
“pups nurse until they are 95% of adult skeletal size (Kurta and Kunz 1987, Barclay 1995) and during that time the female provides their total nutrition through extended lactation.”
Perhaps the bats have been listening to the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding up to at least six months of age?
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] Angela is writing the Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blog which is an important subject for a lot of parents and a subject that I probably will not be spending a lot of time talking about. She already has me hooked with an article about how bats breastfeed their babies until they are about 95% grown. In humans, wouldn’t that be about 14 to 16? Yikes. [...]
[...] Holy Bat Breasts, Batman! Today not only marks the successful end of NaBloPoMo, it also features my 100th post at Breastfeeding 1-2-3, “Breast Milk Cures Pink Eye (Conjunctivitis).” We’ve had some laughs over the last two months–in fact it’s been a veritable blog carnival fun house! It hasn’t all been fun and games though. We’ve discussed AIDS, cancer and cleft palate. There must be a lot of serious lactivists out there too because it seems like everyone had a story to tell, a vote to cast or a petition to sign. They’re a very supportive bunch, those lactating MOMS. Don’t mess with Texas, though. [...]