Breast milk is a living food. It is constantly changing as the mother’s body scans the environment for dangerous pathogens. Her body adapts and produces milk to build her child’s body in the way no other food can. No two mothers have the same breastmilk. No mother produces the same milk twice. It is constantly changing to suit the needs of the child.

Formula milk is static!! Formula is not a living food. It cannot build the brain or the immune system. When babies are fed from a bottle, they are denied their birthright to develop right and left hand/eye coordination; the building up of oro-facial muscles which can only happen when extracting milk from a breast; the warmth of giving and receiving from mother to child. A bottle, a dummy ~ these are no replacements for the love and comfort of a warm, comforting breast. The human needs to suck. But it needs to suck at the human breast to have this need met fully. The consequences of not doing this are many. It may be as simple as sucking a thumb, or could manifest later in the shape of cigarette smoking, food addictions, etc.

Animal milks are made for animal babies. Cow’s milk is designed to build a calf’s body very quickly. Goat’s milk is designed for a kid. Let’s also remember that children don’t lose their ‘milk’ teeth until they are around 6 or 7… they were called ‘milk’ teeth for a reason…

I, too, am very passionate about this subject, forgive me for going on and on.

Interesting.

Anyone else have a comparison between the effects of short-term or no nursing and long-time nursing?

I nursed both of my boys until 20 months, am currently weaning my youngest. He resisted it initially, so we picked back up for another month, but I am really DONE now and am working hard to wean him. I am trying distraction, and offering him snuggles and comfort without the milk, and it seems to be going better this time around. He signs for milk, but doesn’t get upset when I tell him that, “Mama’s milk is all gone.”

Dea – you have to do what is right for your family, including you! Of course your baby will nurse all night with you right there. Why not, she’s getting plenty of sleep! But if that means you are exhausted, well, you might need to make some changes and take care of yourself too. Happy moms and happy mom/dad relationships are also a gift to baby and to your family. Breastfeeding is wonderful, but that doesn’t mean you have to let your toddler rule when and where it will happen, she can accept a schedule and limits to her access. At 18 months she doesn’t need it for the nutrition. You should fully consider your own desires along with the baby’s (as in, “We are in the middle of grocery shopping, I can’t nurse you now, have some fruit leather”).

As parents we all struggle to do what is right for our kids, but I am often surprised how intelligent people will let their child fully rule their lives. We have an obligation to create some structure, and instill some discipline. Plenty of research has shown that by setting limits, kids feel MORE secure and loved than they do when they always get their own way. The best mamas I know aren’t impersonating helicopters (hovering, hovering), and fixing every slight (real and imagined) but helping their kids to begin some solo flights.

My daughter is 18 months and still feeding many times a day and all night (we co-sleep). I am a zombie mum as a result and everyday ask can i go on. but do ‘believe’ it’s the right thing so i do.

However i do feel very self conscious feeding in public especially as at the mo she insists on have both breasts uncovered and switches back and for between the 2. Doesn’t make discrete feeding that easy! luckily she is usually too busy when we are out to want to feed much.

Also being aware that scary people like mike (comment above) are about outside and login into breastfeeding web sites, Why Mike? Doesn’t help one to feel comfortable with feeding an older child. what a sad world we live in.