One more thing. You haven't addressed where bfing beyond the first year can be a "it's best for the family" kind of thing. How can it be best for your family to bf beyond the first yr but not another family?
But that's his decision as a teen because he's embarrassed. The mother bf'ing the toddler knows it's not acceptable and chooses not to do so in public for that reason.
This is only speculation, but I don't think work status would turn out to be an actual causal relationship. I think that SES and education levels definitely have causal relationships with breastfeeding. I'm pretty sure that there are far more women of low SES that are not in the workforce, so that would explain that relation. (Purely speculation, as I said.)
Yes, she knows that her child will be the object of stares by ignorant and prejudiced people and she chooses not to expose her child to that disapproval because the child is too young to know he/she is outside the average. But that doesn't make it wrong, anymore than an older child choosing not to embarrass himself in front of his friends makes it wrong for a teen to crave physical affection from a parent occasionally.
No, I think you try to teach alternate behaviors and give them options, and gradually, they grow out of infantile behaviors. I think there's a range of times they grow out of these behaviors, for both physical and psychological reasons, and that it's perfectly normal for, say, a six year old to be both sucking her thumb occasionally AND know it's not the norm among her peers.
I have never said that a child should not be encouraged to wean from the breast...just not on some strict timetable that's culturally rather than biologically driven. And I do think that an 8 year old on the breast is a red flag.
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PumpkinAngel
No, I think you try to teach alternate behaviors and give them options, and gradually, they grow out of infantile behaviors. I think there's a range of times they grow out of these behaviors, for both physical and psychological reasons, and that it's perfectly normal for, say, a six year old to be both sucking her thumb occasionally AND know it's not the norm among her peers.
I have never said that a child should not be encouraged to wean from the breast...just not on some strict timetable that's culturally rather than biologically driven. And I do think that an 8 year old on the breast is a red flag.
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