Breastfeeding at 8 years old ???

[dreama]

not NUTRITIONALLY unhealthy but I think this is MENTALLY unhealthy. It retards the mental development but I'm no expert.

Do you have any evidence to support that?

I don't think a normal 8 year old would be particularly interested in breast feeding as they would feel embarrassed. So a child of 8 who WANTED to breast feed is abnormal anyway but I see nothing wrong with letting a child do so. I've heard some vegan mothers will breast feed up till the age of about 4.

Didn't someone say the child had special needs? I would be interested to know how old the child is mentally rather then Cronalogically.

 

[Jiro]

Do you have any evidence to support that?

I don't think a normal 8 year old would be particularly interested in breast feeding as they would feel embarrassed. So a child of 8 who WANTED to breast feed is abnormal anyway but I see nothing wrong with letting a child do so. I've heard some vegan mothers will breast feed up till the age of about 4.

Didn't someone say the child had special needs? I would be interested to know how old the child is mentally rather then Cronalogically.

hence - "i'm no expert" :roll:

 

[Jolie77]

Because Breast milk is good for you. If the child wants to carry on breast feeding then why not? Sure it's UNUSUAL for an 8 year old to want to breast feed but I can't see why it would be unhealthy. It's far more unhealthy to deprive a baby of breast milk just because it is not convenient.

It's not as if anybody is doing any harm. Believe me if it was at all abusive the child would want to stop doing it.

It is harmful at that age because mentally, it is showing that the child still is being dependent on lactating the mother. Not only that, It also can corrode the teething and it will set the shape out for it otherwise.

Sure, breast milk is healthy and beneficial. As everything else, There is a limitation to it because if it wasn't for that, How would it look if a 10, 12, 14 years old kid to continue breast feeding? It wouldn't look good at all. There's a difference between that.

 

[Jiro]

and... they can use breast pump... just drink it from a cup.

 

[dreama]

If a child has the mental age of up to about 5 then it really doesn't matter what their cronalogical age is.

It's what the child WANTS after all.

Honestly their are parents that put their special needs children on drugs such as valium and nobody bats an eye lid. Then you have this mum who lets her child carry on breast feeding and people are all about how unnatural it is. I really don't understand what's bothering you people. After all it's not hurting anyone.

 

[Jiro]

If a child has the mental age of up to about 5 then it really doesn't matter what their cronalogical age is.

It's what the child WANTS after all.

Honestly their are parents that put their special needs children on drugs such as valium and nobody bats an eye lid. Then you have this mum who lets her child carry on breast feeding and people are all about how unnatural it is. I really don't understand what's bothering you people. After all it's not hurting anyone.

so if the parent and kid are having "unnatural love"... and they're not hurting anybody else... yea that bothers me. a big deal.

same thing

 

[Mrs Bucket]

If a child has the mental age of up to about 5 then it really doesn't matter what their cronalogical age is.

It's what the child WANTS after all.

Honestly their are parents that put their special needs children on drugs such as valium and nobody bats an eye lid. Then you have this mum who lets her child carry on breast feeding and people are all about how unnatural it is. I really don't understand what's bothering you people. After all it's not hurting anyone.

An 8 year old is not a baby.

Just because a member here stated "special needs" does not state it is so. "Special needs" does not always require medication. Where did we get from breastfeeding to medication? We are really bothered by an eight year old child that breastfeeds and if I may point it out, she practically begs for her mother's breast at one point in the video.

It is hurting her emotional, psychological and social growth. Her own mother is enabling her in all of this. This is what is bothering all of us. It is unnatural and borderline molestation.

Now if this had been an eight year old boy breastfeeding his mother.. don't get me started.

 

[Oceanbreeze]

An 8 year old is not a baby.

Just because a member here stated "special needs" does not state it is so. "Special needs" does not always require medication. Where did we get from breastfeeding to medication? We are really bothered by an eight year old child that breastfeeds and if I may point it out, she practically begs for her mother's breast at one point in the video.

It is hurting her emotional, psychological and social growth. Her own mother is enabling her in all of this. This is what is bothering all of us. It is unnatural and borderline molestation.

Now if this had been an eight year old boy breastfeeding his mother.. don't get me started.

Exactly! Ugh...

Breast feeding is wonderful for an infant providing the Mom can breastfeed, but from a developmental point of view, there has to come a point where you must foster independance in a child. It must learn to take it's liquids from a cup and should have learned to do so beginning at about 18 mos of age or so.

 

[Daredevel7]

An 8 year old is not a baby.

Just because a member here stated "special needs" does not state it is so. "Special needs" does not always require medication. Where did we get from breastfeeding to medication? We are really bothered by an eight year old child that breastfeeds and if I may point it out, she practically begs for her mother's breast at one point in the video.

It is hurting her emotional, psychological and social growth. Her own mother is enabling her in all of this. This is what is bothering all of us. It is unnatural and borderline molestation.

Now if this had been an eight year old boy breastfeeding his mother.. don't get me started.

I agree with you Mrs. Bucket. It's very unnatural.

There is no difference between this and carrying an 8 year old around like a baby. Seems harmless but like... not really.

 

[dreama]

I still don't get it. If she was forcing the child to feed then that would be differant. A child who begs for milk is obviously not normal. But a normal child just wouldn't be interested. I'm still wondering what her mental age is.

I mentioned drugs because sometimes parents do give drugs to their special needs kids.

If a child needed to be carried around that wouldn't be unnatural either.

Maybe if the video was described to me I might get a clearer picture since I can't see video's.

But just going by an 8 year old sucking milk. I don't see it as being abusive or harmful.

What do you think about an 8 year old sucking a dummy? There was a girl I knew at college who still used a dummy but she also had challanging behavior.

If an 8 year old boy had a 5 year old mentality then It wouldn't bother me either. But Didn't someone else say about escimo children breast feeding until 7?

It's only our messed up culture that thinks breast feeding children is so bad. To me it seems perfectly harmless. Something I just don't understanding. Particularly considering the many evils of today's society.

 

[dreama]

I've learnt that the natural age of weaning is closer to six years – when the first permanent molars appear – than six months. If I have another baby, my daughter may wean during pregnancy as milk supply can dip at that time. But if she continues to feed during pregnancy and beyond – called tandem feeding and perfectly possible – or if I don't have another baby, then she's in charge. She will wean when she is, uniquely to her, developmentally and immunologically ready (a child's immune system doesn't mature until they are about seven); she will then lose the ability to suckle.

The rest of the article is here: One small step for breastfeeding.....: Why I Still Breastfeed My Four Year Old

 

[jillio]

That is what I thought. Also, not only that, It can and will be corroded if it were to continue past a certain age as well.

Yes, absolutely. Not to mention the psychological damage done by continuing to nurse a child at this age.

 

[jillio]

Breastfeeding Associated With Increased Intelligence, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (May 6, 2008) — The largest randomized study of breastfeeding ever conducted reports that breastfeeding raises children's IQs and improves their academic performance, a McGill researcher and his team have found.
See also:
Health & Medicine

* Infant's Health
* Children's Health
* Psychology Research

Mind & Brain

* Child Development
* Intelligence
* Child Psychology

Reference

* Maternal bond
* Colostrum
* Baby colic
* Infant

In a new article, Dr. Michael Kramer reports the results from following the same group of 14,000 children for 6.5 years.

"Our study provides the strongest evidence to date that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding makes kids smarter," said Kramer, a Professor of Pediatrics and of Epidemiology & Biostatistics in the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and lead investigator in the study.

Kramer and his colleagues evaluated the children in 31 Belarusian hospitals and clinics. Half the mothers were exposed to an intervention that encouraged prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding. The remaining half continued their usual maternity hospital and outpatient pediatric care and follow-up. This allowed the researchers to measure the effect of breastfeeding on the children's cognitive development without the results being biased by differences in factors such as the mother's intelligence or her way of interacting with her baby.

The children's cognitive ability was assessed by IQ tests administered by the children's pediatricians and by their teachers' ratings of their academic performance in reading, writing, mathematics and other subjects. Both sets of measures were significantly higher in the group randomized to the breastfeeding promotion intervention.

"Although breastfeeding initiation rates have increased substantially during the last 30 years, much less progress has been achieved in increasing the exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding," the authors conclude.

"The effect of breastfeeding on brain development and intelligence has long been a popular and hotly debated topic," says Dr. Kramer. "While most studies have been based on association, however, we can now make a causal inference between breastfeeding and intelligence -- because of the randomized design of our study."

Journal reference: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008;65[5]:578-584

If you read the whole study you will find that it is not just the breast milk that is beneficial to cognitive development, but the close bond between mother and child. The same close bond can be achieved with a bottle fed infant. It is the attitude of the mother, and her dedication to her child's development that makes the most difference, not the breast milk, when it comes to I.Q.

 

[jillio]

Because Breast milk is good for you. If the child wants to carry on breast feeding then why not? Sure it's UNUSUAL for an 8 year old to want to breast feed but I can't see why it would be unhealthy. It's far more unhealthy to deprive a baby of breast milk just because it is not convenient.

It's not as if anybody is doing any harm. Believe me if it was at all abusive the child would want to stop doing it.

Why not? Because it is psychologically damaging to the child, and the presumed health benefits at that age do not outweigh the risk of severe developmental and personality problems that are likely to result.

Not to mention the psychological issues that a mother who continues to breastfeed an 8 year old child has that obviously need attention.

 

[jillio]

not NUTRITIONALLY unhealthy but I think this is MENTALLY unhealthy. It retards the mental development but I'm no expert.

It is definately psychologically damaging, as this is a situation that keeps a child in an overly dependent position at a time when they should be developmentally concentrating on the beginning of separation and independence.

 

[jillio]

If a child has the mental age of up to about 5 then it really doesn't matter what their cronalogical age is.

It's what the child WANTS after all.

Honestly their are parents that put their special needs children on drugs such as valium and nobody bats an eye lid. Then you have this mum who lets her child carry on breast feeding and people are all about how unnatural it is. I really don't understand what's bothering you people. After all it's not hurting anyone.

Children would choose to eat candy for 3 meals a day if we allowed them to. That is the point of having a parent. We don't allow them to do that which could be harmful, no matter how much they WANT to.

 

[jillio]

I still don't get it. If she was forcing the child to feed then that would be differant. A child who begs for milk is obviously not normal. But a normal child just wouldn't be interested. I'm still wondering what her mental age is.

I mentioned drugs because sometimes parents do give drugs to their special needs kids.

If a child needed to be carried around that wouldn't be unnatural either.

Maybe if the video was described to me I might get a clearer picture since I can't see video's.

But just going by an 8 year old sucking milk. I don't see it as being abusive or harmful.

What do you think about an 8 year old sucking a dummy? There was a girl I knew at college who still used a dummy but she also had challanging behavior.

If an 8 year old boy had a 5 year old mentality then It wouldn't bother me either. But Didn't someone else say about escimo children breast feeding until 7?

It's only our messed up culture that thinks breast feeding children is so bad. To me it seems perfectly harmless. Something I just don't understanding. Particularly considering the many evils of today's society.

Obviously, this is a situation in which the mother's needs are primary, and the damage she is doing to her child is secondary. The mother exhibits a pathological need to keep this child dependent and tied to her in a very disturbing way.

 

[Daredevel7]

I still don't get it. If she was forcing the child to feed then that would be differant. A child who begs for milk is obviously not normal. But a normal child just wouldn't be interested. I'm still wondering what her mental age is.

It's only our messed up culture that thinks breast feeding children is so bad. To me it seems perfectly harmless. Something I just don't understanding. Particularly considering the many evils of today's society.

Let's see what YOU say when your 8 year old child comes up to you and says "Can I suck on your nipples, mommie? I'm REALLY thirsty." Wouldn't you allow it to happen since it's so harmless......?

 

[dreama]

Let's see what YOU say when your 8 year old child comes up to you and says "Can I suck on your nipples, mommie? I'm REALLY thirsty." Wouldn't you allow it to happen since it's so harmless......?

Yes I would. I think it's more emotionally damaging to deprive a 6 month old baby who DOES need breast milk. If you can't do it yourself get milk from a breast milk bank or hire a wet nurse. I hear they are making a come back. Which I think is a good thing.

By the way when I said a Dummy I actually meant a pacifier. I've known a young woman at college of 16 use one.

I also like reading children's books, going on swings and climbing trees and I'm 38. Do you think these activities are 'emotionally damaging' me because I am too old for such things?

 

[Jiro]

the people you know who do such things, dreama, are the one who need to seek professional help.