Time Magazine's Breastfeeding Cover Controversy

Walter, I read that to. I went to the WHO site and looked for their stats. No where do they give this number or anything close to it. In fact, if you go through the site you'll see that the average age is much less than that, often less than 24 months even in developing nations. Also, if you look at individual countries you'll see that that 2 years seems to be the average top limit as well, and in each country the rates drop exponentially at the 3,6,12 and the 18 month age groups.
While developing countries seem to breast-feed the longest, this would mean that for every child not being breastfed, there would be a child who was much older still at the teet.
I've travelled a bit, and seen many pictures of women breastfeeding... la leche league photos and so on.. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen or heard or that many 8 year olds breastfeeding. For this particular average to work, there would be a rash of them, everywhere. And there isn't. Even in Norway, where it's the most commonly practiced in Europe, I defy you to find many children still suckling at age 4. The so-called world median. Just doesn't happen.Below is a site that gives that stats by country of women who breast feed at the time of birth and the % who are still doing it at 6 months..
http://www.lalecheleague.org/cbi/bfstats03.html
As you can see, it's a significant drop. The stats in no way match the supposed WHO age 4 urban myth. Shame on TIME for not doing the basic homework.

Below are two sites that explain the myth in a more eloquent manner.
http://thelactivist.blogspot.ca/2008/01/myth-busting-average-age-of-weaning-45.html
http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html

I'm not offended by the cover photo, took it as polemic, if discombooberating. Reminds me of Sally Mann's work, and one photo of one of the photographers at our gallery. That was the one I disagreed about showing, for the reason you cite, the child could not give informed consent, no matter how smart and progressive the child. My business partner and the artist agreed to show it in the front room. One day it got put under the desk. I didn't inquire, though I noticed. Other things going on at the time.

I am not sure I got everything strate in this story, so I need some help.
According to what I read, this woman says she is breastfeeding her son. For me breastfeeding would mean at least one full meal for a child a day - on the same time I think I read it is only now and then.
Then you can hardly call it breastfeeding - it is more like sucking the breast now and then, if it is on irregular basis there might not be any milk at all.

She has an adopted son, two years older than her biological son.
He also is breastfeed.
Who was breastfeeding him his first two years??
The mother could only have milk after the birth of her biological son.
So he would started being breastfed at a age when most other children have stopped.

If I got all of this strate then there is not much logic to the thinking of this woman.

Is it the mother who needs what she calls breastfeeding or is it really the children´s need?

I think that it was John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was it,
who existed only on mother 's milk ?

He reputedly said that he 'd give 1/2 his fortune to be able to eat a strawberry shortcake ?

Factually not correct...lactation can be induced by way of extended sucking on the breasts over many weeks.


the advocates say that it is both parties who benefit. I think that this is mostly done for the benefit of women who lack the intestinal fortitude to wean their children.

Y shud thay DO that???
I have a hunch that it will be accomplished, eventually.

( Rockefeller to the contrary notwithstanding )

According to our neighbour, who's the chief physician of a rather larger children hospital, those WHO-data were published around 2005.
They are mentioned in publications by the (German) National Breastfeeding Committee (a department of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection) as well, though only in German, I think.

Not all children are adopted as infants. Perhaps her son was already born at the time of the adoption. Maybe his biological mother breast fed him before that.

my best friend breastfed her kids at least once a day til they were each about 10. that goes back about 20 years. There are a number of younger women in my current extended circle who breastfeed til their kids are about 6. It doesn't seem to strike anyone as unusual, but it's also not something that people sit around and discuss.

breastfeeding doesn't seem to be impacted much by pregnancy (by their anecdotal evidence), and it doesn't appear to have any real-life use as a method of birth control.

lactation can be medically induced. my understanding is that it's not done often, but it is an option

That all started when I had my condo in CA. I’d be in the Jacuzzi and the women would join me and want me of all people to judge on who had the best boobs, they would flash me. Of course they all looked different but none did anything for me, it’s not like I’m breast-feeding or anything

What did u say the street address of that condo was ?

22681 Oak Grove Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA, that's where I use to live

Yikes, you know its kind of scary when you can type in an address in google images and actually see a photo of the inside of your home, even your bedroom!

Now I wonder how the heck did they get those photos!

Never mind, I freaked out and called a friend in CA, he called me a dummy, it was the real esate when she was selling the condo that listed the photos.

Thank u, Morgan. I was only joking.
I 'm not really going there.





David

That really WAS a scary thought.

The reaction and the way we look at the cover is completely personal, for me the photo is not disrespectful while relating to the title of the story, at least in this case the photo does have relevance to the article unlike in other cases where the photos have no connection to the story.
Sachin Karpe.

What a tard

I breastfed both my kids. I did not get a period between pregnancies, of course till the one that got me pregnant... My kids birthday's are two years - less a day- apart. It's not really a great means of birth control, because, you don't know when your cycle will start again. It's a great big mystery, kinda like playing russian roulette. Generally, women that breastfeed don't get their period as quickly as women who don't, sometimes for many, many months after they deliver a baby - as in my case.
My milk dried up almost immediately when I became pregnant. Some woman can go for a couple of month longer into the pregnancy and some never stop. Some woman can't ever breastfeed, some only for a few days and some can do it spontaneously without being pregnant or using medication. There are even reports of men lactating.
I don't know of any studies that give the percentages of any of this, but I do not that your examples are not mainstream, not for Canada nor the world. The few women I've met that continue breast feeding till children have adult teeth, generally didn't have large broods. Usually 1 child, as it's hard to maintain milk for a family of five.

I think that must be pretty individual. I started my period well before I stopped breastfeeding, and I had a lot of friends who tandem breastfed non-twin siblings -- that is, they breastfed one, then got pregnant, and then started breastfeeding the new one before the old one was weaned.

In my own experience, it was a lot more rare for people to NOT get pregnant when breastfeeding than the other way 'round (if they weren't using any other birth control, that is).

I'll see what I can find by way of research.