Thursday, July 23, 2009

WTF PEOPLE!?! Over-breastfeeding

Hey, I decided to start a new ongoing rant titled simply 'WTF PEOPLE!?!' It's an outlook on my askew look at some of the most eccentric things that some people do. This may consist of certain habitual ways of people, OCD related tendencies, or other compulsive crap. But most of all it is what I think of why it rates themselves of having me to say about it, "WTF!?!"

This installment is mothers that breastfeed their children past a certain point in their child's lives. Let me first start off by saying that I am a big advocate for breastfeeding. I think from research and experience that breastmilk for young nursling's (that's the term for a breastfeeing child) is best suited for their growth and development from newborn to infant to toddler. It assists them with natural antibodies to fend off minor illnesses and the hormones in breastmilk is known to greatly set the child up for a well developed life in all facets of it. This is great for the first year of a child's life and development, then the child should be weened off or already off after 15 months. But what gets me is those mothers that have their children (notice I didn't say nursling's this time) feed off of them at 2, 3, even 4 years old. That's too old for a child to be on the teet. If a child is successfully eating solid foods (not just jarred puree foods) but McDonald's Happy Meals, then the child should be off the boob.

These mothers and their children in my opinion are seriously messed up in the head, and I can only think of two effects that might be a direct cause to this prolonged breastfeeding epidemic:
1) The mothers themselves have such a symbiotic relationship with their nursling's that they develop such separation anxiety that it could potentially kill them, or
2) The children themselves would grow up with such a dependency/codependency with their mothers that it would make them virtually useless to function by themselves as adolescents and adults.

This dilemma is in my opinion a root of so much problems of both parties. Most mothers use the excuse of only nursing for comfort purposes to either put them to sleep or to ease their transition of waking up in the morning is such a cop-out in my opinion to their own obsession to not let go. Nursing is intended for nutritional purposes only. Sure it serves as a comforting mechanism, but that benefit should be reek by those that are in dire need of its nutritional value only, such as babies that are under 1 year old and experimenting with solid foods (the puree kind this time.) After the age of 1, breastmilk's nutritional value isn't all that impacting and it so becomes a physical and emotional demanding venture for both parties. That in my opinion is more of a hassle than anything on the breastfeeding circuit.

In short, feed your children what is necessary, not what you want to do for them to further inhibit your separation anxiety. So to all breastfeeding mothers: breastfeed, please, but don't drag on to possibly destroy you or your child.

BootLeG sampler.. signing off...

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