An Australian mom has come out and said that she will breastfeed her son until he is 9 years old if that’s what he wants.
Read on for the full story…
Breastfeeding can be a contentious issue at the best of times.
From breast versus bottle to whereabouts is deemed ‘appropriate’ to feed, the internet has a lot to say about the act.
Mom Temeaka Tate learned this for herself when she shared photos online.
She posted pictures of her breastfeeding her 4-and-a-half-year-old daughter on Facebook.
The mom of 3 told the Mail Online that the photos “all got reported as child harm.”
She contested the suggestion that she had forced her little one to be breastfed past a certain age.
The thirty-four-year-old mom said: “No one was forced.”
She added: “I ask people if they’ve ever tried to make a toddler do what they don’t want to do. I can’t force a child to feed.”
Tate has been breastfeeding her kids non-stop since the birth of her first son 9 years ago.
One of her biggest aims was to be able to tandem feed her kids.
With her first son, she was forced to pump for 6 months as he was born with tongue ties. She said: “I knew it was the best thing for him. He was dairy and soy intolerant and wouldn’t drink any of the formulas that were safe.”
However, when she fell pregnant with her second child, her milk dried up.
Her second child, a little girl, was breastfed until she was almost 5 years old.
Tate said she was “so desperate to tandem feed with her.”
The New South Wales mom was “heartbroken” when her daughter didn’t want to be breastfed anymore “but it was her decision.”
She said: “The day he was born I asked if she still wanted milk and she said, ‘No, it’s his milk now mum.'”
Parenting expert Pinky McKay said that, internationally, the average age for weaning is between 2 and 7 years old.
She said: “Extended breastfeeding might be more unusual in our culture, rather than unnatural.”
“There is no use by date on the nutrients and it’s a really great calming tool.
“It’s like a superpower,” the expert said.
What do you think?