Lucy in some funky Silver circus threads


























Yes Lucy is my Nursling and is aged 2.25 years, i'm in the process of finding out what weaning ages are in other cultures, and in my searching i have found these splurbs...

from here
"Women in the United States today receive conflicting advice on many aspects of nursing, but especially where weaning is concerned. I am writing this now, because it has become a continuing issue for my son and I. He’ll be two in a week, and he is still nursing. Just today I was told I was “crazy” and “borderline insane” for continuing to nurse. I was also told by a very dear friend that “continuing to breastfeed a child who is almost 2 years old is not natural.”

So first let me provide some facts from the health authorities:
·The American Academy of Pediatricians guidelines recommend mothers breastfeed for at least the first twelve months of life and as long after as is mutually desired.
·The World Health Organization and UNICEF- recommend mothers breastfeeding for two years or longer.

However, despite these guidelines many physicians today consider six months to be “extended” breastfeeding, with some health professionals questioning the motives of women who nurse for more than a year. In turn, women may feel they have to hide the fact that they are still nursing an older child from disapproving health care professionals or family members. I know that we personally have done just that. Many of the doctors in our practice do not know that we are still breastfeeding. "...

..."·Studies have shown that a child’s immune system doesn’t completely mature until about 6 years of age, and it is a well established fact that breast milk helps develop the immune system and augment it with maternal antibodies as long as breast milk is produced, up to two years. (No studies have been done on breast milk composition after two years post partum). "

" The minimum predicted age for natural weaning in humans is somewhere around 2.5years with a maximum of 7.0 years."

and this ..
www.violence.de/prescott/letters/Lt_Alexander_NIH_10.28.05.doc -
The data that he refers to are contained in my letters to Dr. Zerhouni and to Dr. Alexander, enclosed. A brief summary of my cross-cultural studies on weaning age and behavior in tribal cultures is in order.
In a study sample of 26 tribal cultures, whose weaning age was 2.5 years or greater, 77% were rated low or absent in suicide. Utilizing the ratings of weaning age in Barry and Paxon (1971), it was found that combining the samples from Textor (1967) and Barry and Paxon (1971), it was found that in a sample of 65 cultures studied, 86% (31/35) of cultures with low suicide ratings had a weaning age of 30 months or greater; and 34% (10/29) cultures with high suicide had a weaning age of 24 months or less. A statistically significant difference in suicide was found between cultures with a weaning age of 24 months or less and 30 months or greater. This finding strongly suggest that a formative period in brain development exist between 2 years and 2.5 years that could mediate this effect and gives strong support to WHO for human breastfeeding for "two years of age and beyond". These data also support the conclusion that breastfeeding bonding for 2.5 years or greater is a necessary but insufficient condition for the prevention of suicide (Textor1967; Prescott2001, 2005). This scientific paper can be found at http://www.violence.de/archive.shtml,