Breastfeeding: When They Have Teeth, Is it Time to Stop?

Before we had kids, my BFF and I once saw a child approach his mother in a Burlingame boutique, pull her shirt up and nurse right there on the spot.

On another outing, in San Francisco's Metreon arcade of all places, we watched a kid probably age four, sprawled out sideways on mom's lap enjoying the milky goods.

We agreed at the time that once a kid could wear shoes, it was too late to nurse.

Which makes the hubbub about the Time magazine cover rather amusing. Is there anything really new about that? Kids who can wear shoes nurse, yeah. Some mommies do it longer than others.

I'll have to say after having two kids, my previously uninformed views shifted quite a bit. I could understand, a little bit, why it's hard to cut off the kid.

I loved nursing my babies. After the pain faded (yeah, no one mentions that it really hurts — at first), it became absolutely awesome. 

No bottles to wash, wonderful for bonding, completely portable and sooo healthy.

My aforementioned BFF had a preemie and got a little cheated on the BF action because arriving at 25 weeks he couldn't manage even that. But she was a breast pump champ, milking out gallons of the stuff for her little 2-pounder who's now a healthy 10-year-old starting pitcher on his baseball team.

I cut my daughter off at 16 months, because, yes, teeth hurt. And yes, when they can ask for it, I'm a little bit done. Plus, I wanted to have a second one. 

With my son, I take pride in knowing that my breastmilk might have helped saved his life, as he was severely ill a week after birth. His doc. called my milk "gold." But how quickly they forget! At four months old he had better things to do. I was back to work, and he was more interested in checking out what his big sis was doing. 

So what do you think? How did you handle your babies? Did they self-wean or did you cut them off yourself?