And it's time for american Catholics to get over their prudishness and get with the program.
The worldwide average for weaning is past the fourth birthday Extended breastfeeding is natural, and it's beautiful, and it should be the norm in any Catholic public setting.
A nice video on the subject, and even better with the sound turned way down.
Much of what goes on about us and in society we can't do anything about. We can only watch in horror as it's slowly ground into oblivion. But we can raise our children as God intended creating a patch of The Garden in this wasteland.
I don't expect to ever find mothers at my FSSP parish with breasts exposed nursing their 4 year olds. But if I did, I would know we have finally started to become a holistically Catholic parish.
Addendum May 10, 2012
the child is only three, but given the over the top prudishness of Americans this is actually another step in the right direction. And any time Dr. Sears gets press is good.
Also read :Nursing babies. It's not sexual, but why do most women act like it is?
I'm not a prude, ha! As if! Closer to the opposite.
ReplyDeleteI just didn't want to do it and I make no apologies for it, and since when does Catholicism demand that one be "holistic"?
Good thing, then, that my son never attached, as he ended up in the NICU when he was born. (Oops, I suppose I violated another "Catholic" teaching and didn't give birth at home?)
I pumped milk for 2 months and cried about every third day about it. No thanks. A baby knows when their mother is upset.
And while I don't think a man should have no opinion about breastfeeding, I think it's mighty presumptuous to come out as often as you do for it, almost demanding it.
Thank you for your reply.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte writes : "since when does Catholicism demand that one be "holistic"?"
Holistic in the sense I use it means to be concerned with the totality of man. The natural law, for instance, makes sense holistically because it argues to mans total good as he was created.
We are by nature an organic whole, that is how we were created and that is how the Church understands us and directs us.
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Charlotte writes : "it's mighty presumptuous to come out as often as you do for it, almost demanding it."
I've written three posts on breastfeeding prior to this one.
The first was an argument against NFP March 9, 2010
The second was against prudish behavior which I've linked to above. Dec. 27, 2010
The third used breastfeeding to explain an aspect of Organic Catholicism Jan. 24, 2011
And now this post March 25, 2012. I really don't see that as often either in number or in time.
As for "demanding it". I would instead say breastfeeding is proper to us. Just as living in society is proper to us, or sight is proper to us. It's how we were created.
"I don't expect to ever find mothers at my FSSP parish with breasts exposed nursing their 4 year olds. But if I did, I would know we have finally started to become a holistically Catholic parish."
ReplyDeleteSince when was the feeding of babies is liturgical issue?
(Answer: It isn't. So was are you really trying to say here?)
Thank you for your reply.
ReplyDeleteInvictus writes : "Since when was the feeding of babies is liturgical issue?
(Answer: It isn't. So was are you really trying to say here?)"
A parish is more than the Mass. We are by nature social and the parish should function as the epicenter of social life.
I laughed when I read the last paragraph. The Traditional Latin Mass is one of the last places that I would let my four year old nurse; although, truly, she doesn't nurse out of the house very much anymore. I feel edgy enough when I publicly nurse my two year old. People sometimes ask me when I will wean them. Sometimes I tell them that chimps and elephants nurse for five years; sometimes I tell them that we have two sets of teeth, milk (baby) teeth and adult teeth to accommodate extended nursing until the age of 7 or 8. Sometimes I preach about the physical and emotional benefits... usually I just smile and they wished they hadn't asked.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reply.
ReplyDeleteAmy writes : "The Traditional Latin Mass is one of the last places that I would let my four year old nurse"
Unfortunately. But it should be one of the first. I grew up somewhat holistically, my mother starting the first natural food grocery store in Denver and all that goes with it. One of the first conversations I had with traditionalist Catholics was how they, (I wasn't Catholic), were the real depository of the holistic understanding of men down through the ages and that those like myself were new comers to what Catholics have always held.
They were right, we were the newcomers, but we were also the ones out there starting stores, and farms, and manufacturing organic foods in a market where none currently existed.
In other words, the traditionalists should be the first to understand and have a holistic understanding, but they've for the most part have been americanized and need to discover their own traditional past.
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I really like your insight on two sets of teeth, it's really good
Have you seen this news article?
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/time-breastfeeding-cover-sparks-immediate-controversy-151539970.html
Extended breastfeeding is pictured on the cover of Time magazine.
I do accept as true with all of the concepts you have presented on
ReplyDeleteyour post. They're really convincing and can certainly work.
Still, the posts are very quick for novices. May you please extend them a little from subsequent time?
Thanks for the post.
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To Sky Angebote,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post, I just found it in the spam filter.