The Joy of Nursing Toddlers Photo Gallery

By Danelle Day © 2011

Today my son and I reached 30 months of goodness! The World Health Organization, UNICEF, American Academy of Family Physicians, and essentially every pediatric health organization in the world recommends a minimum 24 months of human milk for human babies (with at least the first six months being exclusive breastmilk).

Bare minimums are typically not enough for me... so I tacked on six months to the 24, and made breastfeeding for 30 months my goal. I strived to do nothing that would inhibit our nursing relationship or my milk supply (no pacifiers, no supplementation, no forced night weaning, no artificial hormones, no close consecutive pregnancies, etc.) and everything I could to ensure we were successful (early pumping when there were issues, lots of babywearing, lots of sleep sharing, exclusive breastfeeding till 10 months, baby-led weaning, etc.)

Today, I admit, I am elated, because this goal has been reached! Not without trials along the way (especially in the early weeks when my son was not latching/sucking properly due to birth trauma), but with rewards and benefits that far outweigh any culturally-derived challenges we've had to overcome.

When I posted our photo in celebration on Facebook, I ventured a guess as to how long it would take lactiphobic onlookers to flag it for being 'obscene' and my account would be removed... But in a beautiful twist of happenstance, as soon as it posted, several other mommas were encouraged to share photos of their happy, healthy nursing toddlers. And so, we decided a photo gallery is in order to celebrate the many joys of nursing our little ones for a normal duration of time.

In Mothering Your Nursing Toddler, Norma Jane Bumgarner writes,

Nursing for the child is a kind of 'fix,' but a healthy one. It is not addictive [...] but just the opposite. The child's craving diminishes over time. It is no wonder that some families call mother's milk 'joy juice.' Nursing has all the restorative powers of a morning cup of coffee without the 'caffeine jitters.' It is as relaxing as an evening cocktail, with no bleary aftereffects. 

Sucking is a necessary restorative for rapidly growing little people, so much so that most children who do not nurse seek an alternative - bottle, pacifier, thumb, fingers, hair, blanket-corner, etc. They show us through the persistence of such behaviors that young children need the calming and reassuring effects of sucking as much, or more, than some adults need our 'pacifiers.' They are so young, so unfinished, so without experience in this world, while at the same time they are undergoing enormous growth and change.

Comfort from sucking is a blessing given to babies and little children which helps ease them through the physical and mental upheaval, greater than that of adolescence, that propels them from the womb into childhood in just a few short years. Children can be awakened and relaxed, soothed and pacified through sucking. [...]

The best place for this sucking to happen is in mother's arms, at her breast, where it is entirely natural. The simple act of sucking within the embrace of mother and child, is transformed into the complete act of suckling, where there is give and take and understanding between mother and child. And of course, the child receives a bonus not possible with substitutes - the gift of his own mother's living milk, made specifically for this moment in the child's life. [...]

When children talk about nursing, they talk about something very warm and special to them. Nursing is their soul food.

If you'd like to include your beautiful little one in our Joy of Nursing Toddlers Gallery, send to: JoyofNursingToddlers@gmail.com 

If you're a mom or dad seeking additional information on healthy baby nutrition and the natural progression of human weaning, here are several great places to start:

Natural Weaning ~ Norma Jane Bumgarner

A Natural Age of Weaning ~ Katherine Dettwyler

Natural Weaning Age  ~ Linda Palmer

Mothering Your Nursing Toddler ~ Norma Jane Bumgarner

How Weaning Happens ~ Diane Bengson

Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby To Love Good Food ~ Gill Rapley & Tracey Murkett

Breastfeeding Older Children ~ Ann Sinnott 

10 Reasons to Nurse Your Todder

Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond ~ Hilary Flower

Natural Family Living (one chapter) ~  Peggy O'Mara

Take Charge of Your Child's Health: A Parents' Guide to Recognizing Symptoms and Treating Minor Illnesses at Home (one chapter) ~ George Wootan & Sarah Verney

Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent (one chapter) ~ Meredith Small

❤ Thank you for nursing your toddler! ❤

From Earthy Motherhood

From The Guggie Daly Daily

From 45 Things to Do With Toddlers

Emma Kwasnica, founder of Human Milk 4 Human Babies

 From our Christmas♥Milk album

 

 From MilkyMumma

 From MilkyMumma

 From MilkyMumma

 From MilkyMumma

From Earthy Motherhood

From Mama's Felt Cafe

"I stepped out of the shower and was attacked by a wee boy on a step stool while his sister made funny faces in the mirror!" ~Bianka

Breastfeeding Advocacy Tshirts & Onesies at MadeByMomma

Breastfeeding is Offensive

I'm thankful for not having boobs thrown in my face all the time by offensive and indecent
breastfeeding mothers like the ones below.

Wait... Well, this is a bad example. Let's try again.

Hmm... Just a minute. I'm sure I can find better ones than these...

Eh, still not offensive enough. I'll check one more time.

That is better. LOOK AT THAT! I see about a half inch of boob. DISGUSTING.

UGH. Look at that indecency! She must be from some third world country to be exposed like that!

Now that's just... There are no words to describe how inappropriate that is. 

Something needs to be done!

But why stop at breastfeeding women? 

There are boobs everywhere. 

Beware! If you thought the above photos were offensive, you will definitely be offended by the photos below.

Not this one, though. 

This one was in plain view on newsstands and in mailboxes in 19 countries world-wide:

Not this one, either. It actually won an award!

Oh, and I guess this one is fine too. 

Everyone knows you cannot sell jeans without someone being topless.

Or beer, for that matter:

Or sunglasses:

Or movie tickets:

Or CDs:

You know what? Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that someone mixed up some photos here. 

The first batch are offensive, but the second batch are just fine and dandy?!

~~~~

People who live in glass bras:

Shouldn't throw stones:

Support breastfed babies and their right to eat in public!

Amber and her "mommy milk" ~ used on DrMomma.org with permission of her mother, Rebecca

~~~~

Helpful books, websites, and articles for nursing mothers and their babies found at the

Breastfeeding Resources Page.

Circumcision and The United States Constitution: Forced Genital Cutting of Minors is Illegal

By Danelle Day

Image by Aubrey Terrón

On this 4th of July we celebrate many freedoms protected and held dear in the United States. One such protection, however, has been failed to be recognized in this nation, and that is the equal right of baby boys and intersex persons to maintain their full and functioning genitals at birth. Taking a closer look at the U.S. Constitution and laws currently in place, we see that routine infant male circumcision is already illegal.

The Equal Protection Clause (8.6) of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits U.S. States from denying any person within their jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. Section 1 of this clause reads:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in December, 1948, by members of the United Nations declares in Articles 2 and 5:

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

The Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 1995 (which was signed into law in 1996, and went into effect in March 1997, punishable as a felony under federal U.S. law) prohibits ANY genital cutting of any kind - including small pin pricks or nicks - to a minor child or baby under the age of 18, for any reason whatsoever (religious or otherwise) if this minor is deemed to be 'female.' The FGM law, in combination with the 14th Amendment Clause 8.6, makes all forms of forced genital cutting on minors a federal violation, regardless of sex. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights further supports this position.

Therefore, as of March 1997, all forms of medically unnecessary forced circumcision on infants of any sex, are most certainly illegal in the United States of America.

Photograph courtesy of Intact New Hampshire

By Intact Houston / Intact Texas
(local chapters of Saving Our Sons and The INTACT Network)

Related Reading:

Circumcision: Already Illegal? DrMomma.org/2010/04/circumcision-already-illegal.html

Male and Female Genital Cutting: DrMomma.org/2011/04/male-and-female-circumcision.html

Should I Circumcise? The pros and cons: SavingSons.org/2014/12/should-i-circumcise-pros-and-cons-of.html

~~~~~

Lone Star Customer Stiffs New Breastfeeding, Pumping Mom of Twins in North Carolina

Kelsey Vetter is a brand new breastfeeding mom to 13 week old twin girls in Mount Airy, North Carolina. While at work at Lone Star Steakhouse in Mount Airy, Kelsey takes a 20 minute break to pump milk for her hungry babies at home. Pumping for her little ones is something that is not only vital to their healthy beginning in life, but is also protected by law -- working mothers have the federally sanctioned right to take a break at work to pump milk. (See laws in detail below).

However, one Lone Star customer who was sat in Kelsey's section on June 24, 2015, did not seem to understand the many reasons a young woman may need to step away from her tables for a brief time. This customer would likely benefit from learning a little more about who their server was that night --a working mom striving to do the best for her small babies. Instead of inquiring, or having compassion for what the situation may be, this customer left a large "X" scribbled where a tip would otherwise be written onto their receipt, and left nothing for Kelsey's time in waiting their table that night. In addition, on the back was a scribbled note (above).

On her Facebook page, Kelsey responds:

To the girl who left this for me tonight, and didn't tip... I apologize for the tea being "nasty" (the tea that you asked for a to-go cup in order to take it with you). All you had to do is let me know, and I could have fixed the problem. But you didn't. Also, I DID thank my manager for watching my section, and as you said "waiting on you" for the 20 minutes I had to step away to pump because I am a new mother of two 13-week-old girls whom I breastfeed. No, I don't feel the need to explain myself or warn my table that they may have someone else bring their food, or check on their drinks. I would just like people to be more aware of what a situation might be. There are laws that give breastfeeding women the right to break from their job to pump. Not everyone knows this, but it is important. It's important to understand that it is the only way that some babies eat. So to the girl who left this, I hope that in the future you might consider the big picture instead of just being rude and ignorant. #HindsightIs20/20

We would like to encourage Kelsey -- not only for standing up on behalf of thousands of other mothers who are working and pumping to balance mothering and paying bills, but also for her devotion to nursing her twins (and pumping for them when she's away). Any mom of multiples knows this is no small task, and Kelsey should be supported, encouraged, empowered -- not belittled and denied the income she works for.

♥

Photograph of Kelsey's twin baby girls from Heavenly Angels Photography.

Federal Workplace Pumping Law

Section 7(r) of the Fair Labor Standards Act – Break Time for Nursing Mothers Provision Effective March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended the FLSA to require employers to provide a nursing mother reasonable break time to express breast milk after the birth of her child. The amendment also requires that employers provide a place for an employee to express breast milk. Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 207) is amended by adding at the end the following:

(r)(1) An employer shall provide— a reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk; and a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.

(2) An employer shall not be required to compensate an employee receiving reasonable break time under paragraph (1) for any work time spent for such purpose.

(3) An employer that employs less than 50 employees shall not be subject to the requirements of this subsection, if such requirements would impose an undue hardship by causing the employer significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the employer’s business.

(4) Nothing in this subsection shall preempt a State law that provides greater protections to employees than the protections provided for under this subsection.

United States Department of Labor: Nursing and Pumping Laws for Working Mothers: http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/faqBTNM.htm

Breastfeeding State Laws and Federal Health Reform and Nursing Mothers: http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/breastfeeding-state-laws.aspx

~~~~~