Why Children Continue
Excerpt from Breastfeeding Older Children by Ann Sinnott
As this book shows, many women in the industrialized world today practise sustained breastfeeding. These mothers are convinced that ongoing feeding provides physical and emotional health benefits for older children. There have been few physical health studies on children in the developing world breastfed beyond 3 years, and even fewer at that age. To my knowledge, there has been only one small (38 children) physical health study to date on sustained breastfeeding in an industrialized setting. No studies on psychosocial adjustment have been conducted on children breastfed beyond one year. There is, therefore no direct evidence to support (or contradict) the view of these mothers. However, there is other relevant evidence.