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Expert Q&A

	By Ann Calandro BSN, RNC, IBCLC Lactation Consultant

I read somewhere that bears nurse for two years. How long would/should humans nurse without societies negative influence?

Anthropologists and biologists study other mammals to find out how long normal nursing extends. It is easy to do because other mammals all breastfeed by instinct and breastfeed until just the right moment for weaning. They are not influenced by the neighbors, advertising or going back to work. Their internal clocks tell them when it is time. Their weaning depends on how fast their babies mature and are able to care for themselves.

Studying humans doesn't help, because humans sometimes don't breastfeed at all. Some humans may breastfeed for days or weeks, and others may breastfeed for years. Katherine A. Dettwyler, an anthropologist, has studied the weaning patterns of other large primates and has theorized that an accurate rule of thumb for weaning would be when Baby quadruples its birth weight (7 X 4=28 months) or has lived six times its gestation age (6 X 9=54 months).

Dettwyler "does advocate that medical professionals and paraprofessionals, family members, friends, acquaintances and even strangers recognize that human children, like their nonhuman primate relatives are designed to expect all the benefits of breast milk and breastfeeding for a minimum of 2.5 years. The information that three or four years of breastfeeding, or even longer, is both normal and appropriate for human infants should be disseminated to heath care professionals and parents alike."

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