NaBloPoMo – Day 5
I watched a tv show about orangutans last night and learned that although the adults prefer a solitary life, their babies are nursed for 4-6 years and stay with their mum for a few more years after that. It is believed that this extended period of childhood helps them become independent and able to survive on their own later.
This fascinated me because I have often been questioned about our practices of extended breastfeeding, babywearing & cosleeping, with people expressing concerns that littlepixie will grow up clingy. Not at all, I tell them, it’ll make her more secure and confident.
I found more information here on orangutans
By age four, orangutan juveniles are usually weaned, though they may still nurse during periods of stress until they are seven years old.
As I watched the little orangutans on the tv last night, being carried on their mother’s back, I thought how similar we are to them, and wondered about the rest of the Great Apes…
Gorillas nurse their young for 3-4 years.
The juvenile period is from three to six years and is characterized by a decrease in maternal grooming, no longer sharing a sleeping nest with the mother, and weaning. Because of the enormity of the task of rearing infants and the stress of lactation on the mother’s body, female gorillas experience lactational amenorrhea until the infant is weaned at three or four years.
Chimpanzees nurse for 4-6 years.
Not until three years of age do young chimpanzees venture more than five meters from their mothers, and between ages four and six, the period of infancy ends with weaning.
Bonobos nurse for 4-5 years.
Bonobos are not weaned until four or five years of age. They are sustained by nursing for the first year of life, and though they may mouth food, they never consume it in the first year.
So there you go, despite their diverse lifestyles and family groupings, our closest relatives practice “extended” breastfeeding as a part of normal life.
There’s one other Great Ape to consider, us, humans. When is our natural weaning age? Katherine Dettwyler has an interesting article “When to wean” where she addresses this question…
Studies of nonhuman primates offer a number of different means of estimating the natural time for human weaning.
First, large-bodied primates wean their offspring some months after the young have quadrupled their birth weight. In modern humans, this weight milestone is passed at about two and a half to three years of age.
Second, like many other mammals, primate offspring tend to be weaned when they have attained about one third of their adult weight; humans reach this level between four and seven years of age.
Third, in all species studied so far, primates also wean their offspring at the time the first permanent molars erupt; this occurs at five and a half to six years in modern humans.
Fourth, in chimpanzees and gorillas, breast-feeding usually lasts about six times the duration of gestation. On this basis, a human breast-feeding would be projected to continue for four and a half years.
Taken together, these and other projections suggest that somewhat more than two and a half years is the natural minimum age of weaning for humans and seven years the maximum age, well into childhood.
The high end of this range, six to seven years, closely matches both the completion of human brain growth and the maturation of the child’s immune system.
It makes you think about how messed up our society’s view of breastfeeding is, when the majority of western infants don’t get more than a few days or weeks of human milk before switching to a cow, goat or soy variety. It’s a bit sad really.
Here a few more photos from flickr:
Orangutans:
- Nursing orangutan by nalindes
- A Mother Sumatran Orang-utan Nurses Her Youngster by ianmichaelthomas
- just one more sip by faronspix
- Orangutan Breastfeeding by cmax
- Tandem nursing Orangutan by JeanKern
Gorillas:
- Binti Jua and her son Bakari by Rigib (An amazing photo!)
- Lunch by shaferlens
- Gorilla mother with baby by bobsuir
Chimpanzees:
- Chimpanzee – Gambia [Africa Geographic] by markeveleigh
- Nursing by melissss
- Mother chimpanzee and baby by Lone07
- Mother chimpanzee with baby by Frenzy McKenzie
Bonobos:
- Bonobo baby by JeanKern
- Bonobo baby by JeanKern
- Bonobo – Liboso’s new born baby by JeanKern
Orangutan & chimpanzee photos shown above are from fotosearch.com
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I am impressed with your post.
What humans have achieved is really sad.
A few days ago I was together with 5-6 moms at a gathering,all babies were younger than Defne who is 10 months old now.It was only me breastfeeding.I thought the same thing.
Great post.
I’m not sure how long I’ll breastfeed for, I’m just taking each day as it comes, but I suppose I’m in no hurry to stop.
I do feel though that the human race was probably meant to nurse for quite a few good years until self weaning occurred and this is what would happen if we were living in a natural state without the advent of cows milk and bottles. I don’t discount anyone who chooses to bottle feed, formula feed or start mother-led weaning from the breast at any point.
I simply think it’s sad that people can be so judgmental about extended breastfeeding. How can it be more normal to drink cow’s milk than to drink mother’s milk? That always perplexes me.
Those pictures are so gorgeous! How natural and beautiful to see those primates nurse their babies.
Lovely post! You know, it really should be very obvious that apes are our distant relatives, but there are many people here in the U.S. (all over the world, I guess, but here in the U.S., they tend to be really vocal about it), that are really insulted by the notion that we are related to apes. It’s apparent we are mammals — we produce milk for our young –, yet this sort of fact is somehow dismissed or downplayed (bottles/formula unfortunately help to reinforce this backwards notion) because we’re supposed to be “special” somehow, and that makes us “exempt” from “having” to engage in “animal-like” tasks.
I think the further away we get from our biological heritage (peaceful birth, strong mother-baby bond from the beginning, etc.), the more misery we are likely to experience collectively. There is nothing quite as satisfying as maximizing one’s potential, and breastfeeding is one really basic, primally fulfilling way to do that… If only more people in society could appreciate it and help women to succeed at it more, without negativity or criticism… It would be a beautiful thing.
I love this post, Pixie! I think I’ve mentioned on here I’m still nursing my daughter and cannot imagine cutting her off (she will be three in December). I’m certainly not someone you would see and say “oh, she’s a hippie” but I believe firmly that children will wean themselves when they are ready.
Much of the problem lies with the media, the doctors, the formula companies, but there is great info available now about breastfeeding and how it’s the right and perfect thing for kiddos into toddlerhood, not just for a week or two! Education is always the key… great post!!
Glad you all enjoyed it, it’s amazing really, I’d never considered researching how long non-human primates nursed for until I saw the orangutans on tv
thanks for all of your research on the topic. that is fascinating!
i am unsure about lasting 6 years myself, but we’re coming up on the 3 1/2 year mark here soon. and i think ava is a great example of a very independent AP kid.
Love the post! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your topic.
I have thought and read about primate as well as mammal nursing in general before, but today my husband and I took my 11 month old to the zoo for the first time and it even made me think about it more. Because it was one of the few comfortable spots I had found in the whole zoo, I sat in front of the chimpanzee exhibit and nursed my daughter. A mother chimpanzee was also nursing an older infant. Another young chimpanzee seemed to look over at me and my baby – though she seemed not to have paid any attention to the other people standing behind the glass. I just wondered what she thought about this. It really felt so natural and peaceful to nurse there. I was a little sad that of all the information about chimpanzees, nothing was said about how long they nurse as it was apparent those who were nursing were older.
Another thing I noticed was how few human mothers were nursing their babies. A mother with a newborn was the only one I noticed. Just about everyone there had babies or very young children. I saw plenty of bottles with formula (looks different from breast milk.) I am even in a state with laws which protect mothers when breastfeeding in public so it really saddened me.
I agree that we are getting so far removed from nature – also sad that we have zoos in the first place. I grew up on a farm so I am keenly aware of how far we have moved in even just my life time of almost 40 years. I actually fear what it will take to bring us back down to earth, though.
That’s a lovely story Kitty, thanks for sharing it
Nice article! I’m going on 10 years nursing myself. My oldest weaned at 4.75, my second was 5.5, my third still nursing at 3 and my fourth of course still nursing at 4m old.
Hi Sandra, welcome to HPP and wow! 10 years so far, you’re certainly going strong there
We need to stop using the term “extended breastfeeding” to describe breastfeeding 2+ years. It is normal not “extended”!!!!
I love the post and thank you sharing.
very true Kat, I’ve heard the phrase “full-term breastfeeding” used quite frequently recently, and I must say I prefer it to “extended” because “extended” does imply you’re dragging it out past its natural end, which is so wrong!
I agree, ditch the term Ex. bf.
Great article little pixie. My baby is one next week and I have recently had to start defending the decision to not wean – so this article is a great help. My Christian friend was the most objectionable , you’d think she’d see it as a beautiful creation from god, so I don’t think she’ll appreciate the common r’ship with our primate cousins!
Hi FT, I hope everyone lays off the pressure soon, thanks for stopping by!
Beautiful Pic’s and a very well written article. Great Job!
Thanks Yarngoddess, love the name!
Hiya, HPP – lovely article! I’m going to link it from my blog (www.howbreastfeedingworks.com) – hope that’s OK? Agree re not calling it “extended” breastfeeding – it’s often said in a tone of “you freak” as well, isn’t it?!
Hi Jane, I would be delighted if you linked here
Love the post! I found this very interesting. It would be very nice if the rest of the world realized that BFing is a normal event that mothers do.
Wouldn’t it be great O.K. ? Thanks for stopping by
brilliant post and just what i needed to read to not give in to pressure to stop breast feeding my son aged 9 months. At the moment my husband has agreed to ceasing at a year but I plan to express milk for my baby for at least another year although it does seem ridiculous to me to express rather than let him nurse. It is really breaking my heart when I believe so strongly that he should be allowed nurse till he is at least 2 and if I had my way until he is 3 or 4 or 5 – whatever works out at that age. I wish that here in Ireland people were more realistic about breast feeding and could see that it is the most natural thing and best thing for your child. I find it so hard to believe that in this day and age when most people would only turn to powdered soup etc in a rush people have no problem with feeding their children powdered artificial milk. Sometimes I think that if formula was advertised as artificial sales would fall so dramatically. It breaks my heart because I feel every mother wants what is best for their child and there is a free health giving wonder food available and yet women don’t realise it.
Rant over.
@Aine, welcome to HPP
You’re doing a fantastic job, but it can be hard when it feels like you’re going against the grain! Do you have any friends/family in real life who support your breastfeeding or maybe some other mums at a LLL group or toddler group? Are you on any of the Irish parenting forums? I find them great for chatting to like-minded folk and getting advice on longer term breastfeeding.
The Breast Way – Forum (set up by one of the rollercoaster girls),
babywearingireland.com – (lots of longer term breastfeeders here!), magicmum.com (I think you need to register to see the breastfeeding forum), rollercoaster.ie (look at the breastfeeding forum)
Would your husband be impressed by the science behind nusing a toddler at all? http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html
Good luck!
Olivia is just over 2 and still nursing….doesnt seem to want to quit….Of course I cant wait until she is ready to quit so that I can have some sort of freedom but I let her do her thing. I think it is ok and fine but of course it is the way other people make you fell that forces us to quit. I am not interested in going until she is 4 and quite frankly hope it will end soon….maybe 3 is ok but wish others would lay off! So that we dont fell we need to hide about it around my husbands family. My doctor said that after all his reading it is scientifically proven to be of benefit to the child. So people think were strange and I say Olivia is so healthy and smart who cares!