The one in the pic is my sister and my three gorgeous little nephews. And the story I’m about to tell is obviously a “breastfeeding story.”
When baby Amelia was born, Eric -the middle one- was recently weaned. And guess what he said when he saw his baby sister nursing for the first time???
He jumped to mamma and asked for his boob too. Now, mommy didn’t want to tandem nurse, so she gently weaned him a few months before the baby arrived. But that was a little surprising, and she wasn’t sure how to react. So she picked up the phone for a “Mamma Teta Call.”
Here’s the thing. What Eric did is totally normal. You wouldn’t think that after 2+ years, he’ll forget about his precious breast. But it’s also his way to explore his curiosity and make questions, now seeing the breastfeeding dyad from outside.
Even when it was uncomfortable for mommy, by not knowing how to react, in fact, this is an excellent opportunity to enforce the older child that he’s a big boy now.
The next time he asked (because, yes! There were other times...), mommy explained him calmly that the boobie makes milk for the babies, and he’s not a baby anymore, he can eat lots of delicious things (including ice cream), but the baby can’t eat anything else, so she needs that milk.
Following that brief speech that she probably had to repeat a couple of more times, she gave him a nice cuddling time. This is the most important of all. Even when he learns he’s a big boy now, he needs to know mommy keeps loving him very much and the same way as before.
When we nurse a baby, cuddling is kind of implied, but when a child loses that time, he still needs that physical connection, which to his eyes, is not less than a mere demonstration of love.
Words are simply not enough sometimes.
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