A woman has sparked a debate about the right age to stop breastfeeding children as she revealed she still gives her breast milk to her 12-year-old son.
Priscilla Morton from North Carolina is a mother of five and a big breastfeeding advocate who raised plenty of eyebrows when she told DailyMail.com that she intends to continue breastfeeding her 4-year-old son until he is at least eight years old.
The mother also revealed that she still offers her breast milk to her older sons, aged 10 and 12. For them, however, her milk comes in a cup rather than straight from her breasts.
Sparking a debate about the right time to wean off, the 39-year-old mother-of-five vowed to breastfeed her sons for as long as possible.
According to the World Health Organization, it is recommended to exclusively breastfeed babies for six months before gradually introducing appropriate foods while continuing breastfeeding for up to two years or more.
Since there is no age limit when it comes to breastfeeding, the issue falls into a grey area leaving a lot of room for subjective opinions and deliberations.
Though most mothers quit breastfeeding their children by the time they turn two, others, such as Mrs. Morton, continue the practice for several years.
“It almost causes shame like I’m so afraid of being somewhere and getting confronted,” the mother-of-five said.
“Somebody publicly is going to cuss you out or attack you and that’s what I was mainly afraid of. I don’t really care about their opinion. I care about being attacked in public with my child.”
Crediting her breast milk with healing properties, the mom continued: “There have been times where they got burned and I immediately put milk on their burn. Or one of my boys, every once in a while gets eczema behind his knee. He’ll come to me and ask me to put milk on his eczema, clears that right up.
“I still give it to my 10 year old, my six year old, my 12 year old in a cup if we know that there’s a cold coming around or anything like that.”
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