There is now a lot of propaganda on the Internet about breastfeeding children at 4 and even 5 years of age. Without particularly bothering, you can find an advertisement for women’s underwear and a “baby” of about four years old sitting on his lap, holding his mother’s breasts in his hands... Mothers who breastfeed their children, as a rule, but not always, have younger children, and so that the eldest, middle child was not excluded; the third child is not weaned. Nursing mothers talk about the benefits of breastfeeding: maintaining the child’s immunity, the breast as a calming force for the child (helps to go to bed easier, etc.), helps maintain closeness between mother and child, and a weighty argument is that the child is well developed (reads, writes, learns foreign languages). language, etc.) These are certainly the moments with which mothers feeding an already “aged” child justify themselves. Psychologists and psychoanalysts recommend stopping breastfeeding at the age of about 1 year, when the child begins to walk. Why is this necessary? The answer is obvious! In his development, the child strives to acquire greater independence and form his own self, i.e. of his self. The child is curious, he tries to learn more and more every day about the things and objects that surround him. The food intake is expanding, and accordingly, taste sensations acquire different shades and so on. Those. The development of a child inevitably leads to his individualization. What do mothers do, and most importantly for what reasons, do they “not allow” their child to be weaned from their breast? The answers were already on the surface. Let's look at deeper motives, which often remain a secret for nursing mothers themselves: 1. Breastfeeding is a process where only the Mother and her Child (siblings, if they are involved in the process). Those. There is an area intended only for the mother and her child. At the beginning of life, the child and mother need a symbiotic relationship that will ensure the child's survival. But the task of the child and mother, for further positive mental functioning, is to break the symbiotic relationship and move towards the formation of a healthy dependence. 2. Is prolonged breastfeeding considered maternal abuse? The answer is obvious... Not every mother is ready to break such close ties with her child. But why? Everyone has their own reasons: -acting out their childhood scenario; -feeling safe in such a “union”; -narcissistic expansion (when the child in the mother’s unconscious is her continuation); -psychopathology of the mother, including (which will certainly lead to deformation of the child’s psyche , since genetic justification and the imposition of the social environment will do their dirty work); - "Child of the day, Child of the night." A nursing mother who does not have or has complicated intimacy with her husband, the child has a substitute function, that sexual object that remains excluded by the third. 3. The inability to accept that the child is getting older, acquiring his own individuality and greater independence from the mother. The reasons for such judgments are also varied and individual in each individual case (he is no longer part of our close relationship and I am also no longer part of it). Why is it necessary to promote breastfeeding for children who have passed this normal period? - “When there are like-minded people, it means I’m no longer alone” (moral support of the group). -Such mothers are still worried about the consequences of long-term breastfeeding and in order to relieve the emotional intensity in this way, they need the support of the group and even reprimand (make the topic “live”). -Involve other people in a group of like-minded people, i.e. make the process large-scale. If there are many of us, then this is more a norm than a pathology. There is a lot that can be said about this topic.!