A woman has defended breastfeeding her five-year-old by claiming
it will raise her IQ level.
Miira Dawson, 36,
breastfeeds her two children, even though the oldest, Tara, has already started
primary school near their home in Poole, Dorset.
The stay at home mum gives
five-year-old Tara and her little brother Ray Lee, two, ‘noo noo’ (the family
term for breastfeeding) three times a day, and says she hopes she can continue
nursing them until they are ten years old.
Her husband Jim even moved
out of their marital bed so Miira can spend the whole night with her two
children.
She said: ‘I don’t think I ever considered bottle feeding either
of my children, I didn’t prepare myself for failing to breastfeed. I’m quite
stubborn by nature.
‘Mothers who breastfeed
for an extended time feel that it has got really meaningful benefits for their
children.
‘I think it is a lovely
thing for a baby to grow up and remember being breast fed, as not many people
would be able to say this – plus there are all the health and IQ benefits.’
While Jim is partly forced
to sleep in a separate bed due to a medical condition, he admits
that Miira’s breastfeeding habits have put a strain on their relationship,
saying he had ‘little choice in the matter’.
‘I feel like it restricts
mine and the children’s time together and it doesn’t give me the chance to do
things that I would like to, such as reading bed time stories,’ he said.
The World Health
Organisation, recommends babies being breast feed until they are six months
old, at which point feeding should start.
While many people in the
UK do not breastfeed beyond six months, University of Cambridge
Sociologist Dr Maria Lacovou says the research on breast feeding is ‘very
limited’ and claims ‘there is absolutely no evidence that there is anything
wrong’ with doing so.
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