Book review by Rosalind Foo

By the age of one year old, my daughter, who was breastfeeding and still is now, had already been walking around without much falling. In my eyes, she had been a baby to me since her birth until my friend kindly reminded me that she was no longer a baby and had “upgraded” to a TODDLER merely by the fact that she was walking by herself without support. Suddenly, it hit me that I was no longer breastfeeding a baby but a toddler which sounded altogether like another phase that I had never planned nor imagined. It was just like being "embarked on uncharted waters" to breastfeed a child into toddlerhood.

Norma Jane Bumgarner's book on nursing a toddler provides the answers why children and mothers nurse into toddlerhood, citing biological, cultural, and historical evidences in support of extended breastfeeding.

The book covers challenges in nursing through toddlerhood such as biting problems, night waking, criticism from friends and family and ways to overcome them. Norma Jane also provides some perspectives on the topic of nursing through pregnancy and tandem nursing and how one can manage it if she decides to. Stories from many mothers on such unique circumstances and how they respond to their nurslings' needs are also extensively shared throughout the book and it is comforting to know that one is not alone to encounter and deal with such problems.

Next, Norma Jane provides insights into the unique experiences of nursing a toddler year by year from the second year to nursing past four, as the techniques in tacking a one-year-old nursling who could barely talk are quite different from one at four who can empathize well with adults and even comment that his mummy's milk "are good like brownies!"

Finally, weaning considerations are addressed and the author offers various approaches to weaning, ranging from the dramatic to less dramatic ones such as "don't offer, don't refuse" and "distraction" techniques that probably will have more positive long-term effects on the toddler.

I would recommended this book to breastfeeding mothers like myself who have "unknowingly" breastfeed past the stage where their "babies" being to walk around all by themselves, like little people all ready to face life's challenges. This book can better prepare mothers on what to expect from little toddlers' nursing behaviours and how to tackle them as and when they occur along a nursing couple’s path.