Beyond Infancy

Ally, my five-year-old daughter, greets me after school by burying her nose in my cotton shirt, between my breasts, and inhaling. "Smells like Mommy," she says. "Nursie?"

My son's first birthday loomed, and I braced myself for battle with my family, all demanding to know when I was finally going to stop breastfeeding this child.

While extended breastfeeding is not the societal norm in the US, many doctors, health experts, and even mothers believe that it should be. And the research agrees with them.