Remember that this is unedited text -- like "letters to the editor." Identifying information, such as names, has been removed; but otherwise it is posted here pretty much as it came in. So read it as personal opinion shared with warm intentions but without authority of any kind.
I have been very pleasantly surprised at how supportive my father has been about toddler nursing (most recently he remarked on how great it was that I had nursing in my repertoire of tricks for taming a recalcitrant toddler!). He remembers that he slept with his mother until he was four and demanded to sleep with an older brother, and I strongly suspect he also remembers being breastfed as a toddler. Consequently, he has stood up for me when my mother has criticized these practices, even suggesting to her that, knowing her parents, it is likely that they had a family bed, and that she also was probably breastfed for an extended period of time.
My daughter is nearly four and a half now, she weaned about five months ago. I asked her the other night if she remembers having deedees or if she ever thought about having deedees again. She smiled and told me that she remembered, that they were soft and sweet and warm. I hope that she carries that memory with her forever.
My daughter now 23, nursed 2 and 1/2 years and remembers it very well to this day - right down to the kind of pillows we used, (she used to get them), and the feel and smell of them. She called it mulky-tines, and really loved it - weaned herself cold turkey at 2 and 1/2 when she saw her baby cousin nursing. Figured it was for babies I guess. My third child, now 16 doesn't talk about it and I don't think he remembers, as he weaned himself at one year.
I asked my two daughters when they were six and ten what they remembered best about nursing, the older, said, "I remember that when I crawled up on your lap to nurse I felt so safe" With my heart warmed, I asked the younger; and she said, "I remember that when I finished having Milkies, if I ran to get a drink of water, the water tasted sweet." Well...at least I didn't prompt her.
Also much later, in high school, she wasn't real thrilled with kissing, and she worried that too long at the breast had satisfied her oral needs too well and that that was the cause of her problem. I told her that I was sure it wasn't. (This was based on extensive research, of course.) Well sure enough, as time went on and fellows became more appealing, all was resolved.
A friend who is African-American and grew up on a sharecropper farm in Louisiana, remembers waiting in line when he was five to get some "titty" because his Momma let him nurse after the four younger siblings got their turn.
One reader says: It is also nice to have a teen reflect on nursing memories, however faint. It is nice to know that children growing in your family have a healthy attitude toward breastfeeding, breasts, babies, etc.
My now adult children who nursed up to five years do not remember nursing. They do remember other things, nightmares, being sick, being afraid of the dark, but not the nursing.
My second daughter, who had nursed till four, overheard me on the phone talking to a mom about relactating--just nurse the baby often and your milk can return. My daughter was interested in doing likewise. I told her that four years was a long time and that we had so many other ways to be close. I named them. She said, "Will I ever do anything in my whole life that will be as much fun as having 'Milkies'"? I replied, "I didn't have Milkies and I don't know how much fun it is, but I'll bet that nursing your own babies will come close." She smiled big and said, "I hope so." She seemed satisfied with the snuggling, rocking, and foot tickling that we enjoyed.
My daughter (who nursed 21 months) is now four and has recently been pretending to nurse a lot, as our family life is going through some transitions, and we all feel a bit stressed out at times. She puts her face up to my clothed breast and makes this really loud sucking sound. While it's not great in public, we do get a laugh out of it at home. She knows that nursing was a part of her baby-life and giggles at pretending to be a baby again. -- I say (a bit sarcastically) that that's what you get for nursing a baby 'til the age when they can still remember it. But, I like to think that the memory of that closeness we had, and still have in other ways, bolsters her for the challenges of being a four-year-old and beyond.
When my daughter was three weeks old, we visited my parents. My brother brought his daughters - all breastfed - over also. The youngest girl, now three years old, watched me nursing my baby and said "I like to do that with my mommy." She'd been weaned at one year.