This article was originally published on October 29, 2017. It was updated on October 1, 2020 by Kirstie Landry.
From the moment a woman realizes she is going to be a mother, her life changes forever. Most women have nine months to plan for their bundle of joy, which is great considering all of the choices and decisions there are to be made. One major decision a mother has to make, which is a very important one, is whether or not she wants to breastfeed or to bottle feed her child.
For some women, their mind is already made up before doing any research or contemplating at all. When a mother decides to bottle feed and give her baby formula, the decision is pretty straightforward. It’s simple, the baby normally gets formula for the first year of life, and then it’s on to regular milk.
When it comes to breastfeeding, it is a whole different ball game. There are so many different things to think about when the decision has been made to breastfeed. A mother has to decide if they will actually nurse the baby or pump. Most women wonder if they will be any good at it, will they produce enough milk; the list goes on and on.
The decision of how long to breastfeed also comes into play. Many women decide they will exclusively breastfeed for the first six months and then wean the baby around the time they turn one.
The World Health Organization recommends exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months. After six months, they recommend continuing breastfeeding along with nutritious foods for up to two years or beyond. This leaves many mothers wondering what is the best age to wean a baby. Society seems to have negative feelings towards breastfeeding past a certain age. However, some mothers don’t really care either way; they don’t mind what society or anyone else seems to think about it.
4 Nicole Mullen
Nicole Mullen may very well hold the record for the longest breastfeeding mother. Her son, Mason, is already going through puberty, but for this duo, that is no reason to end their breastfeeding relationship. They have had many occasions where people have said things to them or gave them dirty looks, but there is one situation in particular that made headlines.
Mullen and her son were in line at the movie theater waiting to purchase their tickets and decided that it was time for a breastfeeding session. It’s not surprising that people found it to be a little awkward. The ticket clerk shouted at her from behind their desk to them her know that she needed to stop doing that. Mullen became angry because of his comment and told him, “I am a mother, and I have every right to feed my child in public.” Furthermore, lots of women are afraid to breastfeed in public now.
3 Ann Sinnott
Ann Sinnott stirred up some major controversy over going public about how she breastfed her daughter until she was six-years-old. Ann also happens to be the author of the controversial book, Breastfeeding Older Children. People either loved her book and her logic or completely hated it and found it to be outright disgusting and disturbing. There really does not seem to be a middle ground when it comes to her book and her beliefs. A few other mothers had even said that Ann breastfeeding her daughter until she was six was more about her own selfish needs than the actual needs of her daughter, according to theguardian.com.
Sinnott has said that if people find breastfeeding a child until they are older weird, that is just because they have not been exposed to it. Sinnott is very passionate about breastfeeding, and she claims that it changes to fit the needs of the child as they grow.
2 Rebecca Hunter
Rebecca Hunter is a mother of two boys, Jamie and Oscar. Rebecca runs a flower essences business in Ilkley, West Yorks and seems like any other average mother. She stands out from the rest because of how long she breastfed her children. She breastfed her oldest son, Jamie until he was almost six-years-old. She breastfed her younger son, Oscar, until he was four.
Hunter was still nursing Jamie when Oscar was born, so she decided just to keep feeding them together. She read many books on the benefits of breastfeeding and believes she did what is best for her children. She nursed her son in public until he was three-years-old and then continued privately until he was six. She wasn’t bothered by comments or glances from strangers; she was bothered by what her own friends thought about it. Rebecca does make a good point; she said, “It doesn’t shock people in other countries. It’s only abnormal in this country.” There are many cultures that breastfeed, but it is hard to say which ones do it the longest.
1 Lynn Stuckey
Lynn Stuckey is a single mother. She has one child, a little boy named Kyle. When Kyle was five-years-old, a babysitter of his called the child abuse hotline on his mother. The babysitter claimed that Kyle told her he was still breastfeeding, even though he wanted to stop. He claimed that his mother wouldn't let him quit breastfeeding, according to abcnews.go.com. Stuckey denied the allegations that she forced her son to breastfeed, but she did not deny that she still breastfed.
Kyle was taken away from his mother and was placed in foster care. Kyle spent about six months in foster care and was reunited with his mother after many evaluations and counseling sessions. Stuckey does not feel like she did anything wrong and she wanted to let Kyle continue nursing until he was ready to wean himself. Stuckey and Kyle made an appearance on Good Morning America to share their story. At the time of the show, Kyle was eight-years-old, and he was still nursing occasionally. Stuckey believes there is nothing wrong with extended breastfeeding unless the child is a teenager. This child might not be the world's longest breastfed baby, but he isn't far from it.
Miira Dawson
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via Wikimedia Commons, ParentingPatch[/caption]
Miira Dawson is a mother of two. She has a little girl named Tara who and a boy named Ray Lee. Miira is a science researcher, but for now, she is a full-time mommy, since she has her hands full. She nurses both of her children and plans to do so until they are ten years old. She is not backing down on her decision because she claims the benefits of extended breastfeeding have been proven.
Dawson believes that extended breastfeeding promotes health and IQ levels. Her husband Jim said, “Tara is an extremely bright girl and is very grown up for her age, so for now, I will continue to allow it.” Dawson co-sleeps with both of her children so that they can nurse freely and to help them feel safe. She does not believe that it is natural for children to sleep on their own. Although this situation has put a strain on her marriage, she does not mind what other people think because this is what works for them.
Jamie Lynn Grumet
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via Wikimedia Commons, Donald Trung Quoc Don (Chữ Hán: 徵國單)[/caption]
Jamie Lynn Grumet is a stay at home mom and has two children. According to dailymail.co.uk, Grumet was breastfed by her mother until she was six-years-old, so extended breastfeeding is nothing new to her. She has two boys, one is her biological son, and the other is her adopted son; she breastfed both of them. She would write her experiences on her blog, and she was prepared for all of the criticism that she knew she was going to receive.
Grumet is also known as Time Magazine’s breastfeeding mom. She was on the cover of the magazine feeding her son Aram, who was almost four at the time, according to huffpost.com. She was also on the Today show to talk about their story. Jamie is all for attachment parenting, but she does admit that it may not be for everyone. Attachment parenting is what works for her and her family.
Adele Allen
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via Wikimedia Commons, Azoreg[/caption]
Adele Allen is a mother of three, according to the-sun.com. She has nursed all of her children Adele and her husband Matt, call their parenting style 'off-grid parenting'. Adele said, “Off-grid is moving towards self-sustainability and being a bit more free range and less institutionalized.” Adele’s children have never been to the doctor, except one time for an asthma attack. They also do not attend school.
Adele is very passionate about full-term breastfeeding and the bond that it creates. She believes breastfeeding is as natural as a hug. Adele and her husband raise their children using the attachment parenting method. Both parents co-sleep with their children; the whole family in one room. Adele has a successful blog where she writes about her natural parenting. Adele does receive many negative comments, but that does not stand in her way of what she believes in.
Stella Onions
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via Wikimedia Commons, Amada44[/caption]
Stella Onions did not plan on having children when she was married to her first husband; that all changed when she got divorced. Onions remarried after her divorce, but this time around she was determined to have children. Sadly, Onions’ plans took a turn for the worse, and her first two pregnancies did not have a happy ending. She almost gave up hope and decided she would give up trying to have children. She unexpectedly became pregnant again, and the third time was a charm for her.
Onions went into labor on Christmas Day, and she was overwhelmed with joy. She decided to breastfeed her daughter, Josephine, but by the time she had her second child, she was still nursing Josephine. Stella started nursing both of her children together; this went on for many years. Their story ended up making headlines due to their ages. Her daughter was five, and her son Zac was three-years-old. Onions believes more mothers should breastfeed their children longer. Onions planned on nursing her children until they are eight-years-old, according to dailymail.co.uk.
Denise Sumpter
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via Wikimedia Commons, ParentingPatch[/caption]
Denise Sumpter is a mother of two, who also hit a record for breastfeeding. Her daughter, Belle, was still breastfeeding at the age of six, according to the newstalkers.com. She would join with her younger brother, Beau, in nursing sessions. She may be the oldest child in the UK known to be still breastfeeding. Denise no longer nurses Belle in public because of the negative comments that have been made in the past.
Sumpter did not plan on breastfeeding for so long, it just happened. She had originally planned on nursing for six months to a year, but every time t
he time would come she would change her mind; Belle was not ready to stop nursing. She will continue to allow her to nurse until Belle is ready to give it up. Denise says Belle does not ask for her milk often; it’s only at night and a few times a week. Denise says, “I feed both children on demand- whenever they want it.” Belle is taller than average and hardly gets sick, Denise believes this is due to her milk.
Amanda Hurst
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via Wikimedia Commons, Jengod[/caption]
Amanda Hurst is a mother of two. She has two boys, one who is an infant and the other is six-years-old. The older son, Jonathan nursed until he was three-years-old; Hurst told him that he was getting too old to keep breastfeeding. This changed when his younger brother came into the picture. When Jonathan saw his younger brother nursing, he wanted to be able to also; maybe he felt left out.
Hurst allowed Jonathan to join in on some of their nursing sessions. She felt it was hard to tell Jonathan no. Hurst said, “I do question the decisions I make and wonder whether I’m right or wrong. But it’s parenting; there is no manual, I don’t think there is a right way,” according to dailymail.co.uk. Hurst never imagined she would be nursing Jonathan for so long, but it happened. Hurst admits, “If I thought he would still be breastfeeding now I probably wouldn’t have even started.”
Maha Al Musa
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via Pixabay, Ben_Kerckx[/caption]
Maha Al Musa is in her fifties, and she is a mother of three who still nurses her six-year-old daughter. Unlike most mothers who engage in extended breastfeeding, she is not ashamed of breastfeeding publicly. She believes it is natural and she will not stop until her daughter is ready, which she does not think will be anytime soon. Musa has made worldwide headlines. She has been featured on the Discovery Channel, Woman’s Day Magazine, UK’s Daily Mail and even CNN.
She is a human rights activist and is proud to also be an advocate of extended breastfeeding. Like many other extended breastfeeding mothers, she claims her daughter hardly gets sick. She had her milk tested at the University of WA since they do research on human milk there. The she stated that the results concluded, “my milk still had all the properties and nutrients relative to that of a woman half my age with a smaller baby has. So this fact is worth noting when people’s opinions claim breastmilk has no nutrients after a child reaches one year of age," according to odditycentral.com. Facts like this really do make you wonder.
Davina Wright
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via Pixabay, Ben_Kerckx[/caption]
Davina Wright was married with two children and her husband also had two children from a previous relationship. They decided they did not want to have any more children, so she had a tubal ligation. Tragically, her husband passed away. After her grieving process, she tried to move on with her life and met Jason. Jason wanted to have children, so Davina had a tubal reversal done. Wright ended up becoming pregnant with triplets.
Wright was petrified when she learned she was going to have triplets. One thing she was sure of was, she was going to breastfeed. She was right; she was able to breastfeed all of them, without the use of formula. According to self.com, Wright's triplets were still breastfeeding when they turned five; this even surprised Wright. She did not expect they would breastfeed for so long. Wright said, “I am big on letting the child decide when they are ready to wean but at the same time I’m like dudes, there are three of you, and your five, come on already!” None of them is the oldest breastfed child, but there are not many other children who are breastfed that long.
Sharon Spink
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via Pixabay, Ben_Kerckx[/caption]
There are a lot of women who stop breastfeeding their kids at an early age. But on the other hand, there are some who might read an article to find out if it is normal for them to continue breastfeeding their 13-year-old son. They might be wondering "is breastfeeding my 13-year-old son acceptable?"
While some people would not be fond of that idea, others have enjoyed taking part in extended breastfeeding. One of those people is Sharon Spink. For those who do not know, Spink breastfeed her little girl for nine years, according to metro.co.uk.
Furthermore, Spink is not the one who decided to put a stop to it. Her daughter did. In addition, Spink claims that her daughter is fine and that she hardly ever gets sick. Spink attributes that to the fact that she participated in breastfeeding for such a long time.
Mayim Bialik
[EMBED_INSTA]https://www.instagram.com/p/CC9Pi3LpThm/embed[/EMBED_INSTA] Actress Mayim Bialik is an advocate of attachment parenting and breastfed her son until he was four years old. Four years old is not that bad compared to some of the other mothers who were criticized for how long they breastfed; because she is an actress, people made it a point to call her out on her parenting. When she ended her last breastfeeding journey, she made a bold entry for the world to read. The end of her blog post had a loving message to her son, “I may not have milk to give you, but I have a heart forever etched with your name, your face, your eyes, your impossibly stunning tapered lashes that hold the tears only you can cry," according to inquisitr.com.Veronika Robinson
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via Needpix.com[/caption]
Veronika Robinson is a former journalist and a very firm believer in extended breastfeeding. She believes in it so much that she continued to breastfeed her daughter, Elizah, while she was nearing 8-years-old. She even gave her other daughter, Bethany, breastmilk as a ninth birthday present per her daughter's own request. Veronika was even on a television program called Extraordinary Breastfeeding as an advocate for allowing children to have the right to choose when they wanted to stop breastfeeding. Robinson planned to continue to breastfeed Elizah until she was at least 8-years-old, whereas she stopped breastfeeding Bethany when she was 5-years-old, according to impactlab.net.
Sources: Thought Catalogue, The Guardian, Daily Mail, ABC News, Huffpost, Comedy, The U.S. Sun, The NewsTalkers, Oddity Central, Self, Metro, Inquisitr, Impact Lab