COMPLETELY OT (and probably inappropriate for posting here) but have you seen this?

 I have a funny story about that.

Picture it: Baltimore, Nik is WAY pre-op (not even close to THINKING about WLS yet) with La Petite Diva, who is an infant, at a bus stop waiting for the bus to come. She is nursing but COMPLETELY covered, but you can tell what I am doing.

Women walk by and make faces of clear disgust. They shake their heads at me. Nik perseveres. Suddenly this little old priest sits down next to me and, every now and again, smiles faintly and nods. Eventually he says, in a perfect Irish accent:

"Excuse me mam for interruptin ya but I just had to say....it's so nice seein' a mudder feed her child in the natural way..." and then toddles off.

Stranges experience of my LIFE. I don't think I ever breastfed publically again.

That picture is ridiculous.  I don't know why anyone would agree to be photographed in that pose.  I do understand why the magazine would want her to pose that way (to get people talking - it worked!).

I have no issues with breastfeeding, but I personally feel that I wouldn't want to go past the age of 2 (in reality, I didn't breastfeed my daugher at all, and my son only made it about 2 weeks due to lack of milk production). 

Nik, your story is too funny!  I don't know why people have such an issue with mothers feeding their babies (especially if they are doing so discreetly)...

I agree that they did make this image more provocative to garner more response.  They want to sell the magazine.

I don't have any issues with that photo any more than I did the naked pregnant covers we have seen a couple of times.  (Demi Moore and I forget the most recent one) 

I really think it doesn't even hold a candle to some of the current car or motorcycle enthusiast magazines.  Seems it is perfectly fine to have a well endowed woman in a tiny outfit laying across a car with everything but the nipples showing but heaven forbid we see a woman breast feeding!   

I agree he looks a bit older than 3...another reason they picked them, I'm sure. 

I breastfed my daughter and it was a good experience until I had to go back to work. We stopped around 9 months. I was always modest in public and kept a blanket over her while nursing. We also believe in co-sleeping. Extended breastfeeding, I just don't understand. If they are old enough to hold a sippy cup, then they are old enough not to nurse - just my opinion.

i have to honestly say i dont' understand that argument at all.  what does the ability to hold a sippy cup have to do with  nursing?  when humans evolved, it's not like we had sippy cups around to decide when to stop nursing. 

in many ways it's a double standard - no one weans from formula when they can hold a sippy cup.  and i'm not going to wean from the best milk source to go to cow's milk.

 ^like
Breastfeed my child until he was 21/2 and after a sleep deprived week I was freed, not that I didn't enjoy but he was TWO AND A HALF!!!! Exploiting it on a magazine cover with only make a mockery of it... on a stool REALLY SMFH.

 As somebody who proudly breast fed both of my children, I think this cover is disgusting. Not because of the idea of extended breast feeding, which I myself did. But because this takes something so natural and sacred and makes it provocative.  Shame on this mother for participating in a shoot that shows breast feeding in this kind of light and causes such controversy. The idea of it is not wrong. The image is. 

I don't have a problem with breastfeeding but I do believe the child should be way past it for developing good eating habits. Our neighbor breastfed her son until he was 4 yrs and he would scream for a feeding in restaurants or anywhere, for instance, " I want to nurse in the Pizza Hut." . He could eat regular food but was using it as a means to control his mom when in the company of others. He had a terrible constipation problem too. I kept MYOB but didn't want to.LOL

BTW he turned out to be an extremely fine adult.

I only breast fed for three months because I had to take medication that I could not take while breastfeeding, so had to stop.  I think issues like your neighbor's kid screaming to nurse in restaurants or other inappropriate places might be more an issue of parenting and boundaries than simply extended breastfeeding.  What I mean is, my daughter loved her pacifier.  We let her use one until she was about four, at which time the dentist said it was really messing up her teeth and she had to stop.  However, once she was about a year old, we told her the pacifer was only for bed.  She could have it at nap time and bed time, but could not run around with it in her mouth.  If I had been breastfeeding at that time, I would have done the same thing.  At Pizza Hut, we eat pizza.  At home, or at bedtime, we can nurse.

 don't mistake extended nursing with a parents inability to set boundaries for their children.  I extended nursed both of my children and both have wonderful eating habits and i set boundaries on when we nursed (once they were over a year).   i have a ton of friends who extended nursed whose children didn't use it as a manipulation tool.