Price of premature weaning: The stigma attached to breastfeeding toddlers flies in the face of health benefits. (The Australian)

MOTHERS who commit the "social sin" of breastfeeding a toddler don't always attract negative comments.

But that's because most of them are doing it in secret.

There is still so much stigma attached to breastfeeding older children that the small number of women who choose it often do so in the privacy of their homes rather than risk inviting a public scene.

And this, say the experts, is a tragedy, because the medical evidence against premature weaning is forming quite a library.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) currently recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child's life and continued breastfeeding with adequate complementary foods up to two years or beyond.

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