Help!!

Grrrrr....
Reading these sorts of stories always makes me so frustrated with society. When will people realize that only mothers need to decide what is good and healthy for their babies?? Also, I can speak from experience, it's one of the most horrible feelings to have someone criticize your parenting methods, or even just to have someone tell you to put socks on your baby.

Well, mama, I feel for you. I haven't experienced the "concerned" friends and family tell me when to stop breast feeding, but I can tell you how I'd probably respond. It depends on who it is really, but if say, a friend asked me when I was going to stop breast feeding my daughter, I'd probably say "when she's 18, then she's outta the house!" Then move on. If it was a family member, I'd probably respond in a more serious manner and go on to further explain the benefits of breast milk for a toddler. Ask them how many times they've seen your daughter sick, then tell them your body is producing more antibodies for your ever growing and getting into germs of a daughter. Tell them that sometimes children have nightmares and are emotionally hurt from quitting cold turkey, and that you'd never want your daughter to go through that. For me, information is key. It usually stops the questions and makes you appear to me the strong knowledgeable woman that you are.

P.S. My name is the same as your daughter's!! Except I spell mine "Alia."

My daughter is almost two and we are having some of the same issues with family members (fortunately most of my friends are moms who are nursing their toddlers, so I have lots of support there).  Whenever a family member says something negative I just kind of play act surprised and tell them about how all my friends still nurse and how all the research I've read says how good it is for them and that the world average for weaning is between 3-4 years and how Katherine Dettwyler is a well known anthropologist who has studied nursing extensively and looked at other cultures and mammals to determine a natural weaning period of between 2.5 and 7 years.  It also helps to mention all the different sources that say to nurse at least two years (WHO, American Academy of Family Physicians, Canadian Academy of Pediatrics, a US Sergion General who has stated that it is a lucky baby who continues to nurse until age two).  A friend of mine put it perfectly when she said if the recommendation is to nurse at least two years, why would I only want to give my child the least?  Don't we want to give our kids more than just the minimum?  After being bombarded with so much positive information and a long list of resources and the fact that there hasn't been any evidence of long term nursing being bad, all my family can tell that I really did my research.  I have read lots of books on nursing and they know that I am not just nursing blindly.  I am doing it for a good reason.