TMI, but here goes:
I distinctly remember getting aroused by seeing an attractive and scantily-clad woman on TV when I was 6.
6 is definitely too old to breast feed.
What he said…
I breastfed my youngest until she was 3.5 but never in public. I have to wonder why anyone has to do that. If she wanted a snack at that age she could have a cracker or juice box!
I think after around three I was doing it for my OWN personal comfort, as a way to feel closer to my little girl. I weaned myself as much as I weaned her. Maybe that’s going on with these mothers who let the nursing go on so long. It’s completely unnecessary, and there are other more age-appropriate ways to soothe your frustrated third grader than to pop a nip to pacify.
I wish I could remember where I read about a mother-to-be who said that she would nurse her child only if it was a girl, because breastfeeding a boy would be pervy. 
Might even have been on these boards.
Unless you had a problem with also being sexually attracted to your mother when you saw her ‘scantily clad’ at the same age, I don’t see what this has to do with anything.
Obviously little boys perceive their mothers differently from other women, no matter how objectively hot their mom is. You can’t say that a boy being breastfed from infancy until 6 or 7 is equivalent at all to a 6 or 7-year-old boy sucking on the nipples of some woman who wasn’t his mother - that would be sexual abuse, of course.
My son (now 18) nursed until he was 4 or so. My daughter, now 10, nursed until 6.
To clarify what that really means:
By age 2 or 3, nursing had tapered off to a few times a day, esp. at night before bed. That is typically the last to go.
They both were eating other foods, active with peers and other activities, independent, etc…I saw no reason to cut them off at some arbitrary age. ESP> since it is recomended that kids up to at least 2 continue drinking “formula”…WTH would I wean my kids from MY (free, superior) milk and onto follow-up formula if I didn’t need to? Silly, imo. :rolleyes:
Weaning age is often a cultural thing. (and “culture” can vary widely even within larger cultural groups…we knew a lot of “extended nursers” in our particular cultural sub-group. It was not anything anyone in that “community” considered unusual.)
The average global age of “weaning” (meaning complete weaning from the breast…weaning actually begins when the first solid food is introduced at, for us, 6 mths or so) is between 4 and 5 yrs.
One anthropoligist compared the gestation periods, life-spans and duration of nursing for a variety of mammals, including humans and other primates. Based on her calculations, she placed the “natural” age of human weaning at 4 to 5 yrs.
Health benefits actually do continue as long as a child nurses. Not only nutritional content but immune building cells and specific antibodies continue to be delivered.
For picky toddlers, it is a boon to know that they are at least getting a few good “meals” a day:p
And there were times when they were ill and would take NOTHING else by mouth for days. A (bottle fed) nephew, 12 mths old, who was about the same age as my daughter ended up in the hospital on hydration therapy for 3 days due to the same bug she nursed her way through.
When my daughter was 3, she had to spend the night in the hospital on IV antibiotics and a liquid diet (which she hated). Had she NOT still been nursing, she would have been starving and miserable. (by that age, she was down to once a day or so, but she had no trouble upping that to, well, almost constantly for that brief time!)
I suppose there COULD be some out there who encourage breastfeeding for longer than the child would otherwise want, but I’ve never heard of such a proven case. In my experience, a healthy, normal child cannot be FORCED to nurse against their will.
For the last yr or so, my daughter would come to me at bedtime wanting a little, and I’d not refuse her but I’d say, “Really? Well, ok.” Half the time, she’d just nurse for a few minutes and then be ready for a book and bed. One night, she asked and after one pull, sat up and said, “Hmm. I think I’m done with that.” And she was.
I just decided early on that I would not force them to stop until they were ready to, AS LONG as I was still ok with it, mind you! It IS a relationship between 2 individuals, not a 1-way street. As infants and very young toddlers, it was on their demand as far as possible. As they got older, I would make them wait a bit, until it was convenient for me as well.
And wow, they both did quit, in their own time and WELL before middle school. 
BTW, both nursed lying down/in bed regularly and neither ever had any dental issues as a result. Not even a cavity. Breastfeeding requires much stronger jaw/throat action than bottle feeding, the milk is of a very different composition, and it tends not to pool in the mouth like milk from a bottle.
I wasn’t sexually attracted to my mother, but then again she wasn’t breast-feeding me at age 6 either. Seems to me there’s way too much risk of creating sexual confusion at that age. By age 6, I think breasts should have stopped being food storage devices and should have started to become objects of sexual interest.
By the way, since I’m already into TMI territory, the scantily-clad woman in question was Allison Hayes in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. 
I have to wonder how much of the fascination with breasts in our culture is actually due to our culture’s relatively early weaning or bottle feeding?
Breasts tend to be protrayed as sexual objects, splashed all over the place to sell products and incite lust, but breastfeeding is often seen as “offensive” when mentioned or done in public, even modestly, and/or sexually charged (as in this thread).
I mean, the fact IS, the breasts serve a dual function (same way the vagina does;))…they are BOTH sexual AND utilitarian.
From everything I have seen, 1st hand and otherwise, kids raised in cultures where breastfeeding openly is the norm don’t seem to have such hang-ups, and still seem to manage to mature into sexual adults who appreciate the other uses for breasts. 
As I say, just wondering and suggesting that perhaps the idea or reality that a young child would be “turned on” by his mom’s ta-tas is a perversion arising from our culture’s repression.
ETA: there is usually a clear distinction between one’s mother and other girls/women. We may KISS mom as well, but hardly the same as kissing, even on the cheek, a girl/woman we see in a sexual way.
Not commenting on what you did, just using this as a jumping off point to say; maybe because they don’t see it as being all that different from a cracker or juice. It’s just eating.
To each her own, but we really need to stop making such a big deal out of feeding children.
Because you’re watching something come out of a human orifice. Every other orifice we tend to make a big deal out of not emptying out in public.
Plus, there’s the fact that women’s breasts are considered almost primary sexual organs, and, again, we tend to make a big deal out of showing that.
While I understand people not thinking it is a big deal, I can never understand people who can’t understand why others might feel differently.
As for the answer to this thread, I’d put an extreme upper bound at puberty. It would be too easy for the breast to be sexualized. I’ve seen videos of 9 and 10 year-olds who, when they talk about breasts, have that same gleam in their eye that guys do.
I do understand why others feel differently. In fact, I’m not completely devoid of feeling that way myself, sometimes. I just think it’s something that needs to change.
As for other substances coming out of other orifices, none of them is food, and pretty much all of them are things that we consider waste products. There’s a bit of a difference. I know that sometimes it’s hard for people to see that difference, but it really is there.
We don’t make a big deal out of people eating anything else, unless their table manners are nasty. Most of the time, a baby’s table manners are just fine while they’re nursing. 