A mother-of-two has told of how she breast-feeds her two sons, who are aged three and five, a report has said.
Jamie Lynne Grumet has appeared on the cover of Time magazine breast-feeding her three-year-old son Aram as he stands on a small seat to reach her.
The Los Angeles mother has spoken about how she applies the same attachment parenting method to her adopted five-year-old son Samuel.
Grumet, 26, was reportedly breast-fed by her own mother until the age of six.
In a larger feature story about the controversial parenting technique, Grumet claims that she can recall memories of being latched on to her mother’s breast.
She said: “It’s really warm. It’s like embracing your mother, like a hug. You feel comforted, nurtured and really, really loved. I had so much self-confidence as a child, and I know it’s from that.”
Her aim is to provide the same type of support to Samuel, who was adopted from Ethiopia in November 2010.
Samuel was breast-fed by his new mother instantly.
He is reportedly latched to her breast “maybe once a month”.
Like-minded Blossom star Mayim Bialik wrote a book about how she breast-fed her three-year-old.
She has also said that she allows her six-year-old to sleep on a mattress on the floor with her and her husband.
Grumet said: “Being able to give him that (comfort) with the trauma that he faced was really, really important to me. I didn’t realise how much it would help my attachment to him.
“When his English improved, because the connection was there, he didn’t do it as much.”
The mother has written on her blog about how much Aram, who will turn four next month, enjoys being breast-fed.
One post has a photograph of Aram in the Playboy mansion.
The picture is captioned: “I’ve breast-fed Aram at the Playboy mansion.
“I actually felt it was the most appropriate place on earth to do it.”
There is no explanation as to why she believes this.
Grumet is completely aware of how unorthodox the parenting technique – which was originally coined by US paediatrician Dr William Sears – can be perceived.
But she strongly believes her methods are “biologically normal”.
“There are people who tell me they’re going to call social services on me or that it’s child molestation,” she said.
“I really don’t think I can reason with those people,” she said.
She believes that the more people see it, the more it will become “normal in our culture”.
“There seems to be a war going on between conventional parenting and attachment parenting,” Grumet said. “That’s what I want to avoid.”
“We all need to be encouraging to each other and I don’t think we’re doing a very good job at that.”
The technique also involves parents co-sleeping with their children and wearing them in a sling to ensure they remain physically close to the body.
Bialik, who has a PhD in neuroscience, told Newsok.com: “When we treat our children kindly and expect love and give love, we hopefully are raising children that then expect that and give that to the world around them.” – Daily Mail