Attachment parenting mom who posed on TIME cover reveals son, now four, has finally stopped breastfeeding



The mother who appeared on the cover of TIME earlier this year, breastfeeding her three-and-half-year-old son, has revealed that he has finally ceased the habit.



Jamie Lynne Grumet, 26, an advocate of attachment parenting, told Today.com that Aram, now four, is 'done' with breastfeeding.

The mother-of-two, from Los Angeles, California, who ignited a huge debate with her bold cover pose, had previously said that she would breastfeed the youngster until he is five.

Moving on: Jamie Lynne Grumet, pictured with son Aram on the Today show in May, said yesterday that the now four-year-old has finally stopped breastfeeding

Indeed, Mrs Grumet revealed in the TIME article that she was also still breastfeeding her then five-year-old son Samuel (now six), who was adopted from Ethiopia in 2010.

Now it seems both boys have 'self-weaned' in the seven months since the height of the controversy.

Mrs Grumet, who is married to police officer Brian, sparked a storm of criticism in May after she was pictured on the cover of TIME magazine breastfeeding Aram who stood on a small chair to reach her.

The image, which was accompanied by the headline: 'Are You Mom Enough?' inspired many to question the correct age for a mother to stop breastfeeding.

Media storm: California mother-of-two Jamie Lynne Grumet posed on the cover of TIME last year breastfeeding her three-and-half-year-old son

While the World Health Organization recommends that mothers breastfeed exclusively for the first six months, then continue until the age of two, advocates of the attachment parenting method will continue until the child them self is ready to stop.

One commenter branded Mrs Grumet's decision to let her son breastfeed into his toddler years 'child abuse', and another called her 'disgusting'.

These, in turn, inspired equally impassioned responses from mothers who themselves had embraced extended breastfeeding, and attribute their children's good health to the practice.



In response to the backlash, Mrs Grumet, who herself was breastfed until the age of six, wrote on her blog : 'When critics are making very uneducated analyses of these issues (with absolutely no persona experience), it actually hurts the mothers trying to care for their children.



'Find me a child that was breastfed past two that said they wished they hadn't been.'



She continued: 'Motherhood is hard enough then to hear constantly how you are caring for your child is "weird" or makes people "uncomfortable" is almost too much to handle.'

In the Today.com interview, published yesterday, Mrs Grumet also revealed that she had turned down 12 offers to appear on reality shows, as well as several offers of book deals and product endorsement.

Happy family: Mrs Grumet and her police officer husband Brian are also parents to Samuel, six, who they adopted from Ethiopia in 2010

'It was so ridiculous. You just don’t make money off of being an advocate or activist,' she said.



'That would be really, really wrong and hurtful to what we were trying to do. A reality show? That would have been exploitative, for sure.'

How we would have done it: The Grumets posed for Pathways to Family Wellness magazine after expressing that they weren't happy with the image selected for the TIME cover

In the months since TIME's article was published, Mrs Grumet also slammed the magazine for its portrayal of her, and attachment parenting.

She claims that the cover image chosen was an 'outtake' from the shoot, and looked 'confrontational and detached'.

She told ABC News : 'My intentions were to help relieve the stigma attached to breast feeding past infancy, but the photo I saw wasn't the one that we were trying to pose for. It made me really, really sad.'

In an effort to make her point clear, Mrs Grumet posed for the cover of Pathways to Family Wellness magazine, this time with her husband and both sons.

She told Today.com: 'It was important for us to pose and say, "Hey, if we had creative control [with the TIME piece] we would have done it like this."'

Mrs Grumet is not the only high-profile supporter of attachment parenting, a child-rearing technique developed by U.S. pediatrician Dr William Sears.

The Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik has written a book about how she breastfeeds her three-year-old son and allows her six-year-old to sleep on a mattress on the floor in her bedroom.

Dr 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.'