One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Time Cover's Breastfeeding Mom Is L.A. Mommy Blogger
Jamie Lynne Grumet may become a household name after today, as Time magazine's new cover shows the Los Angeleno breastfeeding her three-year-old (nearly four) son Aram. Grumet also has a blog—I Am Not The Babysitter— about her and her husband's "experiences with adoption, attachment parenting, travel, and any other unique lifestyle choice we may make."
In a Q&A with Time, Grumet reveals she was breastfed until she was six (and no, her parents were not hippies though they did live in Northern California) and that she breastfed her adopted son Samuel from Ethiopia and found it was wonderful for bonding. She also blogged about adoptive breastfeeding, writing:
"When I asked him if he would also like to breastfeed he smiled and jumped right on my lap. Our first experience breastfeeding you could tell his was an old pro. It was clear it was something he missed dearly. Something from home I was able to give him."
But what's more adorable is how Samuel and Aram are best friends.Grumet will be on the Today Show tomorrow. She also gives thumbs-up to Disneynature's Chimpanzee, which shows a three-year-old chimpanzee breastfeeding:
"This movie may also give some food for thought to adults about the normalcy of extended breastfeeding. Chimpanzees are our unrefuted closest living primate relatives, sharing 98% of the same DNA sequence as a human. Chimpanzees breastfeed their young from to the age of four to six years. Humans should take into account these numbers for what is a biologically normal time to wean, while also considering that Great Apes wean according to gestation length (6 to 1). For instance, a chimpanzee with breastfeeding six times longer than they gestated for. Gorillas 6.4 times longer than gestation. That would mean the average time of weaning for a human being would be 4.5 years."
Perhaps Grumet will be asked her thoughts on the recent controversy ignited when a breastfeeding mom was asked to cover up while feeding her infant at LACMA.
Sponsored message
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
