The librarian today was apologizing for the baby schmutz on her sweater (though I hadn’t noticed it). Her baby turned one yesterday and she was talking about weaning him. Is it time to wean when he does a self-serve routine in a nice restaurant? Is it time to wean when she says, “Mom, can I please have some now?”

This is a very personal and individual decision. Sure, some babies quit of their own accord and that’s that. Some mothers need to wean because of work or health or because they have just had enough. That’s all fine.

I just want to point out one thing. Maybe you haven’t considered this. You can’t know this until after the fact. There is nothing in the whole wide world that comforts your baby as easily, thoroughly, deliciously as nursing.  We bring children into the world with the understanding that while you hope for them to lead jeweled lives, they will fall and get hurt, literally and figuratively. My “children” are grown. I can talk to them on the phone and listen with understanding when they are in a miserable moment. I can text encouragement. I can carefully wrap home-baked cookies and mail them. But when I spoke about this with the librarian this afternoon, I found myself tearing up. I can’t comfort them in that make-it-all-right-again way that nursing could. Obviously this is so, but this is my cautionary story for women who are considering when the right time is to wean. If you enjoy nursing, and your baby thrives with nursing, don’t be in a hurry to stop. Hold her close, feed her of your body, comfort her as only a mother can (with apologies to the fathers), and breathe in the shared comfort.