Mother Says Breastfeeding Her Adopted Son Brought Their Family Closer

Jamie Lynne Grumet has been on the forefront of the conversation about attachment parenting since she appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in May 2012. In a conversation with HuffPost Live on Friday, Grumet explained how breastfeeding her adopted son "was so important to the entire family's attachment."

Her adopted son was almost 4 years old when he was brought into her family, and Grumet told host Nancy Redd she couldn't imagine the trauma he must have felt being in a new environment and not speaking English well.

Grumet said that he watched curiously when she breastfed her biological son, so she called her adoption specialist, who advised her, "If you're willing, that would be really really helpful as far as attachment is concerned."

After Grumet asked her adopted son if he wanted to be breastfed, she could tell he had been nursed recently: "For moms who breastfeed, you know that latch that a baby has. They lose that ability to suckle if they haven't done it for a while."

Grumet explained the impact breastfeeding her adopted son had on everyone in the family:

That pretty much solidified his place in the family. It helped me attach to him, just because the hormones and just the physical touch of having him there. He kind of understood his place, and then my other son understood that this isn't just a friend that's over.

Watch the full conversation on extended breastfeeding here.

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