Rumer Willis shamed for breastfeeding her 17-month-old daughter

Ever since welcoming her first child in April 2023, Rumer Willis has been chronicling all the sweet moments with her daughter, Louetta, on social media. But when the proud mom shared a photo slideshow from a recent trip to New York City, she was inexplicably shamed for breastfeeding her 17-month-old, with most of the comments coming directly from fellow women and moms.

“New York you’ve stolen my heart ♥️ again…..til next time,” the 36-year-old captioned the gorgeous gallery of photos from the duo’s adventures in the Big Apple. In the first shot, Willis can be seen nursing Louetta with a backdrop of skyscrapers behind them.

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A post shared by Rumer Glenn Willis (@rumerwillis)

So many fellow women chimed in with their unsolicited commentary. “I’m all for breast-feeding as long as you need to or want to until they’re like in preschool, that’s just weird…and all of your pictures are beautiful but that first one was just unnecessary 🤷🏻‍♀️” wrote one person. “I am honestly tired of these breastfeeding pictures! Just not necessary to be posting them constantly 🙄” added another. “It’s beautiful that you’re breastfeeding but your daughter is a little old for it now it’s kind of creepy [as] a mother of three children you’re pushing it,” said yet another. “We all know you breastfeed after all this time. We get it,” added one more.

Despite the pushback, plenty of other commenters supported Willis for sharing the photo. “Thanks for posting,” wrote one person. “Clearly with all these hate comments, breastfeeding is still not normalized and needs to be seen more so people don’t have such a strong reaction to it. 👏👏” Another wrote, “I still breastfeed my 4.5 year old. I do limit her for when I don’t want her on my body. Everyone do you! No shame.” Yet another reminded fellow commenters why baby teeth are also called “milk teeth”—they’re the initial teeth that develop when mammals are, generally speaking, still nursing.

That internet commenters feel so comfortable to shame a mom for sharing such a normal, natural (and beautiful!) part of motherhood is 100% the problem. Moms have long been subject to commentary from others—frustratingly often from fellow moms—about everything related to parenthood, with the underlying message being that they’re doing something wrong. But there is nothing wrong with breastfeeding, as Willis is doing, and she has the right to both nurse and to share photos of it on social media should she choose to.

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A post shared by Rumer Glenn Willis (@rumerwillis)

To those commenters who feel Louetta is “too old” to be still nursing, a friendly reminder that both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend breastfeeding “for up to two years of age or beyond.”

And there are so many benefits to extended breastfeeding both for mom and baby, as experts previously told Motherly.

“Breast milk remains nutritious during extended breastfeeding,” says Amy Peterson, BS, IBCLC, lactation consultant for Evenflo Feeding and Forbes Health Advisory Board Member. “Amazingly, immunities in breast milk increase as the quantity of breast milk decreases. This is a wonderful benefit as toddlers touch and perhaps lick(!) everything in their environment.”

“Both mom and nursing baby benefit greatly [from extended breastfeeding],” adds Ashley Georgakopoulos, IBCLC, lactation director at Motif Medical. “Mom has reduced risk of female-related cancers, breast and ovarian, the longer she nurses, and the immune system in baby takes roughly two years to mature and is drastically helped by breastfeeding or receiving breast milk.”

Sadly, there are so many reasons why moms might stop breastfeeding well before they’d like to, and many aren’t able to breastfeed at all. No matter the circumstances, one thing is clear: No one should be shamed, judged, or criticized for breastfeeding or not breastfeeding. End of story, friends.