For Ms Linda Goh, a 41-year-old housewife, the recent Time magazine cover showing a young American mother breast-feeding her three-year-old is just "too much".

"To put that photo on the front page of a magazine is really crude - it cheapens the whole process of breast-feeding when it is a very beautiful thing," she said.

The photo shows Mrs Jamie Lynne Grumet, a 26-year-old stay-at-home mum from Los Angeles, posing with son Aram, who stands on a chair so he can latch onto a barely-concealed breast.

The cover has been criticised for sexualising breast-feeding.

It has also raised a feverish debate over breast-feeding and the effect of an extended breast-feeding period on a child's mental development.

Mrs Grumet said on American TV this week that she plans to continue nursing her son till he turns five.

But, if you think that Ms Goh, a former secondary-school teacher, is against extended breast-feeding, you are wrong.

The mother of three weaned her first two daughters when they were about two, and continued breast-feeding her youngest daughter until she was a little over four years old.

She told my paper that she breast-fed her youngest child for a longer period of time as it was the easiest way to calm her down when she cried or kicked up a fuss.

Ms Goh said she received the full support of her husband, and that there was no hard-and-fast rule on when a child should be weaned. "It is just very natural to us," she added.

Besides the comforting aspect of extended breast-feeding for a child, Ms Goh noted that are health benefits.

Her youngest daughter usually recovers from a fever "within 11/2 days" and she also did not contract hand, foot and mouth disease when there was an outbreak among her playmates at the playground.

According to the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics, the recommended period for exclusive breast-feeding - when the child's diet consists of only breast milk - is at least six months.

Thereafter, mothers can continue breast-feeding, with appropriate complementary feeding, for 24 months and beyond.

Two experts revealed to my paper that mothers here seldom breast-feed their infants beyond the six-month mark.

Dr Yong Tze Tein, president of the Association for Breastfeeding Advocacy (Singapore), said: "Generally, we find that most mothers do not last very long in breast-feeding and that very few breast-feed their children for six months."

Ms Wong Lai Ying, a lactation consultant at National University Hospital, concurred: "Less than 50 per cent of mothers in Singapore breast-feed for at least three months.

"It is not common...to continue breast-feeding beyond two years."

Some reasons for many Singapore mums not breast-feeding their kids beyond six months are that they have to return to work, and that they believe they do not have sufficient breast milk.

Still, those mothers who strongly recommend extended breast-feeding extol the close bond that forms between mother and child.

Dr Yong, who is also a senior consultant at the Singapore General Hospital's department of obstetrics and gynaecology, recalled that nursing time was the only bonding time she had with her daughter due to a busy work schedule.

She breast-fed her daughter until the latter was five.

Ms Goh echoed her sentiments: "Breast-feeding is a very exclusive time for mother-and- child bonding, and we need it all the more in this day and age when kids are so engrossed with their electronic gadgets."

Time's cover photo is not the first to have sparked off a debate about extended breast-feeding.

Five years ago, a documentary clip about a British mother of two daughters who was still breast-feeding her then eight- year-old younger child was uploaded on YouTube.

It has received more than four million views and 100,000 comments so far.

In the four-minute video, the mother said the girls would touch her breasts and talk to them as she is changing her clothes.

They even named her breasts and would draw pictures of them.

Ms Susanna Ng, a 39- year-old mother of three who weaned her two older children when they were 11/2 years old, said: "It is a private matter and it boils down to what is comfortable for the family... I do not think that we should criticise them."

She is breast-feeding her third child, a six-month-old girl.

That said, a line has to be drawn somewhere, added the housewife who used to be a freelance choral conductor.

She said that if the child exhibits behavioural tics such as those displayed by the girls in the documentary, "then it is good to gently wean them for their benefit".

Dr Tan Chue Tin, a consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, noted that he had seen only about "three to four cases over the years" when a mother and child became too attached to each other due to an extended breast-feeding period.

But mothers in such cases seldom seek psychiatric help, he added.

He said that children who are breast-fed for a longer period of time may develop a strong psychological dependence on their mothers, and some may even have trouble interacting with their peers due to that dependence.

However, "a lot of it might come from the mother's separation anxiety, which...leads to the child having dependency issues", he qualified.

shong@sph.com.sg

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