TIME’s Breastfeeding Cover Causing Social Media Uproar. The social media world is abuzz Thursday over the latest TIME Magazine cover (full size here), showing a Los Angeles mother breast-feeding her 3-year-old son. The story hits newsstands on Friday (it is behind an online paywall to non-TIME subscribers), addresses the trend of “attachment parenting,” and has sparked debate on Twitter about two topics:

1. How old is too old to breast-feed?
2. Is this photo beautiful or disturbing?

TIME’s blog explains that the photographer chose this particular cover image because the accompanying article is about attachment parenting, and, he says, “I liked the idea of having the kids standing up to underline the point that this was an uncommon situation.”One of the mothers interviewed in the story, Dionna Ford of Kansas City, Mo., discovered how difficult it was to wean her son off breast milk.

“After six months, I decided I’d wait until he turned 1,” she says. “But after my baby turned a year old, he was still a baby — not talking, barely walking — and I wondered why I’d stop now.”

Actress Alyssa Milano, who had a baby last year, tweeted:

“@Time no! You missed the mark! You’re supposed to be making it easier for breastfeeding moms. Your cover is exploitive & extreme.”

What did you think of the cover? Initial reactions?

-LD

TIME, Alyssa Milano

Photo: TIME Magazine