According to the Chicago Tribune:
It may have been moot, however, for the two have been separated since July.
As an attorney for the mother put it: "You can assume he's been gone so long from his mother that he's effectively weaned."
The controversial Illinois case, which received extensive publicity, touched on several sensitive issues, including breast-feeding, co-sleeping, sexual abuse and society's norms about what constitutes good parenting.
A Champaign County judge in Urbana, home of the University of Illinois, ruled on Wednesday that the 32-year-old single mother, who had originally been accused of breast-feeding the boy against his will, could now have unsupervised visits, but not overnight stays, on a six-months trial basis.
For the past five months the boy has been in the custody of a foster parent, his former baby-sitter, who had told the court he wanted to end being breast-fed.
The judge decided the case was not about sexual abuse, as state investigators had alleged, or inappropriate breast-feeding, but whether the boy was being used to serve his mother's needs, potentially at his expense.
The mother was supported by the breast-feeding advocacy organization La Leche League International in her practice of allowing a child to determine when to discontinue nursing.
Although she slept in the same bed with the boy, she denied allegations she did so naked.
Nursing a child until age 6 is not common in the United States, but some pediatricians and child-rearing experts support extended breast-feeding and co-sleeping.
In making the ruling, Circuit Judge Ann A. Einhorn said:
"This young, engaging boy, like all other children, should grow, mature and exercise a degree of independence.
"It's always a difficult choice for any parent, as to how to proceed, but [independence of the child] is the goal."
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