A breastfeeding mother has to find enough calories for two, which by the time the infant is 6–8 months old is physically impossible to do while carrying her baby – their appetite being by now too large and body too cumbersome. This creates a conflict of interests between mother and baby. In order for the mother to survive, her infant must begin to walk and forage for itself, but infants prefer to continue with the free ride, so they’ll try to manipulate their mothers using ‘psychological weapons’. These take the form of truly epic tantrums – the kind that would put a two-year-old human toddler
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