When she isn't playing ultra-nerd Amy Farrah Fowler on the TV show The Big Bang Theory, Mayim Bialik wears the hat of a licensed lactation education counselor, parenting guru, and mom. Until February of this year, she breastfed her son until he was four years old. And now, she says, she's tired of fighting people about it.

Bialik has long championed the practice of attachment parenting, a method of child-rearing pioneered in 1992 by pediatrician Dr. William Sears. At base, attachment parenting encourages the mother to follow her instincts, to keep her baby as close as possible as often as possible by breastfeeding, "wearing" her baby in a sling, and co-sleeping with her baby.

Many women who adopt the philosophies of attachment parenting tend to breast feed their children even as they become toddlers. Bialik says that weaning Fred after four years of nursing came as naturally as the nursing itself.

"I loved nursing Fred. And Fred loved and needed nursing. It was the best nutrition, nurturing, and bonding ever," the mother of two wrote on her Jewish parenting blog, Kveller. "Best protection against sickness (the year we all got H1N1, nursing Fred stayed healthy for the entire two weeks when we were all sick as dogs). I had difficulty nursing both of my boys. Nursing Fred was never not painful and I battled thrush numerous times, but we did it. And we did it long. And we did it well. We were nursing pros for sure."

Bialik would nurse Fred on the subway, in the park, and wherever and whenever she felt necessary. She eventually engaged in a "No Offer, No Refuse" policy, and she recalls the experience being "always right" and "never wrong," despite the sometimes nasty glances and contemptuous remarks.

"I know that there was never ever ever anything wrong with nursing Fred," she noted. "Even when he was in 4T jeans. With a mouth full of teeth. Even when people laughed and sneered and accused me of horrible things no mother should ever be accused of when tending to the normal and beautiful needs of her mammal child. It was never wrong and it was always right."

She eventually weaned her son in early February this year — Fred no longer instinctively beckons for "nummies," as Bialik says — and the effects of her decision have made the aftermath as fraught with controversy as the act itself.

People approach her, she says, asking what motivated her to breastfeed for four years, and if she realizes she's harming her child.

"Obviously the notion of an older child nursing is very strange to some people," she conceded. "In certain cultures it's not. And I was very careful about when and how I chose to breastfeed my older child. I put a lot of boundaries and limits around it and again took the guidance of women who had sort of walked this path before me."

"I think the notion of breastfeeding at all is still very controversial in some circles," she continued.

Bialik holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from University of California, Los Angeles, and has taught high school courses in neuroscience, chemistry, and biology. In true attachment parenting-style, she often kept her baby slung across her chest during the lessons.

"I taught in our home-school community and most of the kids that I taught for had seen their moms also going about life doing things with the baby strapped to their chest. And it was OK with all of the parents," she said.

Indeed, such practices may seem extreme to those unfamiliar with attachment parenting or late-term breastfeeding. And while Bialik's case has spotty precedence — only 13.6 percent of people reported being exclusively breast fed after six months old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and her case has little hard science behind it — barring nutrition, most of the benefits she describes find their roots in prolonged emotional fulfillment — breastfeeding is far and away the most recommended form of nutrition for babies and infants.

The CDC advocates for greater awareness so that breastfeeding becomes the default form of nutrition, despite the overwhelming number of babies who stop breastfeeding after the first six months — around 85 percent.

"The success rate among mothers who want to breastfeed can be greatly improved through active support from their families, friends, communities, clinicians, health care leaders, employers, and policymakers," the CDC states. "Given the importance of breastfeeding for the health and well-being of mothers and children, it is critical that we take action across the country to support breastfeeding."