Etiquette using breast milk in baby food as a guest?

[Humdrumdum]

We're going to stay with family and I use breast milk in breakfast for our baby, usually scrambled eggs or porridge in a pan to make sure the extra nutrients being missed are chucked in.

They're fine with us cooking for ourselves but would it be weird if I did it there with their pan and bowls or am I overthinking it?

Anyway, off to get dressed wrangle dc into nice clothes for 2nd Seder at my DPs, this thread can be my topic of conversation! Thanks, @Humdrumdum

It is normal milk

😂😂😂

Reading some of the responses just makes me think how weird we are about breast milk. There is nothing wrong with you cooking with it, though I wouldn't bother (just out of laziness, no other reason).
Why are we so squeamish about breastmilk? When you think about it - and yes I know cows' milk is pasteurised - isn't it weirder to drink the milk of another species?

I have to agree with this.

Pathogens can be spread through breast milk as much as blood.

So although they’ll be washed I wouldn’t be comfortable with it.

Its similar to when people let their dogs lick their plates before they wash them. Yes they get washed but it’s still a bit from.

Although this is MN where posters shower 5 times a day and change their pjs and sheets everyday but also think it’s fine to put toilet brushes and seats in the dishwasher 🤣

(Should say I breastfed my son until he was 19/20 months - I wanted to stop earlier but struggled as he clearly found it a great comfort and sticking a boob in his mouth was the fastest way to get him back to sleep. That said, when I stopped, he was great about it - and has never tried to breastfeed since, so he clearly was ready to quit.
You do whatever works for you and if that's cooking with it, great. Think anyone would be weird to complain about it tbh.

🤢🤢🤢

Not many things make me queasy but that made a tiny bit of vomit come up in my mouth!

Use the bucket, bin or mop bucket like most people do lol.

It may not be abnormal but neither are we all adding breast milk to our morning tea. I was embarrassed when my friends opened two drawers of my freezer and it was rammed with bags of expressed milk. So I'd draw the line at needing to add a few drops of my breast milk to a cooked breakfast at someone's house.

The tiny benefit of that extra little bit of milk is outweighed by the risk of it making the hosts feel a bit icky. Frankly entertaining guests with babies is challenging enough at times.

Breast milk does break down after it goes above body temp and we cook with it, so the benefits of the enzymes are lost

so op; I’d not bother, scientifically there is absolutely no nutrional benefit to breast milk once you’ve cooked with it. Adding it cold. Fine. Warming it gently from the fridge. Fine. Cooking with it. No nutrional benefit at all. So if not bother.

https://solidstarts.com/how-to-store-warm-breast-milk-and-maximize-nutrients/

^^ this!

Washing up bowl when I was a kid

Why would you be embarrassed? Did you never feed your baby in front of her?

I wouldn't do it if the porridge or scrambled egg was going to be shared round, but assuming you're making it just for your baby, I think it's fine.

I certainly wouldn't have a problem with you doing it at my house. Kitchen utensils get washed after use!

I am (was) a committed breast feeder - but I do get where you're coming from. Personally I would take my own pan and jug and make a joke of it.

I remember when one of mine threw up an entire breastfeed over my brother in law and my sister was a bit grossed out by the fact he was drenched in my bodily fluids.,

If you’re worried you could always add it afterwards eg mix it into the porridge once it’s been cooked

I think the fact some people here have an issue with it should make it a no. All the arguments for it are valid but when it comes down to it you are a guest using their belongings and they might feel uncomfortable with it but too polite to say anything. You don’t know which side of the fence they sit on so I would be cautious.

Why would you be embarrassed? Did you never feed your baby in front of her?

Male and female friends (we were having a party hence the hunt for ice). And no, I wouldn't necessarily choose for my friends to see drawers of expressed milk. (Partly as there's a lot of piss-taking for years if they find any good fodder).

I don't think women should feel embarrassed to BF in front of friends but no, I probably hadn't fed in front of most of my friends as I'd rather not have to. I also gave expressed milk in bottles quite a bit which I found easier if I was entertaining friends.

But this isn't the core issue, there's no need or particular benefit of doing this for two days at someone's house so I wouldn't risk making them feel uncomfortable for a few drops of expressed milk.

I boil my menstrual cup in a pan and then stick it in the dishwasher. I suppose that has 'bodily fluids' involved but I never once thought about it because who cares?

I wouldn’t put breast milk in someone else’s pan. There’s no rational reason but it doesn’t feel like the done thing.

This.

Yep.

Would you do that in someone else’s pan?

Just don’t burn your boob. Sorry joke, and not a very good one.

I’m another one horrified at some of the responses on this thread. It’s baby food, being put in a utensil used for cooking food.

Cooking is a form of pasteurisation. The breast milk will be pasteurised by the time the eggs / porridge are done.