To be annoyed by breastfeeding camapigner's tactics?

[ibangthedrums]

Yesterday I went to a community family fun day. It was a huge, busy event with funfair etc. One of the stalls was a breastfeeding campaign group. All good so far!

I was stood by the stall for a few mins waiting for DS1 to have his face painted so was able to watch them. They were really quiet but only method I saw them use was to ask older (school age) children if they were breastfed.

The only ones I saw, had to ask their Mum and it so happened they were. The lady then said "well done" and gave them a pack of pencils as a reward.

The more I think about this, the more it bugs me. The children have no control over how they were fed. If they had said no, I wonder what the woman may have done. Give them pencils to make up for it?! Perhaps the mother ought to have got the pack of pencils!

I know it must be hard to reach people, but surely mums with little babies, pregnant women or just adults are more of a target audience than young children?! BF does need to be promoted and people need all the help they can get. These sort of tactics however, will surely not reach those that need it and actually turn alot people off who are struggling.

"After a certain age there is no nutritional benefit to BF a child, Those that continue are doing it for their own reasons and I think it's all a bit needy."

I stopped 4 months ago. DD still takes almost every opportunity she can to latch on and asks me for it at least once a day. Yeah, I bf for my own needs, she got no nutritional, emotional or immunologial benefit at all.

FFS.

Butterfly, misread your last post and thought you had a desire to Lick webpages much less

"After a certain age there is no nutritional benefit to BF a child"

No - we all know your breastmilk turns to water on your child's 1st birthday.

nutrition isn't the only reason a child breastfeeds. why is that always thrown up as a reason to stop by people who realy should mind their own?

Dreams makes a very good point

OP saw pencils being handed out to a child whom was bf but did not see what happened to any children that were formula fed.

I do not think we can pass judgement on this as we do not have the answers to a REALLY important part of this "what happened to the forumla fed children".

I can however follow the idea behind it. We know that we need to educate early on so if you place that 1 question to the children it makes it appear normal and something that can happen it may even make the child ask his mother more about bf. It may not but it makes it normal because it could happen.

Of the top of my head from what you are describing it sounds like Lansinoh that is not breastfeeding activists but nipple cream. I could obviously not state that it is but perhaps the name will ring a bell w OP?

the only League I know of with bf at the top of my head is LLL and OP stated that is not it.

However as we do not know the answers to something actually really important to this I dont think we can state that they were being unresonable more that we need more info.

An earnest teacher type did a survey when I was in first year of senior school, on if we were BF or FF as a baby. I said I presumed I was FF as I was in care for the first couple of months of my life. That shut 'er up.

Sounds as though it was general survey to find out how the rates of ff/bf had changed/stayed the same in your area in the last 5yrs (in was aimed at the younger children in the sensory tent)

They were probably asking all children to find out how they were fed, so they could build up data for the area.

You only saw them speak to bf children, but they were more than like rewarding all children for simply taking time to answer the question.

LBM shall I pass you a shovel

Sounds very odd, and I think there is a dearth of detail here.

No breastfeeding support campaign or campaigners I know of would 'reward' children who had been breastfed with anything, for exactly the reasons discussed here.

If it happened as the OP describes it, it is likely to have been one single oddball, and certainly not a policy.

If I'd been there I would have definitely said something and got more info!

Why pencils?

butterfly - I can't imagine any circumstances where it would be appropriate.

I never, ever, ask a mother how she fed her children, even if I know her really well, or how she is feeding her baby. You can ask a new mother 'how are things going?' without asking how she's feeding.

I'd certainly never ask her child/children

She can tell me if she wants to! If she finds out I am a breastfeeding counsellor, she may well do.

I too have heard very sad stories from decades ago.

I think its an odd tactic. A child could feel upset if they feel they are giving the 'wrong' answer. No one can control how they are fed as a baby.

YANBU.

Plain weird.

My DD would have got sweet FA off of them because she was formula fed. I know awful mummy aren't I?

I obviously didn't see what she was doing for very long but what I did see went as follows

bf woman to child - were you breastfed?

Mum - yes they were

bf woman to child - well done have some pencils

I do think this is wrong to ask even one child. I wish now I had said something. Even if it was just data collection or whatever I don't think it was the appropriate way to go about it.

i would love to have overheard this.I would have so much fun confronting these nut jobs.