Breastfeeding in public

[Forgivenandsetfree]

Inspired by a comment I have seen on Facebook.
I breastfed until 22 months, towards the end I didn't feed in public because of course she was eating by then but when she was small I did. Luckily I never had an issue and was treated well in my local Macdonalds and Costa, but the comment said most people have issues with Bf in public, aibu to think this isn't true?
YABU- I faced issues/I don't like it.
YNBU- I don't/ didn't have a problem.

[MrsAvocet]

I've never met anyone else who feels the same before actually TooOldForThis67. Anyone I've mentioned it to previously just thinks I am faddy or mad. That may be true of course but I feel better knowing there are at least 2 of us!
Breastmilk doesn't bother me though as its got different appearance and smell. Plus you don't really see it very much. And whilst I don't exactly like it, I can tolerate handling soya milk. I will eat cheese, and can just about handle yoghurt as long as I don't start thinking to much about its origins, but cow or goat milk on its own.....bleurgh.
As one of my children is still dairy allergic we don't consume much dairy produce at all so fortunately I don't have to deal with it very often. I did visit a relative with a young baby pre lockdown and it was a bit awkward when I was asked if I'd like to give her a bottle. I didn't want to offend but would find that really hard to do. Fortunately her grandma was also there and wanted to do it and I was very pleased to be able to defer to her seniority which made us both happy!

[Fieldofgreycorn]

As one of my children is still dairy allergic we don't consume much dairy produce at all

Strange concept ‘dairy’ isn’t it. We mass consume the milk produced for the babies of another species and then have a debate about feeding human milk to human babies in public, private or whatever!

[Somethingsnappy]

I couldn't agree more, Fieldofgreycorn! It never ceases to amaze me that some people can't tolerate babies, toddlers and children drinking milk from their own species!

[ShebaShimmyShake]

@Somethingsnappy

I couldn't agree more, Fieldofgreycorn! It never ceases to amaze me that some people can't tolerate babies, toddlers and children drinking milk from their own species!

Well, you know. Wee in bottles. Poo. Flashers in raincoats. Attention seeking. Boobs everywhere destroying everything. Or something.

[pinkstripeycat]

I am 50 and my mum BF my older sister and I in public until we were 16 months old. She says no one was bothered as it was so much more common to BF back then and you rarely bottle fed

[Somethingsnappy]

ShebaShimmyShake, not to mention whipping or flopping them out at every opportunity

[Somethingsnappy]

P.s. mine don't whip or flop......they emerge, most tentatively and gracefully

[MrsAvocet]

@Fieldofgreycorn

As one of my children is still dairy allergic we don't consume much dairy produce at all

Strange concept ‘dairy’ isn’t it. We mass consume the milk produced for the babies of another species and then have a debate about feeding human milk to human babies in public, private or whatever!

Yes,most people look at me in absolute horror when they learn that my son consumes no dairy produce at all and that the rest of us barely do. We use very little in the way of substitutes either, though I'm quite partial to a bowl of swedish glace ice cream. There is a general belief that cows' milk is an essential part of the human diet and that you cannot be healthy without it. Strange really. It freaks people out further when I tell people that I breastfed my children til they self weaned and then just fed them food, no need for further milk. You know, like every other mammalian species on the planet does. But humans apparently are different and need the milk of other animals. Well, no, we don't. Drink/eat it if you like it and don't if you don't.

[Fieldofgreycorn]

I agree but the other side of that is the fact that Asians (as in Japan, Korea) have a higher prevalence of calcium deficiency and they don’t drink milk or dairy. It is a bit of a conundrum.

[MrsAvocet]

Yes, that's true, it is definitely harder to get your daily calcium requirements without dairy, but not impossible. There are plenty of non dairy calcium food sources and you can always give a supplement if finding it hard to hit the required intake. I think a lot of people don't know what the requirements are and would probably be surprised by quite how much is needed actually, particularly at certain times of life. I suspect we are bit more clued up on the topic by virtue of the fact that have to actively think about calcium intake on a low/no dairy diet. DS and I both take a daily combined calcium and vit D tablet at the moment as he is adolescent and I'm post menopausal. I didn't bother when we were younger but I think it would be quite hard to hit the recommended intake for our current ages from diet alone even with dairy, especially without taking in a lot of extra food. I did calculate that I could get my required calcium by eating 600g of Cadburys Dairy Milk per day, which is the way I find milk most palatable. 20 dairylea triangles would do it too, or about 1.5kg of kale. Now we do like a lot of kale but....no, probably best that I keep taking the tablets.

[StarlightLady]

I rarely wear a top at the beach, so l’m gardly likely to have issues with breast feeding.

[sqirrelfriends]

@MrsAvocet , the dairy milk would be my preference too

I find the requirements for calcium confusing, surely domesticated animals for milking is quite a recent thing in our evolution. I agree you don't 100% need milk or dairy after a certain age, but you do need to be aware of your vitamin requirements and supplement them as needed.

[MrsAvocet]

Good point sqirrelfriends. I don't know why we need such large quantities of other foods to reach our calcium requirements when it is obvious really that we are mot biologically intended to consume the milk of other species. All I can think of is that we have moved so far from what was the original natural himan diet that we've lost some natural high calcium foods or something. Or maybe its because we have evolved to live longer. I don't suppose bone health was a big consideration in the days when the average life expectancy was 30 or whatever. And of course people have always been malnourished through the millennia - other species I suppose too - but I imagine the ways in which diets are deficient has changed through history, and indeed by geography. I expect there people who study all this stuff properly (anthropologists??) but I've never seen anything on the subject in the mainstream media. It is weird. You would think we should be able to obtain everything we need fairly easily from the foods we are biologically intended to eat, but its clearly not as simple as that. We had kale with our roast dinner tonight but I didn't manage my full 1.5kg......

[Cotswoldmama]

YANBU I breastfed my eldest until he was nearly three not in public much towards the end as he only really breastfed to sleep. I remember seeing a mum carrying a child of a similar age around peppa pig world whilst breastfeeding, I thought she was amazing and nobody really looked twice but then everyone there would have seem it all before!