channel 4 breastfeeding programme

[lazycow]

Just thought people might be interested if you don't already know.

Channel 4 on Weds 1 Feb. A programme called Extraordinary Breastfeeding is on. The write up in the magazine I'm looking at says:

"You'll be texting your friends about this as soon as it starts. It's about the phenomenon of mothers who breastfeed their kiddies well beyond the age considered 'normal' in this country. Seeing a feisty mum breastfeed her two-year-old twin isn't that disturbing, but the sequence of another lady suckling her 7 year old dughter isn't one we will forget in a hurry. "

I'm looking forward to seeing the tone it takes.

abby = baby

So if you breastfeed until your child is seven, do you produce cream cheese.....

sorry, being flippant

Yuck, who is breastfeeding a 7 yr old??

sigh @ ssd

This thread had been going quite well really considering the topic...

so I was talking about this to my (GP) friend today and she said to me (who is tandem feeding a ten week old and a two year old)
"well there's no nutritional value in the breast milk for the (2 year old)"
so let me get this straight
this is the perfect food for the ten week old
BUT nutritionally empty for the two year old
and this is the same milk
clever stuff - to be perfect for one and worthless for the other
and this is a GP

Actually this is something I was just wondering about. If the composition of breastmilk changes to suit the nutritional needs of the child, then how can it be nutritionally perfect for both a newborn and a two year old?

it's not BonyM
it's perfect for the newborn
but still bloody marvellous for the two year old, as it happens

Thanks - I've always wondered!

Liquid Gold, that's what I say !

1 day old, 1 month old, 1 year old, even 7 years old, its bloody marvelous stuff

Don't strangle the sob, HC, strangle the GP

Saw the trailer for the bfeeding prog tonight. Doesn't look all that positive...

Think I'm going to make one called "Freaky Bottlefeeders" to rival it.

oh don't tempt me hinker
I am prepared to be very disappointed by this programme
cos a programme about how weird breastfeeding is, well, that's just what we need isn't it?

The preview made me cringe

You could make a documentary about freaky bottlefeeding!!! At my boarding school there was a craze for drinking milk out of baby bottles. People were rushing out to Boots to buy them. It was only the girls...don't know why. I'm not kidding. It became trendy to walk around sucking a bottle. And the funny thing was it wasn't sexual, it was a comfort thing. The teachers had to ban them and confiscate them. It was weird.

Yes, disappointed is how I feel about it already. Cringed along with you, Aloha.

MoM - how weird! There was a fad for teenage girls having dummies when I was a teenage girl...!

I wonder if there's a link between these bizarre fads (dummies is even weirder) and the appalling rate of teenage pregnancies in this country. I can see a vague correlation - girls putting themselves in sexual situations because they crave physical affection/comfort. Perhaps the way we parent girls as a society needs to be looked at. How fascinating.

Perhaps we should breastfeed them longer?

It certainly is very interesting

I still think the ten year old wanting "birthday bitty" is completely hatstand though

I am dreading the programme.I didn't bf ds1 as mw thought at 19 i was far too young to be coping with all that!! Did bf ds2 till he was 2.5 and lurrrved it.Currently pg (due in July) and still bd dd1,possibly will be tandem feeding in the summer..So i am deffo a bf crusader,breast is best and all that,but the trailer worried me as i think it will only show that bf is weird.I do not think bf a 7 year old is appropriate at all.Had no strong views either way before i saw the trailer but the sight of the mum i the park getting them both out and the big girl on sofa was horrible.Hope i don't get shot down for this but it did put me off my tea alst nite.

LOL, I must remember not to ask you round for tea, agalch, if you have such a sensitive disposition. You might not enjoy my breastmilk ice cream...

just kidding - or am I?

DH saw trailer of programme last night and he didn't know I knew about it already !! He said it looked rubbish as it was Sun Newspaper type of crap about bf-ing 7 and 10 year olds. He then said I should email ch. 4 to complain about it once its aired - so he is more of a crusader than me it turns out !

I feel depressed as I think it will actually put people off breastfeeding. And make people like me, still breastfeeding a walking nearly one-year-old, objects of ridicule.

We're all objects of ridicule to one degree or another - we're women, and mothers!!! I think you should be proud of breastfeeding a child of that age. Everyone knows the benefits. A good proportion of those who sneer will be people who are envious. I think breastfeeding a ten year old for a treat is a totally different story - I shall get very annoyed if this programme suggests otherwise.

yes I agree with you aloha
there is an interesting and informative and entertaining programme to be made about bf but I don't think this is going to be it
this is going to be a freak show
it makes me very sad indeed

Me too Aloha. I recently overheard colleagues at work talking about breastfeeding. One said it was like pretending to be animals and the other agreed it didn't have a place in civilised society. I am still breastfeeding my 17-month old and I do get odd and sometimes disgusted looks when I feed him on the tube home from work/nursery. Programmes like this is a big step backwards and the mothers who go on them feeding 7 year-olds are IMO doing a disfavour to all breastfeeding women.

Fairymum - at your ignorant, misinformed colleagues!! Breastfeeding in public is hard enough without knowing that that is what people are thinking