breastfeeding school aged children

[babyonboard]

Trisha is on this topic on channel 5 right now..will be interesting to see the points of view

good god..one woman thinks breastfeeding is totally unnatural..'breasts are meant for men and sex'

lol..but she finds it perfectly acceptable that she has shown her three year old her topless modelling photos, and she is teaching her that she uses her body to make money

where do they find these people!?

breastfeeding will cause psychological damage to a toddler..yet knowing her mum is a glamour model is perfectly healthy..

some people...

That blond woman is hideous. Completely ignorant. She must be otherwise she wouldn't think it was ok to air views like that on television!

Trisha's topic are usually sensationalist, something like: "My 85 year old grandmother has just run off with my 18 year old boyfriend and they are thinking of adopting a Chinese baby togther" or some such crap, so who can take anything said on that programme seriously ?

Channel 5 says it all I am afraid. Channel 4 which used to be an intelligent, documentary based channel in the late 80's when it first got aired, has now also turned bf mothers into a freak show.

Only today I was talking to some mothers in a playgroup, and when one asked me whether I had breastfed, and I said "I still do" (DS is 21 months old), the first thing 2 of them mentioned was "THAT programme on Channel 4". They then asked me when I would give up, and I said, whenever DS wants to give up, I will give up.

These women were all lovley and friendly, but I can imagine if I had been in a more hostile environment, I would have had some nasty comments re. THAT programme.

I get fed up of "rebelling" and being called a militant, otherwise I would write to the producers of all this crap progarmmes and ask them to lay off bf.

Couldn't agree more Koolkat - shame I missed the programme though!

Mfer - you ain't missed much !

oh god, koolkat. if I had a £ for every time someone had mentioned THAT programme to me I'd have, well, quite a lot of money

harps - fantastic idea:

let's set up a fund called "THAT bleeding bf programme" and donate the money we get for each time someone mentions it to a breastmilk bank or UNICEF or something

Enough to buy an automatic sprouter in fact, HC

:o

If we're discussing THAT programme again....
OK it was partly a freak show (the scary scary woman with the bf 8 year old!) but it actually changed my viewpoint on bf toddlers - I'd never really thought about it before, but generally assumed it was a bit weird. There were people on the programme who def weren't weird and were doing it for lovely reasons - reflecting on it afterwards I realised that no, actually, our society is weird for making such a big deal about it

yey! kathy no we're not weird
honest
koolkat= that is a cracking idea. I'm onto it....

Harpsi, the funny thing was that I'd had a conversation with an eccentric, childless professor at work when I was pg and she said to me when I said I'd be breastfeeding, 'How long are you going to breastfeed for? Three years I suppose?'
I said 'No, six months probably' and she said, 'Oh, I must have been thinking of Burma.'
Naturally I thought this was hilarious and was telling everyone as an example of how out-of-touch, batty etc this woman was.
I did stop after 6 months but would reconsider for future babies, so I guess the joke was on me....

Completely agree KoolKat. Made effort to avoid watching C4 programme as I knew it would totally make my blood boil (unfortunately did see some of it and yes temperature was raised). Why can't programme-makers use these opportunities to inform and educate people about the value of bf?

I also find it rather depressing that so many people (or at least those aired on tv!) are obsessed with ramming their narrow-minded lifestyle choices down everyone else's throat. For example, I probably wouldn't bf a 4-yr old (haven't got one, so can't be sure!) but I wouldn't be in the slightest bit offended (!) if my next door neighbour did. If anything, I would be interested in why they do, what benefits etc.

Bit concerned that (some) women are going backwards in the general effort for equality - ashamed to be proud of one of the amazing things that only women can do and instead letting popular culture dictate that we keep those boobs for the boys. I could go on, but I gradually get less articulate and more ranting so I'll take a break. S*d that, I'll go and rant at dh who will agree with me, but it'll vent my spleen a bit! (Poor dh, just cooking the dinner harmlessly)

Good job I missed Channel 5 eh?

And another thing - when the media decide it's OK (maybe even fashionable) for women to bf for years rather than months, mothers will be made to feel ashamed of bottle-feeding. Women should be taking a stand against this bullying nonsense, it's not like we haven't been raising children for years thank you very much. Oops, rant.

for some reason, I am absolutely loving the phrase "I must have been thinking of Burma..."
so many uses.....
I must try and drop it into the conversation tomorrow.....

Walnut - go on love - you have a good rant ! I like what you say

Harps - my personal favourite is "like the natives" - it's beautifully derogatory, racist and chauvinist all at the same time !

I guess "Burma" is another way of saying "natives"

Ta Koolkat - feeling less aggrieved today despite nearly getting run over by blind woman driving Volvo in Tesco's car park. Sigh.

Walnut - There are some nutters out ther driving cars, eh ?

I got hit on the back of my car a few months ago in a Waitrose car park by a man who must have been in his 90's. He didn't see my bright red car pull out first and then got shouted at by his wife who said it was MY fault !!

She then started to explain "the law" to me and when I said I was a lawyer, she said "oh, well there are lots of Jews here in this part of London" (how on earth was this racist rant relevant who knows, I am not a jew any way, but very offended by the racist abuse against Jews) and then wouldn't stop and said all lawyers are thieves and that if I took them to court she would say so in court...that I was a thief !!

I didn't sue them, as I only had a tiny scratch....and wasn't that bovverred any way >>sigh

Oh dear! I am aghast at your story! Some people are totally nuts! How great to be able to come back with 'I am a Lawyer'! Sounds slightly more weighty than 'I coordinate a training programme'!!! (Of course, I could always lie....!)

Politics of bf? A book?

You could use your profession like this "I coordinate training programmes for people like you...and then add something suitable like "suffering from trolley angst" or "adults who throw tantrums"

"The Politics of Breastfeeding" is by Gabrielle Palmer. A fellow militant told me about it !

Now I see why you are a lawyer - good with words!
Let me know how the read goes, I could really do with something to unfreeze my grey matter... (can't blame ds for that one entirely!)