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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Just wondered - would you breast feed a friend's baby??

299 replies

clairemow · 16/08/2006 15:08

Just been having a conversation with a friend - would you be happy breast feeding someone else's baby, and how would you feel if someone else offered to feed yours?

I was thinking of the sort of scenario where you've had to leave your baby with someone else, and they need a feed, like if you're really sick or something.

I don't think I'd have a problem with it either way tbh.

OP posts:
Joolstoo · 16/08/2006 22:55

ok - extend the scenario - only bfing female has fainted - gone into a coma in fact - only thing available is formula .....

well?

hunkermunker · 16/08/2006 22:57

Only if it wasn't possible to express from said bf comatose woman, JT

(I have a freezer full of EBM...and a couple of good friends DH can call upon in such circs)

(HC, DS2 also teething - cut his first one on Sunday!)

misdee · 16/08/2006 22:57

what yen only b/f female in the whole country?????

if it was dd3, she would';ve carried on screaming even though formula was offered.

misdee · 16/08/2006 22:58

HM, send the little munchkin my way, he may have to fight dd3 for night feeds though. [tired]

Joolstoo · 16/08/2006 22:58

looks like you have it covered from all angles hunker

do you have a bottle of your EBM in every fridge in the land

just in case?

hunkermunker · 16/08/2006 22:59

I carry an emergency freezer with me, just in case, Jools.

Oh, and my tits.

Cowmad, go on, want to know why I'm so obviously a divorcee.

Joolstoo · 16/08/2006 22:59

misdee - you've gone to visit your brother who is a monk - there are NO other women about

Piffle · 16/08/2006 23:00

Jools fainting does not stop you from feeding

hunkermunker · 16/08/2006 23:00

ROFL at imagined monastic visit

Misdee, you can go on the rota with VVV and HC if that's OK?

I can get a week of sleep this way, I'm sure!

Joolstoo · 16/08/2006 23:00

hunker - your tits?

please keep up

you're not available - remember?

hunkermunker · 16/08/2006 23:00

Yes, good point, Piffle - prop up said comatose woman, hold baby in place and they'll do the rest

misdee · 16/08/2006 23:01

no way would my brother be a monk

dd3 is a limpet child, she would get milk out of me if i was comatose, she'd find it easier to lift my top lol.

hunkermunker · 16/08/2006 23:02

Just had to mention them, Jools.

(You and GDG coming to the meet-up I see - I shall talk of nothing but norks to you all night long)

(Actually, I won't, I'll blush and stammer and go "er" a lot)

Joolstoo · 16/08/2006 23:02

no, you've fallen face down, you're a dead weight - no way that babe is gonna turn you over

misdee · 16/08/2006 23:03

lol jools.

hunkermunker · 16/08/2006 23:05

What, all those monks around and they can't flip you over?

(Er, this is turning into a dodgy film plot - I can hear the twinkly 70s music - all the monks have beards suddenly...eek!)

laundrylover · 16/08/2006 23:06

Do you lot not have those handy EBM dispensers on every street corner? They are right next to the defibulators just in case that very situation occurs ie fainting women, monks crowding round and trying not to look at exposed breasts etc etc

Blu · 16/08/2006 23:08

Too late at night to read all the posts - but in answer to OP - yes, I would. In fact I almost did in an absent minded sort of way when looking after a friends baby - it felt like the natural and obvious thing to do. Would be happy to have left DS with a feind who fed him too. Another woman's milk or formula - why be squeamish about one and not the other?

tee hee - I bet I have never had an earth mother reputation!

Blu · 16/08/2006 23:09

pmsl at laundrylover and general monktastic ishoos.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 16/08/2006 23:19

Nah, he's all mine Hunker

Hunker, HC, line em up, i'll sort em out

Original poster
clairemow · 17/08/2006 15:16

Hunker, thank you for the link to the UKAMB. I will definitely register this time round - see they even come and collect the milk - fantastic!

Not sure how we got on to monks etc. but glad we've stopped shouting at eachother anyway.

Interesting what someone said about natural instinct. I haven't had this baby yet (please god in the next few days, it's too big now..), and I was cuddling my friend's new born the other day, and it would have seemed like the most natural thing in the world to try and feed her. I managed to resist, her mum's doing just fine on her own!

OP posts:
cazboldy · 17/08/2006 16:32

I wouldn't mind feeding someone elses baby after weaning my own.
My sister had a baby about 15 months after I finished feeding ds2, she bottle fed and I could always tell when he was hungry, even if she said it wasn't time for his bottle (wtf....... hes hungry!)
I used to flood the place when he cried and it was 15 months after I had finished feeding my own little chap.
Recently she told me I was part of the reason she didn't want to bf. She said I was always flopping them out and it was an embarrassment!

Overrun · 17/08/2006 18:54

I would bf another womans child, the closer I was to them and their child the easier I think it would be.
Would also like to think that some one would have done it for me if I was incapacitated.

jinderlee · 17/08/2006 19:22

My friend was in hospital, not able to feed her baby girl for the first 24hrs, as i was still feeding mine, i showed her what to do & helped baby latch on to her and it all went swimmingly after that . Did feel odd telling people, but felt i had done a service to them both. So no I wouldn't mind, but alas my time is over (fed both my grils for two years each and still made to feel like a wierdo hippy).

SecurMummy · 17/08/2006 19:23

Having read the op I thought Ewww, then thought a bit more and thought - I would feed someones baby in an emergency, but I would hate for someone else to feed mine.

Then I read the rest of the posts (and once I had got over being called weird for no apparent reason ) realised taht actually I am a grown-up and if I were run over or some such emergency then in reality I wouldn't care what was done to ensure my baby was fed as long as it was IYSWIM!

I may initially think eww but very quickly I would have to realise that whoever it was had done their best to ensure my baby was ok and how on earth can anyone grumble at that? Unless they are very selfish IMO!