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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

When did you first see a baby breastfeeding?

74 replies

mears · 09/02/2007 10:39

Or was it your own.

As a follow on from comments on the other thread I thought it would be interesting to know.

I was about 11 years old and used to visit our next door neighbour and help her with her 2 children (there's another thread - that doesn't happen anymore!).

I used to watch her bath the baby then sit and breastfeed him. It just looked so lovely.

My mum breastfed all five of us which included a set of twins. She was very unusual in 1963 with the twins that the consultant used to bring people to see her!

Breastfeeding was therefore the norm for me which has moulded my beliefs.

OP posts:

Judy1234 · 09/02/2007 12:54

I remember my best friend at school commenting they had seen someone breastfeeding in the cafe at the despartment store and how disgusting she and her family found it and they should be in the toilet doing it and me thinking you are so silly. It's a baby doing exactly what you're doing in the restaurant eating. Not sure what would be my first sight of it - my mother's NCT leaflets with pictures probably and I used to read a lot of books about the Amazon, non fiction stuff, never fiction, when I was 10 - 14 so probably lots of sights of it in National Geographic etc. I always assumed I would breastfeed which I did.

Feeding the twins wasn't hard, much easier and more efficient way to feel babies (always did two together) than bottles.

QueenofTwee · 09/02/2007 12:55

Luckily, dino you had the support, self-belief and/or determination to do what you wanted to do

lulumama · 09/02/2007 12:59

my auntie breastfeeding her son, when i was about 5 or so, and then mum bresatfeeding my brother when i was a wee bit older

this was the very early eighties, mum and all her friends breastfed, and i don;t recall seeing anyone bottle feed.

Dinosaur · 09/02/2007 13:00

Frankly, if I'd had to rely on my family to set me an example or support me in anything much, I don't think I'd have got terribly far!

FioFio · 09/02/2007 13:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

3andnomore · 09/02/2007 16:02

DumbledoresGirl, when I say saw, I meant, it was the first time I actually noticed.....admittedly I was not very maternal or into Baby's at all, and just took no notice, lol!It never occured to me to think about it in connection with a Baby...when I thought about Baby's I tended to think about the Nappy part, not so much the feeding part, lol....
Honestly, my Kids do get fed, I have changed since Now I ratehr try to put the nappy part out of my mind ;)

harpsichordcarrier · 09/02/2007 16:05

probably when my sister had her first baby, when I was ten or eleven.
I remember my BIL being totally besotted with the picture of them bf and taking loads of photos, which had pride of place in the album.

funnypeculiar · 09/02/2007 16:11

would have been my mum bf my brothers & sister - when I was 3, 9 & 12 respectively ... no recollection of it, as it was no big deal

Original poster

mears · 09/02/2007 19:12

Ineterestingly although my mum breastfed, it was never longer than 6 months I think. She is very so pro breastfeeding and I think that shaped my thoughts. However, she was critical of me 'constantly' topping my babies up - no need to feed that often!

She would tell me to wrap a scarf round my breasts when I put the washing out incase I got a chill (ignored that). She is an intelligent woman too! I think that she was lucky with an abundant supply of milk. In her day you fed 4 hourly and the baby cried for 3 hours in between (good for their lungs - especially if outside in the pram where you couldn't hear them)!!

OP posts:

suedonim · 09/02/2007 20:14

I can't think that I saw anyone bf until I had my own.

But dh has done his bit to promote bf-ing. His mum had another baby when he was 11 and bfed, which was v unusual then. Dh used to bring his friends home to watch his mum bf - though he claims he charged them 6d for the priviledge!!

chipmonkey · 09/02/2007 20:38

When my Mum fed my dsis who was 3 year younger than me. I remember exclaiming "Oh, they're bockles!!!" I had always wondered what they were for!

colditz · 09/02/2007 20:39

When I was 23.

determination · 09/02/2007 20:40

I think i was around 18,19 or 20 and knew that i definately would do it when i had a baby.. it was beautiful and SSOOO natural

Gingerbear · 09/02/2007 20:41

1992 - my best friend bf her son. I have no breastfeeding 'norm' as my mum bottlefed all of us (2 adoptees, and one c-section baby). My sis and SIL bottlefed my nieces and nephew.

Gingerbear · 09/02/2007 20:43

Mears, I have a B&W photo of me wrapped up in a silver cross pram in the garden with a foot of snow on the ground!

hoxtonchick · 09/02/2007 20:52

i don't remember the first time i clocked someone breastfeeding, but we had photos in our bathroom at home of my mum breastfeeding both me and my brother. so i grew up thinking it utterly normal.

foundintranslation · 09/02/2007 20:53

When I was roughly halfway through my pg with ds. It was my friend's baby.

Twinklemegan · 09/02/2007 22:12

I have a vague recollection of seeing a baby being breastfed but I can't remember who it was or when. My mum breastfed me (obviously can't remember that) but had to bottle feed my brother. I didn't have much experience of babies full stop before I had my own.

misdee · 09/02/2007 22:13

i was very young, 3-5years old?

sweetkitty · 09/02/2007 22:22

I had never saw anyone BFing until I fed DD1. No one in my family BF. When I told my mother I was intending to BF her response was "don't be so stupid, my mother said to all of us get them on the bottle" I think this total lack of support made me go the opposite way I was so determined to BF DD1. Was also told I couldn't feed a baby myself for 6 months they would starve and they were so unsupportive of a homebirth I had to have one of them as well

Of course now my Mum tells anyone who will listen that I have BF both DDs.

QueenofTwee · 09/02/2007 22:46

Sorry to be finnickety Gingerbear but c-section babies aren't automatically bfed. I gave birth by c-section and bfed. Just had to say it, sorry.

QueenofTwee · 09/02/2007 22:48

I meant aren't automatically bottle-fed

Gingerbear · 10/02/2007 09:24

Queen of Twee - I never implied that it was the norm - that is just your interpretation.
My DD was c-section and I breast fed her for 18 months.

My mum had my sister in 1968, a traumatic emergency c-section with a vertical incision, and needed a blood transfusion and antibiotics for a week. This was in the era when bottles were the norm. I am not surprised that she didn't manage to breastfeed.

MummyPossum · 12/02/2007 11:46

Message withdrawn

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