can/should/would you breastfeed an upset 1 yr old in a public swimming pool?

[preggerspoppet]

By popping your boob out right there and then?

I think I've just put myself off!

I was snorting at your comment about clean pools. Swimming pools are anything but 'clean'. They are full of the stuff on belgos list!

Ah. My apologies, hercules.

Breastmilk is magical stuff. You know, it could cure many an ill if folk were to swim in it. It's not comparable to snot, wee, poo, saliva etc. So to be put off by it is just plain weird, IMO.

But, I say that as someone who has put someone elses b/milk in my eye to deal with a rather nasty sty/conjunctivitis. Fresh stuff it was too . I blardy love hunker.

my preference is to bathe in fresh breast milk daily. I'm actually 462 now but only look 35.

I'm sure Cleopatra bathed in fresh human milk too....

OK OK.

BUT you are all posting as if I had written eeeuwww breastmilk is gross. What I am actually saying is if people don't want it in their pool water they shouldn't have to have it there even if you tell them it would cure their sty or plump their wrinkle.

I just don't get why it's ok for people to say "It's natural and marvellous and you shouldn't object and if you do you're a weirdo". You wouldn't say "Cod liver oil is a magical substance and I'm going to put a few spoonsful in the pool because it's good for your hair".

Other people's lives and preferences shouldn't be so secondary. Other people matter too.

no of course. But the fact is that there is a lot of snot, pee, saliva and traces of blood in swimming pools. there just is. So it is just interesting to put a possible drop of breast milk in context.

Yes, that's true about other things being there but I just think you don't say oh the road is full of litter anyway, just drop your sweet paper there too.

Anyway I am starting to bore myself and I'm sure everyone else wants to gag me. And also I don't want to make OP feel bad, I certainly wouldn't give LOOKS and all that, and if it's an emergency, off you go. But for an older baby who can wait 30 seconds till you get onto a bench, I think that's advisable. Same as if the baby needed a feed while you were driving, you'd pull over, not do it at the wheel on the motorway.

No offence to anyone - as I said I am very pro-breastfeeding, have done it once and intend to do it for my new baby who is due soon.

there again, creating an analogy where breastmilk is the same as another waste product. (the sweet paper) [sigh]

I never spill a drop these days

precious stuff you see, don't want to share it

yes that analogy made me pmsl.

I have no problem with somebody else BF'ing their child in a pool - it's a free country and all of that.

I don't think I'd do it (if I could), anymore than I'd lounge around the public swimming bath topless (which I am pretty sure would make a LOT of people uncomfortable). I think if you take breastfeeding out the equation, it may make sense that people were uncomfortable with the "nakedness" rather than the feeding IYSWIM.

Possible?

no and no

Yes dejags, I think you are quite right that it is the nakedness that makes people uncomfortable (well, the naked breast - people are not uncomfortable with naked elbows or tummy buttons).

However, from the point of view of making breastfeeding utterly normal and unremarkable - which in my opinion is the most important issue here, more important than considering the sensitivites of others in this case - the nakedness is something that people have to get used to. With the best will in the world, breastfeeding involves exposing the breast. If we continue to signal strongly that such exposure is indecent and makes others uncomfortable, we will continue to have miserable rates of breastfeeding in this country.

PW I agree that it would be fabulous to demystify boobs and for people to become accustomed to seeing breasts for what they really are intended.

I am not sure though, in reality that this will ever happen. Most men see breasts as sexual objects and that will never change.

Me personally - I have had a breast reduction, so I have ishoos and wouldn't in a 100 million years dream of whipping them out. But that's just me.

agree pw.

Although having just re-read your post PW, it will change, given time.

Less than 100 years ago it would have been an outrage for a woman to bear her belly-button. Not so now.

Just a shame that breasts weren't emancipated at the same time as belly buttons eh?

That would be "bare" not "bear".

dejags. Yes, I think it could change over time. As you say, 100 years ago men were driven into a frenzy by the sight of bare ankles. There are societies in which women walk around bare-breasted - I'm thinking of African tribal societies, and aren't there also some cultures in the Pacific in which women don't cover up their top half?

I don't think men are incapable of distinguishing between breasts as baby-feeders and breasts as sexual objects - or, to put it another way, I think they are quite capable of seeing them fulfill both roles, and separating the roles in their own heads as necessary.

Also, as a feminist, I'm not comfortable with arguments that say: such-and-such a female characteristic is sexually arousing to men, therefore women must cover it up or take the consequences. It's the same argument behind head-covering and burkhas and all of that stuff with wot I strongly disagree. If men find such-and-such a characteristic arousing, well frankly they're just going to have to deal with it - particularly when it comes to something as fundamental and important as a baby. Every now and then I'll see a man who makes my heart beat faster, but it's my responsibility to stop myself jumping on him - or, indeed, staring so hard that it makes him uncomfortable.

Agreed. I find it appalling that in the year 2008 there are still men and even some women who perpetuate the psycho-sexual attachment between men and breasts (I have heard it said that breastfeeding is disgusting by more than one woman).

It's weirdy and sad that too many people just can't differentiate between the two. Breastfeeding is becoming more socially acceptable. However, I think this particular instance is a good case in point, where even those who have a healthy attitude to "feeding on a park bench" might still have issues with feeding in a "strange" place.

Ho hum. Onward and upward as they say.

Of course you can. I have!

Well I breastfed ds until he was 2 and I wouldn't do this because as Twiglett (I think) said earlier, breastfeeding is not the only way to comfort an upset 1 year old. You do have to accept they might cry a bit more than if you offered the breast but I've always felt that maybe being allowed to cry while being cuddled/comforted is what they need sometimes.

I know if someone tried to shut me up every time I go upset by shoving something in my mouth I'd be annoyed.

''I know if someone tried to shut me up every time I go upset by shoving something in my mouth I'd be annoyed. ''

in our baby swimming class today, the instructor said (unprompted) "if your baby gets upset, and you normally nurse to comfort, you should go right ahead and do that in the water if you want to - whatever feels comfortable". Has he been reading MN?!?