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 wouldn't, for the reasons frasersmummy mentions, also because I prefer to be sitting down (so I probably would if I was sat on a step, or in a very shallow part).
clara, I don't think any bf woman "gets her baps out" in order to flaunt, shock or show off. I think the people you are talking about are probably inexperienced bf-ers who are trying their hardest to be discreet but not very good at it yet. It's that sort of attitude that probably puts many of them off.

why in the pool?? if your 4 year old demanded a drink there and then ..you wouldnt give him it in the pool.

if there is eg a juice bar on the edge of the pool then you would go there..

why should breastfeeding be any different.. a pool is for swimming in ..

how long does it take to get out onto the side of the pool??

sorry soap box moment.. I didnt mean to be as harsh as that

please forgive me

I agree as far as my own choices go. I wouldn't have an issue with other people doing it.
I suppose my thinking is a pool isn't for sitting still in! Which is because I haven't been swimming in ages, and when I did it was lanes and people swimming up and down, stop and you were in the way! I suppose a child-friendly pool would be very different and probably bf would be fine in there.

Why should any woman be discreet about breastfeeding, if she's not worried? Breasts aren't obscene. The obscenity is all in the minds of the observers.

i wouldn't do it, i am breastfeeding and wish more would do it in public, but thats not to say anywhere and everywhere.

i would be surprised, just as i would to see a baby bottle fed in the pool. if it was purely to calm the child don, again personally i would remove the child from the pool and then deal with the situation.

also im with clara on being discrete, i'm very discrete when i bf, for my own benefit and others. and i don't believe it is inexp mothers who have all on show, ime from gps i go to it is those who are v exp and proud - not saying its wrong just my experience.

I don't think being discreet about breastfeeding helps anyone else: I think it does a big disservice to other mothers, who - on observing a bf-ing mother struggling not to expose a single inch of flesh - are given the strong impression that bfing is a) obscene and b) hellishly difficult (because it is extremely difficult to bf without exposing anything at all - particularly once the baby is old enough to tug at your clothing).

If you have the gumption, you would be helping other bfing mothers a great deal more by dropping your obsession with discretion.

And - quick pedant's interjection - to breastfeed in a manner that is unlikely to expose flesh is being dicreet. 'Discrete' has another meaning. (This isn't aimed at anyone in particular - it's a common mistake on this thread and others and it's annoying me a bit although I know it's petty. )

To the OP: yes i would no hesitation whatsoever.

I've bf a 17 month old in my swimming costume on a beach. And DD1 when she was 9 months old beside an outdoor swimming pool. I did get some odd glances. Can't think why. I was certainly exposing far less then other bathers.

good point pw
But the other extreme is also true - if the impression is that BFIP is for people who don't mind the world and his wife looking at their breasts then that is off putting to people who are shy or self conscious about their body - making them feel it is not for them.
BFIP can usually be as discreet as you want it to be, but it isn't the end of the world if you show a bit more flesh than you would have liked to, the baby comes off when you're half way through, or horror of horrors - you squirt across the room

I'm due anyday now and will be BFing, I will be discreet in DP's parent's house just because I feel more comfortable about it, butif baby needs feeding, no matter where I am baby will be fed.

was talking from my own opinion and experience - not obsession!

It's not always possible to be discreet - I certainly couldn't be when I was using shields...

Agree VS - there are circumstances where I feel the need to be more discreet - I recently fed in front of my boss and a colleague, I wanted to be discreet. In front of DH, mum and MIL I don't really care what they do or don't see.

I do understand that women can feel quite strongly that they want to feed discreetly somtimes. My point is that this attitude, valid as it is on a personal level, is actually a product of a culture that sees breasts as sexual and routinely denies their primary feeding function. If this perception was reversed, I very much doubt that many women would feel the need to be discreet.

My main objection is to Clara's claim that 'it is the ones who get their baps out in full view of everyone in inappropriate places who give breastfeeding mums a bad name.'

My objection in particular is to the words 'baps'.

I thought they were a type of bread roll.

Very true PW, I do see your point. It's just feeding a baby

I'm with PW (both on her point and on the pedantry ). I always find it faintly disturbing to hear/read people talk about bdf in public as women 'getting their baps out', or 'showing' their breasts, or similar - as if it were done for the purpose of titillation. I think it shows how sadly far we have come as a society, that even when breasts are fulfilling their primary (feeding) function they seem only thinkable/talkable-about in terms of their sexual 'function'. I've said before that I get the distinct feeling that society actually sees bf as a misappropriation of breasts, leading to the absurd double standard that naked or half-naked breasts are everywhere yet a bf mother is made to feel she should hide herself away and be 'discreet' - as if they were actually doing something shameful.

ive never noticed anyone doing this but then i dont go in the baby poool

it would never have occurred to me do it but then it never occurred to breastfeed for comfort

i doint really care what other people do

other people do a lot of things that i wouldnt do but are poerfectly valid for them

I do think I'm imagining bobbing in the deep end of an Olympic sized pool.
Wouldn't bat an eyelid to see someone feeding in a shallow part of a baby pool, breast or bottle.

what i find amazing is that while poo, urine, snot, blood, etc all carry potential germs, we all know they are in the public swimmingpool, even though we see the big signs saying that we should be careful of never putting any of these in.... and we jump in anyway.

but a drop of human milk nnnnnnnoooooooo! don't dare take that nork out of that cossie for fear of polluting the pool! - from a mum who was most likely tested for hiv, syphilis, hepatitis etc a year or so ago - and that milk will contain bacteria killing cells and antibodies! dont get that in the pool!!!

twig a one year old can be winding up to a tantrum precisely because of a low blood sugars brought on by a touch of hunger so feeding him with human milk is an appropriate form of address the real reason for the upset and providing the comfort as the same time.

so no, a cuddle just wouldn't be enough.

and glad i haven't been in a pool for 3 yrs now. think i will stick to the ocean.

it would be weird to be feeding formula then surely no one gets in the pool with baby bottles up their cossie

if child needed comforting i would tend to think it was time to call it a day and get dressed actually

rofl i think ocean would be considerably filthier standards are pretty low

Yes quite bero (although I'm keeping my head down on the pedantry side as I mis-spelled 'discreet' in the course of correcting others' spelling... )

I wonder how many of those who object to 'indiscreet' public bf-ing would also object to a woman going topless on a public beach in full view of children and strangers? Or object to anyone having a copy of the Sun or the News of the World?

The double-standard also makes things incredible hard for new mothers. On the one hand they are under considerable pressure from health professionals to breastfeed, and on the other they experience a great deal of pressure never to expose their breasts in the course of breastfeeding, which makes the whole thing incredibly difficult.