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?

Well no zippi, I suppose I am imagining a class for babies where all stuff is round the side of the pool
I haven't been swimming in decades!

depends on which ocean and where though!

i go about three times a week

i mostly look at the lifeguards

yes PW, and the range of provisos and paraphernalia routinely offered to new mothers from all sorts of sources, from the ridiculous (hooter hiders, anyone?) to the much more subtle (expensive 'bf clothes', feeding 'facilities', drape-yourself-with-a-muslin, etc.) contribute to making bf seem that much more insurmountable to a mother wondering how the hell she's going to make it out of the house.

i don't go very often because i go to the caribbean to my family's island.

or rather, family's islands.

...whereas in fact the checklist should go like this:

keys?
purse?
change bag?
baby?
tits?

... and you're ready to go.

breastfeeding does seem awfully complicated these days

i n the olden days it wasnt considered half so interesting im sure

agree berolina and policywonk, you talk alotta sense.

just to clarify....

I was in a shallow baby pool, not a very busy one.

I had three children with me, two on my hip and one in the big pool a few yards away, playing on the inflatables (he swims very well but I couldn't leave him)

I had no towel so it would be too cold for both of them to sit out on the side.

I do demand feed the 1 yr old but he only usually feeds morning and night, sometimes after lunch.

he rarely reeds a comfort suck.

It was his first swim in a pool.

given all that I feel totally ok about it.

I actually feel like celebrating the fact that less that 1 minutes of bf saved the day.

I might take a towel on poolside next time but that would mean I would have to hold 2 children and a towel and bf (disceetly or not...) at the same time watch ds1 and amuse the toddler..... and because I'm not actually an octopus, I would probably just do the same again.

(good point about cold baby=low blood sugar=hungry btw.)

in our pool you wopuldnt be allowed with three children and one adult

when I bf in public, I am not worried that people see me breastfeed, I like bf in public. the reason I feel a need to bf discreetly is because my boobs don't look like they 'should' as in, they look like a real pair of boobs that have fed 3 babies and not the boobs that we have thrust in our faces by our media (mainly fake ones) and although I would discribe myself as a 'o'nachurell', I do feel embarassed that I am 28 and I have small streched boobies and I don't want them to be spotted

crazy, I know, I wish it were different, but I am someone who is, on the whole, comfortable with my body image so it must be even arder for others.

sorry to sidetrack, just trying to work it all out.

really zippi? even if one was over 8?

Oh god I've killed it by getting all personal

oh i missed the over 8 bit probably then

i dont know much about pool regs

Aside from the idea that people in general are sometimes a little uncomfortable around breastfeeding women and without being too concerned about the number of young and teenage lads that are generally hanging around swimming pools, my only concern would be around hygiene. You're putting something in a baby's mouth which has been immersed in chlorinated human soup. I wouldn't do it regularly.

The day they start manufacturing various trendy patterned "bottle tents" for you to bottlefeed your baby discreetly under

or advising you to drape a muslin over the bottle lest anyone catch a glimpse of teat

or suggesting that you might be more comfortable bottlefeeding privately where no-one can see

is the day it is fair to ask a breastfeeding mum to be discreet.

Until then, I think it's probably OK for a mum to feed her bub any which way she finds comfortable, be it private, public, boobs out, discreetly, brazenly or standing on her head.

Let's not make life harder than it needs to be?

vlc i waws going to suggest a MN bottle-hider in the style of the hooter hider
but thought it migt be misinterpreted!

Or better still, how about handy portable blindfolds for people who feel nauseous at the sight of a woman breastfeeding? Problem solved!

just to clarify - would be fantastic if bottle feeding mums used them to illustrate how stupid it is to have to hide how you feed your baby!

but if the child is in the pool they are going to swallow pool water anyway

i swallow loads

I just googled hooter hiders.

GOBSMACKED. I thought you were joking!
but really that is a bit depressing.

they're a must for every bf mum
either that or a good supply of blindfolds, as mentioned earlier
the blindfolds need to have quotes from "Reasons to be proud" on the inside

You may all be happy getting your boobs out in public, but a lot of people are not, possibly resulting in the looks preggerspoppet recieved in the pool.

I think it's also about manners. Is it really that polite to get your boobs out in the pool, possibly making other poeple feel uncomfortable. (Although I'm sure you militant feeders don't care how other people would feel)I really can't see a discrete way to feed while actually in the pool.

Personally I wouldn't feed in the pool, and I don't see why it would be necessary to bottle feed or BF in the pool.

A bit like weeing in the pool, IMO.

I think Twiglett has been given a pretty hard time on this thread.

there the word 'militant'.

discreet i think you mean? not discrete, as policywonk pointed out lower down.

and at equating feeding a baby with pissing in public.