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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

Whats the strangest/most amusing/just plain bizarre comment you have had about breastfeeding?

168 replies

waitingtobloom · 09/11/2008 20:23

From friends/family/health professionals/ random people?

Mine has to be the doctor who suggested I should express and put it on my cornflakes. I didnt - I dont like cornflakes.

Any odd or amusing (at least in hindsight!) ones out there?

OP posts:
alexpolismum · 07/02/2009 15:06

"Now that she's got teeth, it's like having a vampire constantly at your chest." said just yesterday about my dd, now 7 months, by one of dh's cousins, who wouldn't take her eyes off me the whole time I was feeding dd. It's the first time she's been to visit since dd was born, and bearing in mind that dd is already 7 months old, she brought us an outfit in 3-6 month size as a present for her.

Then, as she was leaving, she paused in the doorway, and said "Yes, vampire!" and laughed. Ha ha. What a great joke.

Rascal1979 · 07/02/2009 22:41

lol blueshoes - my friends DS was BF til 12mths and is now 5yrs old but still boob obsessed.

Last week he mentioned a new teacher at school. His mum asked what she was like and he replied ' she has big boobs'

barbareebaa · 07/02/2009 23:41

I am having a bit of bother with bf-ing caused I think by my wee boys tongue-tie. I spoke to my gp about this and she told me, very seriously, that tongue-tie does not cause bf-ing probs as babies do not lap the milk from the nipple like kittens (cue lapping mime) but actually suck.

Apparently you not need a tongue to suck then.

Still awaiting help for the tongue-tie but getting there (I think)

lizzytee · 08/02/2009 10:11

bud sadly not at your GP.

How are you fixed for bf support groups in your area? The two run by NCT counsellors were I live routinely refer babies for tongue tie division to a weekly clinic at one of the hospitals.

tiktok · 08/02/2009 10:12

barb, NICE have guidelines on tongue tie which you can show your doctor....she will not be able to argue against them

www.nice.org.uk/IPG149

Aidanmania · 13/02/2009 16:26

On my HV's first visit she told me that having negative thoughts would cause my milk to dry up. I hadn't mentioned feeling negative as I was doing quite well with feeding my son. She then said that as negative thoughts are in our sub-conscious they are impossible to stop.
She said this at least five times in the two hours that she stayed. I had negative thoughts about her but she didn't dry up.

My son is 4.5 months and still happily feeding. (I'm new on here by the way - hello all).

madmouse · 13/02/2009 16:46

2 hours
you must have a robust milk supply

aurorec · 13/02/2009 18:50

Hello Aidanmania!

How old is your HV btw? She might follow the same old wives tales as my grandmother who was convinced that a stressed mother would pass on stressed milk to the baby...

Rascal I think all little boys are boob obsessed- BF or not. Must be because they don't have any themselves...

samjel1 · 03/03/2009 21:13

my dd1 3yrs took great delight in telling my friend 'my mummy has big boobies' whilst she was breat feeding her baby.

When people ask her about her brother she says hes got no teeth he eats boobie stuff dont he mummy !!

gremlindolphin · 03/03/2009 21:31

Great thread, laughing our loud and very exasperated at some!

I breastfeed dd2 until she was 1yr and it was a very natural stop but had to stop feeding dd1 at 4 mths as I had to have an operation.

The maddest thing about it was going for an MRI scan and having filled in umpteen health questionnaires saying I had just had a baby, the ultrasonographer was in the process of injecting me with dye when he asked did I have any children, were they under 2, was I breast feeding - yes, yes and YES!. Oh he said, well now you have had this dye you can't breastfeed for 24 hrs!

I was so worried by the whole thing that I just got on with it and dd1 just got on with having her first bottle when I got back but I did write to the clinic later and explained and they said they would train their staff better.

apostrophe · 03/03/2009 21:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

BurningBright · 04/03/2009 11:33

My GP once told me that there is really no benefit in breastfeeding after six months and asked if it was for my DD or for myself.

My cousin's little boy (about six at the time) once sat watching me feed DD (who was about 20 months) with great interest. Eventually he said very seriously, 'I would have thought she is a bit too old to still be drinking milk from her mummy's tummy'. Both he and his two younger siblings were breastfed for about six months, so I guess he was just speaking from his own experience of how long babies get nursed. He was very sweet though.

So aside form my miserable doctor, the most disapproval I've had was from a six year old!

BurningBright · 04/03/2009 11:34

Ooh, and my grandmother once said not to cry because it would make my milk sour.

ShowOfHands · 04/03/2009 11:54

A loon of an hv told me I needed to stop as I'd turn into a 'husk', would be iron deficient, needed to think about having another (because the two are mutually exclusive), dd would be unnaturally attached to me, it had no nutrients in it anymore, I would probably make myself ill and on and on ad nauseum. I smiled and nodded.

DD was about 25lb at 6 months and exclusively bfed. DH's grandma said she needed 'steak and chips and soon' or she was at risk of starving. Hmm, 25lb, starving...

MadameCastafiore · 04/03/2009 11:57

My cousin told me she wasn't feeding her son as 'It just isn't natural'

This is the girl who is soooo over the top[ about her son having any sort of junk food or fizzy drinks at a party and constantly worries about his kidneys (he has no history of kidney problems!).

Maybe she thinks boobs are there for men to fiddle with?

waitinggirl · 04/04/2009 04:09

can't sleep and stumbled across this thread. am now laughing so much i think i may wake dd and dh up. thank you thank you thank you all

DaisyMooSteiner · 04/04/2009 07:00

When ds3 was a few months old I needed to take dd to a hospital appointment. While we were waiting ds needed feeding so I hitched up my top and got on with it. A little boy was watching and asked his grandmother what I was doing. Her reply - "she's feeding her baby like animals do"

I also overheard my mum asking my MIL once 'did you feed yours yourself?' My MIl replied that she did 'sometimes' Turns out she thought my mum was talking about feeding houseplants!

Veggiemummy · 04/04/2009 19:06

I have had dodgy comments from GPs Inc the usual there is no goodness after 6 months thing (not sure what study that came from?) but the funniest but also most ignorant from a GP was to a friend of mine who had been prescribed ABs by this GP. He advised her not to feed off the effected breast because the baby would get too much of the Antibiotics if she fed from it????? But clearly the other breast would have no antibiotics in it's milk?!?!?

MrsJenM · 08/04/2009 21:13

My DD has told everyone that will listen (which turns out to be quite a few people when talking about my somewhat substantial boobs), that my left boob is juice for DS and the right is milk.

She has also started feeding her own babies (dolls) juice and milk - lifting her top to do so.

Should probably point out that she is 3.

MrsJenM · 08/04/2009 21:17

ooh.. just remembered another. When I was BF my DD my mother constantly told me that the reaspon dd wasn't sleeping through was that she could smell the milk on me - from 6 foot away. Little bugger wasn;t sleeping through cause she was a BABY and was 4 weeks old!

Maybe she was right, but have to say, when your suffering PND (a bit) and exhaustion (a lot), I also didn't really need to think that I smelt like sour yoghurt.

ladylush · 08/04/2009 21:28

What is amusing is that some of the comments from toddlers are more sensible than those from so called professionals.

Louby3000 · 07/05/2009 18:14

I was in a chi chi little cafe eating my lunch, and breast feeding my 4 month old. My husband and I were chatting when an older gentleman asked me, "are you breast feeding?", I said, yes, and was ready to launch into a defence of why I have the right to feed my baby anywhere, blah blah blah... when the chap said, "OOh that is MARVELOUS, darling - nudging his wife- she is breast feeding, isnt it wonderful!" he was so sweet, and very posh sat there in his cravat!

jammum · 07/05/2009 18:23

When approaching cafes on the phone for a local breastfeeding friendly cafe initiative I had the following comments -

"No my dear, we simply don't have the room for that sort of behaviour"

"No, I don't think so, I wouldn't let a man come in and wee in the middle of my cafe ..."

"No, let one in and then we'll be full of 'em"

FYI - 50% of cafe's approached responded in a similar way - 25% very pro, 25% warm to idea.

ash83 · 07/05/2009 18:36

i remember with my first i was in a cafe feeding my son with a blanket over him everything covered and this old man sat there staring for about 20 mins before telling me it was disgusting he was tring to eat.i politly told him that if it was that disgusting he wouldnt have sat there for 20 mins tring to cop a look.and if he was really interested in his food he would have been looking at it.

Ponymum · 09/05/2009 15:21

Not to me directly, but one of friends was told "It's OK to BF if you have a boy, but you couldn't BF a girl as that would just be weird, wouldn't it?".

??!!