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Infant feeding

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Original poster

Poster of toddler 'breastfeeding' her doll is apparently 'distasteful, inappropriate and crude'

105 replies

ChairmumMiaow · 21/05/2009 12:06

here

WTF?

Does anyone on here think that a picture of a toddler pretending to breastfeed her doll is anything other than cute?

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 21/05/2009 16:25

piglet, sorry you didn't get a lot of support from MWs and HVs

pigletmania · 21/05/2009 16:31

That ok, we would like to try for another one soon and would dearly like to successfully bf this time. I think that I will look to more support goups in the area and will buy a medela hospital grade breast pump to help with supply. i will definitely talk to tiktok if or when the times come

Gorionine · 21/05/2009 16:38

My two little girls both have BF their dolls, and so have their brothers! (but I am not going to remind them as they will say I am lying!

tiktok · 21/05/2009 16:40

piglet, I look forward to it

But there are loads of people on here and in real life who will help.

Don't assume you need a pump, either, BTW

cory · 21/05/2009 16:43

that councellor clearly has issos

she tries to make out it's about the picture, but then suddenly it's about not making bottle feeding mums feel inferior

so does that mean we're not allowed any promoting of breastfeeding?

how bizarre

or how does she make it out that that particular poster would be particularly upsetting to someone who can't breastfeed???

surely the preverts people who would find it upsetting find it upsetting for totally different reasons?

Indiechick · 21/05/2009 16:52

It's so sweet when kids do that. My dd spent most of last year 'expressing' into two toy lorries to provide milk for her dollies.

wilbur · 21/05/2009 16:57

Dd used to do this, it was soooo sweet. I wish I had taken a picture or videoed it. People who have a problem with it just a bit weird and sad.

pigletmania · 21/05/2009 16:59

Hi tiktok i am willing to try anything that will help kickstart my supply and help keep it going. my SIL has been exclusively expressing for 5 months using a medela as she does not feel comfortable about putting the baby to her breast. my goodness she has so much milk, she always had unlike me. when her DS1 was born she had to express to relive the pressure, i never felt that way. i hope that the midwives can put me on the right track for support next time.

Bucharest · 21/05/2009 17:00

The more I read about this woman the more I'm getting....
Wilbur- I have a couple of pics of dd "bfing" her elephants (she doesn't do dolls) I suppose I'd better burn them before someone calls the social.....

WhaleOilBeefHooked · 21/05/2009 18:56

So, we can't promote it as 'better' than formula in case that makes ff mums feel bad. We can't promote is as 'normal' in case that makes ff mums feel bad. So what do people want?

I think it's a lovely image and not in the slightest bit offensive or crude. How is bf every going to be normalised in our society when the majority of people seem to be irrationally squeamish about it?

Ds (3) always lifts his t-shirt and asks if he can feed dd now. I think it's so endearing and I love the fact that bf is so normal to him.

Monkeyandbooba · 21/05/2009 19:00

I think we should have Jean on for a MN question and answer session

SpookyMadMummy · 21/05/2009 19:40

I gave birth to Dd3 in early April just as the schools broke up for Easter holidays. Dd3 is fully bf.
When Dd2 went back to school, she bf the dolls in the home corner. The staff thought it was fantastic that Dd2 has no hang ups about bf and her body at such a young age.

BouncingTurtle · 21/05/2009 19:44

Personally, I think the Counsellor should be sacked. Her comments are utterly disgusting.

But sadly not surprising. My Dh is from Rochdale, his whole family have a very big bottle feeding culture. Now PILS have been very supportive about my bfing ds, but sadly one of MILs dsis has made her feelings about bfing known. No surprise both her dds FF their babies from birth. Bfing support as I understand it, in Rochdale is virtually non existent.

DitaVonCheese · 21/05/2009 20:04

Goddy god, it's because it implies that little girls have breasts and it will turn everyone paedo or something, isn't it

Bucharest · 22/05/2009 06:31

Well, lovelies, I've had an email back from Councillor Ashworth, and once I'd added the punctuation and corrected the spelling I gleaned this from it:
She is within her rights as a member of the public to comment on a poster displayed in a public place (I had called her out on her personal/political opinion, made in soundbites to the press, possibly being a conflict of interest with her "professional" role as a "healthcare" wotsit. (she then shoots herself in the arse by saying that having exercised this right, no-one else should have the right to complain about her opinion. )
One of her main areas of interest is in reducing teen pregs in Rochdale and this poster says "teenagers do it" ergo, Bear of Little Brain says poster is encouraging teen pgs.
Oh, and apparently, many many doctors, nurses, midwives etc agree with her on the offensiveness of the poster.

Have paraphrased all this as a)you might not be able to make head nor tail of her reply- I had trouble at times working out whether she was calling me offensive or the poster, or both and b) not sure if she'd whack me with some privacy thing if I c and p'd her whole reply.

duchesse · 22/05/2009 06:38

"Deborah Winter, aged 39, noticed the poster when she was visiting her nine-week-old grandson and called for the image to be immediately withdrawn."

"Councillor Jean Ashworth, who works as a healthcare assistant at the Infirmary, said the move was the latest in a string of unpopular measures to promote breastfeeding."

Healthcare assistant??

Loons.

tiktok · 22/05/2009 07:08

Bucharest, keep your original email to the Councillor, and watch for her popping up somewhere saying she has been 'pilloried' or 'hounded' by mad bf supporters, so you can demo how polite and measured you were.

It is indeed odd to think that a poster normalising bf should be seen as encouraging teen pregnancy or any sort of pregnancy.

However, if teens (or anyone) does bf, then they are less likely than if they ff to become pg again shortly afterwards - and quick subsequent pregnancies in teens is an issue.

I don't expect Councillor Jean is aware of this.

Bucharest · 22/05/2009 07:16

Once I've got dd off to nursery and been to sort my passport photos out (argh!) I'm going to reply and take apart comment on her points one by one.

I still haven't managed to ascertain exactly what job she does in her "healthcare assistant" post. Can't help feeling she either files, or mops. Bet she is a bloody nightmare though and no-one ever dares say anything to her when she starts on her "campaigns". (beatifically)

StealthPolarBear · 22/05/2009 07:55

Bucharest, thanks for pulling her up on that. She sounds an intelligent woman (both from the content and from how you say it was presented)
Are any of these many many doctors, nurses and midwives willing to mention their own names and their own views?

WhaleOilBeefHooked · 22/05/2009 07:56

She sounds very educated (hmm]

StealthPolarBear · 22/05/2009 08:05

Are you playing the "nothing quotable that could lead to suing" game as well?

mollyroger · 22/05/2009 10:29

Obviously it would be constructive to have a full and measured response to this story but sometimes, no statement can adequately express the fact more succinctly than this.

Some people are full of shit!!!

scottishmummy · 22/05/2009 13:59

one wonders whether she received supervision or support in her hca post,as she is very misguided

zookeeper · 22/05/2009 14:02

I think it's lovely - my little dd used to pretend to breastfeed her dolly.

When she held the dolly to her waist I realised it was time for a new bra

foreveroptimistic · 22/05/2009 14:03

Sometimes I feel like I am living in a Little Britain sketch.

I don't get people I really don't. Perhaps the people who are offended by the poster would like us all to pretend we don't have breasts and cover up in a Burqa? If they find that poster offensive I am sure they would find any poster with the word "breasts" in offensive.