New Mum breast feeding vs toddler

[lisab30]

I was at westfield in the parent room. Well a little girl say about 2yrs went into a room where a lady was breast feeding her baby. The lady came out saying "whos child is this" and then said to the mother "can you keep hold of her because she keeps coming in, I'm trying to feed my baby" ok fair enough she trying to feed her baby but she was rude about it. She was a new mum so she don't know how hard toddler can be. Rant over

Was the toddler yours? I know if my 2 year old had gone in and saw a baby she'd possibly try and cuddle them or help in some way (she's 2 going on 20). I think it's rude of the toddler's parent (or whoever she was with) to let her go in the room.

Breastfeeding a new baby can be difficult - getting the latch right, finding a comfortable position, having to feed for hours on end, battling with sore nipples etc. If I was trying to do all that then I wouldn't be happy about an unsupervised toddler running around and in and out of the room.

I'd deffo have judged the toddlers owner. Learning to breastfeed is bloody hard (or it was for me) and a random toddler wandering about while I attempted it in public would have totally thrown me!

Random toddler coming in is the issue! Toddler shouldn't be wandering off into other rooms or bothering people trying to feed.

Parent should have been watching toddler

Why was the toddlers parent letting her wander into a room alone? Newborn trips out while breastfeeding can be incredibly stressful and difficult. Some parents need to learn that their children are not an endless delight to everyone and they should not be allowed to do as they please.

If breastfeeding lady was rude then of course that's not nice, but I agree with pp - breastfeeding when you're out and about can be really stressful without someone else's child disrupting you. I can imagine being snappy in that sort of situation myself.

I don't know what Westfield is but the idea of a toddler roaming free between rooms, unsupervised seems odd to me too. Or is it a nursery or something where the toddler's mum wasn't really responsible for supervising her child...?

Random toddler shouldn't be allowed to wander around unsupervised disturbing other parents, no.

Westfield is a shopping centre tiger. They have fab "family" rooms with loos/baby change/feeding rooms/stuff to entertain toddlers etc

Deff toddler owners fault. Learning to feed a newborn is tough and if she chose to use a feeding room rather than nurse openly I'd presume she wanted privacy not to look after a random toddler

Westfield Stratford? They provide a TV, a loo and several cubicles for feeding. All of which has a door to the shopping centre. Toddlers can be a challenge to follow, however if you can't keep your toddler under control in this small area, I'd question how you can keep them safe elsewhere.
Kids are hard work though and you sound stressed so

The toddler's mother was getting her bottle ready, it wasn't like she was sitting there on her phone. Yes Stratford

The mother saying the toddler keeps coming in suggests the toddler was aloud to run free if it was happening more than once, getting a bottle doesn't stop you watching your child. What if instead of bugging a breastfeeding woman she had opened the door and ran into the shopping centre? Toddlers mother is in the wrong.

Nope the toddler's mum is unreasonable. She should have controlled her child.

I'm guessing OP was toddler's mum!

Toddler shouldn't be drinking a bottle !!!! Toddlers mum she be able to co-ordinate making a bottle and watching toddler.
They should have both went to a cafe and toddler could have had her milk from a cup and mum could have had a cup of tea ... Then sat socially and had a chat rather than annoying poor woman who was breastfeeding her baby.

Toddler mum being unreasonable and not looking after her child. Why should the toddler be bf mums problem?

Go on then, were you the new mum?

You do need to tell us which mum you were though!

Toddlers parent was still unreasonable, I'm guessing she thought it was acceptable to interfere with a breastfeeding mum. Would she have also been too busy with the bottle if toddler had run into a crowd?

bigmeff I can't see my soon to be 2 year old suddenly happily sitting have a drink with me at a cafe without wanting to run off! Would be fabulous though.

Agree that breastfeeding mum should have privacy without having to smile at and entertain a toddler. I've been there!

Perhaps if the mum was acknowledging this and at least verbally trying to stop the toddler it wouldn't seem so bad.

'Getting bottle ready' for a two year old?

I have both a toddler and a newborn and yes, toddlers can be a handful. However, I would be mortified if someone needed to effectively tell me off for not watching my toddler because she had been pestering them or even worse just letting her do whatever she wanted without watching her.

If the woman was rude, then there was no need for it but maybe she was struggling and the toddler's parent had been allowing the situation to occur.