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Primary education

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Original poster

my friends ds was fed breastmilk at school !!!

345 replies

mummyof2bunnies · 04/06/2008 21:27

My friend came round today in a bit of a state, she was asking her ds7 what he had done at school today and he replied that so and so's mum came in to class today and was telling them all about her new baby and brought baby food for them to try, and that they got to try breastmilk on teaspoons and breastmilk mixed in baby food now i am no prude i breastfed both my dds but i would be horrified if my dd came home and told me this. Friend was completely horrified as well is going to speak to the head 2mrw the mum in Q was a former classroom assistant at the school b4 she had her baby and my friends ds said she was the only one in class and the teacher was not there when they where trying the foods . I am sure this has to be wrong on so many levels i'm trying to look at it from another point of view but all i feel is anger that she did this can anyone else share their feelings on this....

OP posts:
hunkermunker · 05/06/2008 01:16

Even to feed a baby?

StarlightMcKenzie · 05/06/2008 01:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

zippitippitoes · 05/06/2008 01:20

ah i dont think people do get there tits out as such to feed babies generally

that is more what happens on a saturday night in town

chipmonkey · 05/06/2008 01:28

Having read the whole thread ( whew!) I think that if this happened and I do think the 7yo may have gotten it wrong, I wouldn't be happy with this. BM is fantastic stuff and it probably would do more good than harm but even if the woman was tested for HIV/Hepatitis during pregnancy who know? She could have a nasty cheating dh/dh who has picked up HIV and passed it on to her.
Also, as Desi says, it could contain nuts! If for example she had eaten peanuts earlier and one of the children had a severe peanut allergy, it could have caused an enormous problem.
And you should have parental consent if you give the children anything to eat/drink.

Blandmum · 05/06/2008 07:19

Because of the potential risk of spreading HIV/ Hepatitis we are not allowed to get kids to prick their own finger and put a spot of blood on a microscope slide to look at.

We can do this with sixth form students but only after we get a signed letter of consent from their parents/ Guardians. All tainted products have to go straight into bleach before being disposed.

Regardless of how wonderful breast feeding is there is a risk of passing diseases and this woman should not have done this on H and S grounds, without written consent of the parents and a risk analysis

The fact that it is very unlikely that she has HIV isn't the issue. She might and you don't know. Want to bet your kids life? I don't.

Similarly a cow is unlikely (in the uk) to have TB, but would MN be annoyed of kids were unpasteurised milk on a school visit....you betcha

mrz · 05/06/2008 08:43

I think I would speak to the school to make sure that the child has got their facts right could it be "baby milk" rather than "breast milk"? IF it is the later I would have hoped parents would be asked for permission before going ahead.
As has already been said sharing breast milk isn't that unusual. I remember donating breast milk for the prem baby unit when I had my eldest and at one point "wealthy" ladies would have employed a "wet nurse" (someone who had recently had a baby themselves) to feed their baby rather than do it themselves.

zippitippitoes · 05/06/2008 08:46

that is what i thuoght

risk analysis on everything

they even do it on glue and scalpels in technical drawing at college

and pruning

Oliveoil · 05/06/2008 09:19

HA!

I knew this would kick off, I left last night at 10pm at around 60 posts and now it is nearly 300

off to read it now

Tortington · 05/06/2008 09:32

am not sure how this kicked off - i think everyone has the same view

its wrong

what am i missing ( apart from the insults?)

zippitippitoes · 05/06/2008 09:33

you aint missed a thing

we all agreed it was wrong

Oliveoil · 05/06/2008 09:34

I think it veered off the OP and turned into a b/f debate, which is why I have that topic on ignore but this was in Education and slipped under my radar

I am more shocked by how late some of you go to bed [old git]

zippitippitoes · 05/06/2008 09:36

i went to bed at 3.30

piratecat · 05/06/2008 09:41

what was the actual point of giving breast milk to the kids?

Maybe one said 'oo can i try a bit miss', to which any normal person, would say, 'no sweetie, this is just for the baby;'

becuase they are not her kids, she has no right to feed them ANYTHING.

irresponsible and odd.

jeeezz, even friends of mine check with me if it's ok to give dd a biscuit a sweet etc.

KerryMum · 05/06/2008 09:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

KerryMum · 05/06/2008 09:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Oliveoil · 05/06/2008 09:45

well I think Desi got some digs in herself tbh

zippi - 3.30am! I would be under my desk by now snoring

hope the OP comes back with some more info asap as to the full story

zippitippitoes · 05/06/2008 09:53

well i got distracted and of course i am unsupervised now as dd1 has moved out

you know the parents go away and you take advantage

belgo · 05/06/2008 10:11

In response to OP: I think there's been a misunderstanding. I don't believe this would happen in a UK school.

branflake81 · 05/06/2008 10:18

I haven't read all the posts but I have to say I don't see what the problem is. It's not like they were actually breastfed. it was just a little taste.

titchy · 05/06/2008 11:06

So 12 pages of posts on a 7 year old's interpretation of baby milk = breast milk.

IT MUST HAVE BEEN FORMULA!!!!!

RosaLuxembourg · 05/06/2008 11:14

I so want to know what happens when the OP's friend speaks to the head.

wannaBe · 05/06/2008 11:41

I wouldn't be happy. but...

Presumably a mother who makes up baby rice with breastmilk does so as a matter of course. And therefore she may have had the baby rice made up or ready to be made up and it might not have been a conscious decision to give breastmilk to these children?

On the whole I think there is a lot of histeria over food these days. When I was a child we tried all manner of things at school, from nuts to cheese to chocolate and Iam fairly sure we didn't live in this culture of consent back then. But breastmilk is a bodily fluid which can carry disease. What happens if this woman has HIV and she has infected a class full of children? It's a worse case senario but ultimately we don't know do we?

I see no issue with children being told about breastfeeding and how babies are fed etc, but going beyond that is wrong, and I think the school should be made aware of that and this woman should be made aware that her actions were inappropriate.

hunkermunker · 05/06/2008 11:45

KM, really? Just Desi being dug at?

Really?

wannaBe · 05/06/2008 11:45

why must it have been formula? If you're breastfeeding and weaning you would keep some expressed milk in the fridge to mix with baby rice/potato/whatever else wouldn't you? So at the point of mixing the food it's just the milk you mix it with, so would you really consciously think "oh this is breastmilk, better not take it into class, I'll use formula/cows milk instead for this purpose"? Because I don't think you would tbh and I didn't breastfeed but even I think that making up food with breastmilk would just be an every day occurrence to a mother who does it all the time and therefore she wouldn't consciously think about it when taking said food into class.

Uriel · 05/06/2008 11:47

hunker - what's "TOTM"?