sign for nursing??

[mombh]

o.k, we are teaching our almost 1 year old to sign, as in asl.
Up until now I have only used a few like mama, daddy, more, sleep baby etc; but now we are starting to add more and I cannot find a "sign" for nursing or breastfeeding anywhere.....I don't want to use the sign for milk or bottle since they are not nursing anyone btdt? have any ideas??
my ds has down syndrome, so signing is really encouraged since babies with ds sometimes have speech delays ....-.... aaand I don't plan on weaning him so soon, so I want him to be able to sign "nurse"
tia

[LianneM]

Well, it is milk - so that's what we use It's easy for little ones to do.

In our house, if someone means cow milk, they sign with both hands and use an up-and-down motion. Opening and closing one hand means "milky"

I don't believe there is an asl sign for nursing. I've heard of people using the sign for "nurse" which is to check a pulse on the wrist, but obviously that isn't the same "nurse"

[sdbeachy]

I'm just starting baby sign language with my 7 month old and have wondered the same thing! So far I've used "mama milk" (two signs), but why isn't there a nursing sign? Signing lactivists, any answers?

[Tjej]

Well, we just used the sign for milk - and that is what I have heard of a number of other people doing.

Tjej

[APToddlerMama]

We use the milk sign, and then started calling cow's milk "dairy." Everyone thinks we're crazy but at least we're not confused... You can make up your own sign for nursing to be whatever you want it to be.

[sunfish21]

It is somewhat "English", but I think you would sign Mom/mother, and then milk, which is with one hand...

[LiLStar]

we use the sign for milk. if its good enough for deaf babies, its good enough for mine!

i think there is a sign for "breastfeed" but i hear its sorta complex (i dont know it)

[Biscuits & Gravy]

We use the sign for milk. Both boys are allergic to dairy, so there has never been a reason to get mama's milk and cow milk confused.

[paulamc]

We also use the sign for milk. It's easy to do and was the first sign that he started to do on its own. He hasn't had cow's milk yet, but when I offer a drink of expressed breast milk out of a glass I use the combination drink+milk. (He doesn't do multiple signs himself yet).

[mombh]

thanks mamas, I think we will just with the milk sign then.
dh thinks it kooks like sqeezing the boob anyway LOL

[kcstar]

We sign milk too. At 2, I try sometimes to distinguish "mama milk" from "cow milk", but I haven't seen him drink much in the way of cow milk. (Cheese, he likes, and signs for.)

[*MamaJen*]

We use the sign for milk too, but kind of modified -- we just open and close our fists, but don't do the up and down part. He's 22 months and can say milk, nurse and boobie quite clearly, but he still signs it sometimes.

[Shanny2032]

Our signing instructor - who also teaches ASL at a high school - said that breast milk and cows milk can be differentiated by using the sign for milk away from the body (cows) or next to the breast (Mama). DD is too young to need to differentiate but I will do Mama and milk sometimes or just make sure my hand is close to my breast. She actually has a dance she does when she wants milk most of the time even though she can do the sign!

[Organicavocado]

Ive seen people sign milk as though they are milking a cow.. but doing it toward their nipple. However, Ive heard this can be offensive? Depends on you I guess. Or just make up a sign.

[cndnveggie]

In The Complete Idiot's Guide to Baby Sign Language, she described an alternative sign for "milk" for nursing moms. It says "Many nursing moms use the sign for NURSE> It's made by quickly brushing your hand over your breast in a downward motion." So that's the sign we did. DS mostly just waved his hand up in down in front of his chest, but I knew what he was saying. Here's a pic of the page (from the book referenced above): http://i373.photobucket.com/albums/o...ignnursing.jpg

I preferred it to the sign for milk, which I didn't find very appealing :

[mombh]

I like that one

[BellaClaudia]

I am not an expert in sign language by no means
but what comes very instinctively
to me is just
tapping gently once or twice a breast with flat hand :-)
with a facial expression suggesting question..
with a double node? or single node?

[sunshadow]

We used milk also. Just to mention, they usually will only associate one word for the action of drinking. So, you could use drink as well. When my daughter was learning signs one right after another I was baffled at her refusal to do the sign for drink. Then I read that somewhere. She did finally learn to do drink too, but compared to other signs that she learned in one day, it took forever.

[averlee]

we just used the milk sign, but now my daughter signs "mother" and then "milk". I think using "milk" close to the breast is also correct. the "nurse" sign, brushing the breast, i have also seen. finally, the combo sign for breastfeed, is a gesture at the chest like a bird's breast, and then the food sign (hand to mouth)...

[AislinCarys]

We didn't want to use the sign for cow's milk either, it just didn't make sense to me. I am NOT a cow, and cow's milk is not the default for my child.

In the book we used for signing (Baby Sign Language, by Karyn Warburton), they had another sign, apart from the ordinary milk sign, a sign for breastfeeding. It is easily done by patting the breast. DD was signing this several months before she picked up any other signs (she started signing food and more around 9-10 months). DD still uses it all the time, altough she is now talking, and have several words for milk (mik, best, nup, feed).