Funny things people have said to you about breastfeeding

[RStelle]

Here's a good one!

My Grandmother IL kept asking if the baby needed some formula, and I said "no, she doesn't drink formula" (also she wasn't hungry). GMIL was so horrified she kept asking "She really doesn't drink formula?" "are you sure she doesn't need some formula?" and so on over and over, and I kept saying, "No, she doesn't drink formula!" I thought it was silly but I didn't understand why she was so upset until finally GMIL said "Well then , what does she drink!?" She didn't know a baby could drink anything other than formula! When I explained that "she drinks breast milk" GMIL was even more horrified, "You mean she just drinks cow's milk!!?" This woman has 4 kids and a ton grand kids and great grand kids, and she honestly had no idea what "breast milk" was!

[Adaline'sMama]

That is really strange.

I once had a co worker say to me when I was pregnant with DD (she was 19, with two kids so she hadnt really grown up but she knew enough about our bodies to understand what nursing was) , "OMG! you are going to let a BABY suck on your t*tt*es!!! Gross."

Seriously.

[KittyKat]

I once had a cute little guy from my church come up to me while I was nursing my baby in a sling.

He wanted to see her, being a naturally curious and affectionate little kid. I told him right now she's eating. Now, this boy was breastfed, and so were all of his older brothers, BUT his cousin was being cared for in their home while his mommy worked, so what he saw every day was Cousin drinking from a bottle.

So he asked where her bottle was?

I told him she doesn't use a bottle she drinks milk from me just like he used to from his mommy when he was a baby. He seemed kind of confused, but he just went off to play with the other kids.

I don't know if his family had an interesting conversation about that later, but I did tell his mom, and how cute I thought it was that he took an interest in the baby. So that way if he did have questions later she would understand what brought it up.

[nia82]

Wow OP now that's sad! Just wow! She had kids and despite formula feeding she never got engorged? I mean milk comes in no matter what for most women... It did for my mom and she still chose formula feeding, so obviously she knows she had breastmilk....

I haven't gotten too many comments, but when DS was 12 months old the nurses on the military base were confused why he wasn't drinking cow's milk and juice. He is nursing, I stated, and it seems they had never seen a 12 months old nursing before, let alone one that doesn't drink juice. The NP said But he needs cow's milk at this age. I said I'm pretty sure all he needs is mama's milk. That settled it. Haha. When DS was 13 months I had to have a CT scan and I declined iodine dye, the nurse was like how old is the baby, when she heard he was 13 months she made a face. I guess people only approve of breastfeeding up to 3 week olds.

[RStelle]

My MIL told me that she didn't breast feed because she didn't know about it. I asked her about engorgement and she said that after she had her baby the nurse just gave her a "milk pill" along with her pain med and she didn't really know what it was for but she just took it. No one asked her if she wanted to breast feed, or told her anything about it. Isn't that sad? It took her a little while to get use to me BF, but now she is all for it.

[nia82]

Oh I see... We didn't have that stuff back in the days in East Germany. When my mom lost my brother at 34 weeks (he lived for a day, and if he had born just 20 miles to the West in West Germany there would have been treatment to save him) her milk came in three days later and they used breast bandages and some sort of salt water to make the milk go away. He was my mom's first child and I think it was extremely traumatic to deal with those ancient methods and to grieve over him which sorta made it a psychological no-no for her to breastfeed us. Anyways, I digress, but back to the topic, my husband's uncle's wife's mom (haha could it be more complicated) told me when she had her kids in the USA in the 60ies, she wasn't even asked, you got a shot to dry up your milk right after birth and they were told formula is superior so DO NOT BREASTFEED blablabla. It's so sad and she's totally sad about it. My MIL and her brother were breastfed, but they were born in Argentina were it was common and didn't move her til they were in elementary school... But nicely enough his family brought over a positive breastfeeding attitude :D

[purplerose]

A mom of 2 who was in my nursing(LPN, not breastfeeding) class said, "I ain't never lettin' no baby suck my titties!" She went on to work at an OB's office. Another mom of 2 said, "If God wanted us to breastfeed, he wouldn't have invented bottles." That was something I couldn't even think of a response to.

[mamatoantonia]

My grandma who nursed 6 kids told me it was selfish to nurse my toddler. 

[babygirlie]

I was never engorged.. i barely had a drop of milk. Could great grandma be getting a little senile? Sometime sya gotta let memories go to make new ones like where your meds are at ;)

[CherryBombMama]

my brother who has special needs, he is 7 but his adjusted age is about 4, saw me nursing ds2. apparently he never really noticed what i was doing when i BF the baby and was completely shocked/mystified/curious and after about a minute or two asked, "can i try?"  

[Asiago]

When my son was 4 months old a family member asked if I was going to continue nursing because " you don't want to be nursing a six month old,  that's a big baby to be nursing'.

Huh?  According to history, apparently not. History speaks for itself.

Edited by Asiago - 8/8/11 at 11:17am

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by mamatoantonia 

My grandma who nursed 6 kids told me it was selfish to nurse my toddler. 

ha ha ha ha ha because anyone nursing a toddler knows how it is all about mom's comfort and well-being!  He he he he he yup that selfishness is why I put up with the nursing acrobatics and teeth rubbing and the foot in my nose. Oh yah, we are sooooo selfish!

[minkajane]

I was once talking to a pregnant coworker about breastfeeding and she wasn't sure if she was going to or not. She once said, "If you don't breastfeed, don't they have to pump the milk out of your breasts?" Apparently, she thought your breasts "filled up" once and you either let the baby drink it or you pumped it out and that was the end of the breastmilk. I moved not long after so I don't know if she ended up breastfeeding or not, but I find it really sad that she made it to 20 without even knowing that it was physically possible to breastfeed more than once!

Side note - if that was true, why would it even be a debate? I can't think of anybody that wouldn't breastfeed just ONE TIME if that's all there was and it was good for the baby.

[corrabelle]

My grandmother said that when one of her 8 kids were born (1950s, in Kansas), a nurse came in with a pill and said "take this". My grandma asked what it was, the nurse said, "it doesn't matter, the doctor just wants you to take it."

My grandma wouldnt take it, she wanted to know what it was first. the nurse stormed off, and finally came up and said "it's just a pill to dry up your milk". My grandmother was old school, and her mother was a midwife, so she knew a thing or two.

She refused to take it, and even had a huge argument with her doctor about it. I cant imagine how hard it would be to have the formula vs. breastmilk debate in the 1950s...but she won, checked out of the hospital early, and went home to nurse her baby!

Originally Posted by RStelle 

My MIL told me that she didn't breast feed because she didn't know about it. I asked her about engorgement and she said that after she had her baby the nurse just gave her a "milk pill" along with her pain med and she didn't really know what it was for but she just took it. No one asked her if she wanted to breast feed, or told her anything about it. Isn't that sad? It took her a little while to get use to me BF, but now she is all for it.

[MrsRitchie]

This is funny/sad. I work in labor and delivery and one night I was checking on a baby in the nursery (we are stupid and have L&D, PP, and a nursery....soooo not what ACOG recommends, even!) and I was talking to a friend in there and said something about needing to get back so I could go pump, or something like that.  Another RN, who I didn't know at the time (I know now she is struggling with infertility and always has questions if she finds out you have a baby...very sweet...but this is why she suddenly became interested in our conversation) asked how old my baby was.  She was 12 months.  The nurse said, "You still have milk at 12 months?  I didn't know that was possible."  uuuuugggghhhh and she is helping our new moms learn to breastfeed!

[bignerpie]

Originally Posted by purplerose 

"If God wanted us to breastfeed, he wouldn't have invented bottles."

Wow.

My aunt asked me when I had to start giving my son formula. I told her never, and she said, "But don't all babies have to have formula?" She doesn't have any kids and truly thought that even if you breastfed that babies needed formula, too. She knows better now. 

I didn't get many crazy/funny comments, just the usual he's too old, he's bfing too much, etc.

The funniest conversation I ever had about breastfeeding was with my grandfather. He was a 4th generation dairy farmer, and we discussed the old tricks for increasing supply in cows (spent grains - the leftovers after brewing beer). He wouldn't use it because he thought it would make his cows drunk!  Ok, that's not specifically about human lactation, but that's where the conversation started. I was telling him about making lactation cookies for my sister with brewer's yeast.

[philomom]

I remember watching some of the hurricane Katrina footage and some lady had given birth just a day or so before being moved to the Houston dome and she was crying on camera that she had no bottle milk for the baby. And bad old me was thinking she looked equipped! But maybe no one guided her that way. I hope her baby was okay.

[Snowflake777]

I don't have any really out-there stories to share, but I did get a very shocked "You're STILL breastfeeding??!" from DH's grandma, when DD1 was a whole 4 months old.

[Almi]

Yeah, I like the whole "you're STILL breastfeeding?" comments.  It's just kind of like....screw off, thanks? 

[Almi]

Oh, just thought of something.  A friend of mine, a mother of three, asked me when my twins were 4 months old and I was breastfeeding one, "How do you make milk for two babies??"

I was like, "...I nurse them?"  

I really didn't know how to answer that.