The apparently "NEW" way to feed babies!

[happymommy]

The other day, i saw a mama of a 5-6 month old(i would guess) pushing her babe in a stroller. All was normal until i peered into the blanketed bundle to see the baby sucking on a pacifier-looking thing. Low and behold, it was a bottle with a tube hooked to it, leading to the nipple in his mouth!!!!!! My first thought, baby had a feeding problem of some kind! Nope, cause i started talking to his mama and she "demonstrated" in a way, this new, handsfree way of feeding baby!! Now, you can just put the bottle down next to the baby and the baby sucks on the pacifier/nipple and gets fed without mama even having to hold the baby, the bottle, or anything!!! So i got curious and asked Babies R Us what this was, etc,etc and they said they can't keep these things in stock, they are really popular!!!:jaw Need i say more? How much more insensetive can people get? Even bottle feedings need to be so disconnected?!?!?!?!:(

[ChildoftheMoon]

:eek :huh :shake

[jessikate]

:jaw Ugh... how appalling! Honestly, if a person chooses to (or is forced to) bottle-feed, would it kill them to hold their baby to do it? Just what we need - more disconnection from our children.

I can't wait to hold mine close and nurse, personally. I don't see why someone would choose not to connect with their child while feeding it, breast or bottle.

Just my 2 cents.
JK

[leafylady]

It will be used and abused at bad daycare centers. I don't understand it either- why some people will think of anything to avoid holding their babies.
I can see how it might be useful on car trips, but that's about it.

[mamaduck]

This is weird. I think it is an old idea that was tried long ago, and then ditched because it was impossible to keep the tube clean enough and babies were getting infections from it. (Okay, I saw that on "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman." But they did have to get the idea from somewhere!)

So anyway -- how do you suppose one is to get the tube clean enough to reuse? Or maybe it is disposable?

[kaismom]

I saw this contraption and was shocked. they advertise it as hanging from a crib and the only thing I could think of was little hampster cages with the water bottle hanging on the side. When I told my mom about it she said it was a big thing for mothers in the 40's to be "prop fed" meaning you prop the bottle so as not to trouble yourself with the whole messy thing. I feel so sad for those babies.

[CK'sMama]

I also prop feed. I prop my breast in DS’s mouth and I go back to sleep :D

But seriously, if you are too lazy to spare 20 minutes of your precious time to feed your child, bottle or breast, then you might want to consider NOT having kids at all! If the parent can’t be bothered to hold their child during feeds then you have to wonder how they neglect them in other situations. I feel sorry for these babies. :(

[somemama]

Originally posted by Liz14
I also prop feed. I prop my breast in DS’s mouth and I go back to sleep :D



ME TOO!!!!! :thumb



I actually saw a Grandma's "newborn pics" the other day, and the baby had this contraption in his mouth. I thought there was some sort of problem with the baby, but it was probably just this d*mn feeding thing!

I can see how this could lead to overweight babes--if baby comfort sucks at the breast, no problem. But if baby is comfort sucking on a pacifier and getting fed at the same time--now THAT could be a problem, weight-wise.

[abimommy]

That is horrid!!!

Good grief! And people blame AP for creating monster children!?!?!?!? That is unblelievable!!

I can see using it in extreme cases of disabled parents but that it..

[MysticHealerMom]

I love you ladies! You get all insensed about the right things :nod

There might be a valid use for that bottle contraption, like in the car someone suggested. Or perhaps some sort of infermery? I suppose you could see your baby's face better if you were holding your child while nursing. And of course the bottle is less likely to fall out of the baby's mouth. But, if the bottle is lower than the pacifier part, wouldn't the baby be more likely to get air in their stomach? Those are just some thoughts off the top of my head... But, I gotta agree with you, it is bizarre and does seem like another "time saving device" the labor from which we don't need to be saved from.

I enjoyed the hamster anaology :thumb

Not making light, here!! Just right with you about what you feel passionatly about!

Lori

[merpk]

... by Liz14
I also prop feed. I prop my breast in DS’s mouth and I go back to sleep :D ...

:D :D :D :D :D

I was wondering about that cleaning-the-tube thing, too. My bigger ones are into these curly circular straws now, and we have two or three, but it's impossible to clean them, they get gross so fast. Just running soap&water through doesn't do it.

Maybe they have to boil it. Aaaaahh, another tool to make mothering easier. :rolleyes:

:shake

- Amy

[CrunchyGranolaMom]

My understanding is that these things were created for parents of triplets and other high-order multiples, and now, like some baby-product Frankinstein, have gone where they were never intended to go....

[Marlena]

Ya know, I remember reading horror stories several years back about orphaned babies in Romania who weren't fed individually, but just had bottles propped up for them in their mouths with a stick or something. I thought it was horrifying at the time, as did the commentators on the story (in the mainstream media). So what makes this different? The babies aren't orphans (not all of them, certainly)? It's happening in the U.S., rather than in a former East Bloc nation? Why aren't there outraged stories about this in the media?

[Faith]

What will they think of next~ seriously, after this it can only get worse!

But to answer the cleaning question, I had to use a SNS for a while with my second baby, and the way I cleaned that was by forcing water thru it. It was not that difficult. Just fill the container with hot soapy water and squeeze thru the tube...(But of course I hated it.)

I think the saddest part is, the moms are *happy*!! The have become so set in our culture they do not even realize what they are missing and probably never will! They do not even know what they have lost, and they are raising these children to be like them!:crying

[Curly Locks]

I'm so glad that moms like us exist. :love Do ya think we can change the world pronto??? I'm ready for it to be an AP/Mothering world!!!! I'm having a very hard time this holiday b/c of all the turmoil in my extended family and I know my life would be so different if my grandparents knew about AP and bottles were non-existant. I read about the history of bottles and this tube invention that was the fad way back when as well (I'm sorry to hear it is back) in "Milk, Money, and Madness: The Politics and Culture of Breastfeeding." It is so disturbing that a mother's responsibilities and biological make-up is so misunderstood and so skewed in our culture. Like looking a certain way or being a wonderful friend, wife, daughter or having a clean house or fabulous career is seen as just as important or valid as caring for a child. And the true gift and miracle of our breasts and our milk is so unknown to billions.

I know this is off topic a little but this Christmas season I've been thinking about my role as a mother and I view myself as holy as the virgin Mary in a way. My job (as is every mother) is to raise a child that is here to "save" the world. I know baby Jesus was sent here to "save" the world but I think every child in his or her own way has the ability to save the world. And we are changing the world one baby at a time. ;)

[Dot.mom]

In addition all of the attachment issues, which you have all stated so eloquently, why isn't that tube thing a strangulation hazard????

[acystay]

You know it doesn't really surprise that this sort of thing exists. Too many "mainstream" moms don't fully understand the close contact required for feeding so see it as a hassle.

Prime example...

The other day I was speaking to another mom. She was very shocked at my dd mobility. Her ds is the same age. I made some comment like I can't believe she's getting so independent. (dd is 11mos) Her only comment was that she couldn't wait until her son could hold his own bottle! She also made this comment after a group of just discussed what we do for teething. She just leaves her son to cry in his crib like that particular morning b/c he woke up too early.

I just hope this mom doesn't find out about this!

Oh, and about the Romania babies...

Last year a student at the school where I taught was an orphan from Romania. He's now 14. There's is clearly something not quite right about him. He's the sweetest kid though, but so in need of constant attention. I have no doubts that it was his first few years in Romania as an orphan

stacy

[Jude's Mama]

LAZY!

[*~*SewHappyNow*~*]

Goes against all common sense...as usual.

:OT

You know what I don't get? I never heard of AP or anything like that before I was pregnant, but it was essentially the way I wanted to raise my children, it was basically the way my mother raised me. So, how is it this mainstream stuff is so, well...mainstream? If you're not interested in snuggling your baby and raising your kids in the most loving way possible, why on earth do these people have kids to begin with??!!

Is it boredom? Something to do? Someone please explain it to me, cuz I don't get it at all :scratch How did people get to this point of wanting to be so detached from a living, breathing being that they created? How could you resist holding your little one?

We always talk about these nitwits and how they just don't get it, but I can't figure out how anyone just wouldn't "get it"

[kater07]

I actually pushed DS in his stroller at the mall a while back (he's sick and used to take EBM in a bottle for medical reasons)...we were shopping, and I was paranoid (not anymore) about someone snatching him from my arms, so I was letting my grandma push him while I fed him (yeah, stupid and horribly detached in hindsight). She was astounded that I didn't have a bottle prop, which I guess was used way back when, so I wouldn't have to hold the bottle for him.

My parents also told me about these. Said that when I was a baby ppl used them all the time (I was bfed), but they were spendy, so lots of ppl just propped with pillows.

I NEVER in a thousands years thought about leaving him alone to suck on a bottle whenever he wanted it...I was shocked that ppl actually did that!

UGH UGH UGH...now I see the error of my ways, and since we no longer have to monitor DS's intake, he's BFed anywhere and everywhere and I have less fear of someone snatching him.

Today, I am astounded by ppl not wanting to hold babies to feed them. It saddens me that someday DS won't need me to hold him so he can eat. :(

[mamaduck]

Kater -- please don't feel guilty! Doing something like that now and then -- when you have valid concerns and special circumstances is NO BIG DEAL. It is the people who actively seek out ways to ignore their babies as much as possible who should be feeling guilty. Not you -- we ALL take shortcuts now and then in certains situations. Truly.

[menudo]

I ask all my FFing friends to hold their babies while feeding. I do. I explain to them that it will be easier to wean from a bottle as they will associate the bottle/formula with Mama holding them. Offer water/whatever else in a cup (sippy, whatever...) and it will become a much easier process. Sadly, this is considered insane and/or ingenious by the Moms I speak with. Those who do it never havea big bottle weaning problem and a more attached baby...

BTW, when I was small I was taught to prop bottles on blankets when I babysat my cousins... Scary.

[gurumama]

What's next--a mechanical hand to pat the baby's back when they wake up in the middle of the night (in their crib, in their own room), with a voice recording mechanism of the mother saying, "Shhh, it's ok, go back to sleep"?

One of the mothers at my son's preschool had a 4 yo and a 4 mo at a function last year. I looked down and saw the baby in his carseat with a bottle propped on a blanket. It's funny, because at the time I didn't think anything of it--neither positive nor negative--because I was too focused on my crazy 3 yo and struggling because I was about 5 months pregnant. But she must have seen me look and thought I was forming some judgment because she said, "Just wait. Once you have your second you'll do all kinds of things you'd never do with the first. You'll prop bottles too."

I was startled and shrugged, and mumbled something like, "Oh, I didn't even notice..."

But later I really thought about that comment. First, that SHE initiated the conversation--she was obviously feeling defenisive about propping the bottle, eventhough I didn't say anything or make a face.

Second, that she would place the assumed burden of her experience with two on me--as though I would HAVE to prop a bottle when I had two, because of course my experience would be the same as hers:rolleyes: .

I've never propped a bottle--never thought about it, eventhough friends and family have done it. I've picked babies up from being propped and fed them--sister, SIL's kids--and when the moms argue I just say, "Oh, I just enjoy holding them." No judgment, because it's the truth.

And with my two sons we've never, ever propped a bottle. We're too concerned about ear infections, and we're too baby hungry. It saddened me when my older son could hold the bottle himself (though it did make car travel easier! but he was 11 months or so and we didn't have the burping issue).

It seems like all the baby items and "new" technologies for parenting are designed to cut down (or eliminate) contact. Why?

Mel

[mamaduck]

I really wish I could find a picture of this new feeding system. I searched, but couldn't come up with the right search words.

[mamaduck]

I *did* find this though -- very interesting!

http://www.nurser.com/

[Pynki]

Since when are you supposed to microwave heat formula or ebm??? Maybe i'm wrong on that one,but i always heard that was a no no...

About this tubey thing... babies need to be held while being fed because babies need to be held... They (and everyone else on the blamed planet) need to be touched and held for proper developement... Sheesh... Some people's kids....

Warm Squishy Feelings....

Dyan
:hippie

[*~*SewHappyNow*~*]

There was actually a warning on the website about warming ebm for the breast bottle:


Warming: Warm contents separately in a pan, or by immersing the already filled nurser in hot water away from the heat source. Microwave warming can harm breastmilk and formula, particularly if over-heated. If you must use a microwave, remove the cover and warm the contents gradually. Stir when warm. Never serve contents above body temperature - 98F!


Interesting product.. The Breastbottle. Why didn't anyone else think of this yet?

[wishful]

This tube bottle is not all that new. About 4 years ago I worked with a women that had very limited use of her arms and hands. When she had a baby she could not hold the child to her breast for over five mins and had a hard time holding a bottle and a baby too. She got this tub bottle from a n adaptive supple store. She filled it with EBM and could hold her baby as he ate!!! IT was a wonderful thing to have for her.

So when read the post I just thought that the tube bottle must have been seen by some lazy (and now rich) person and ran with the idea.


*Maybe it is not all the same, but that thing was not all that fun to clean!*

[davidsmama]

I work for my families business and closely with my sister in law and although she tried to nurse (it only lasted a week:() she now bottle props with her new babe!!

Whenever I see that bottle proped up in his mouth I pick him up (right in front of her) and hold him while continuing to work!! I hope that someday she will get the hint and attempt to create some sort of snuggle time with him!!

When she talks about her "attempt to nurse" she talks about how she doesn't know how any woman can be happy that attached to their child....... it makes me sooooo mad and sooooo sad for her little one!

I also wonder how long it will take those mom's out there to "get it"!!!

[flminivanmama]

http://www.podee.com/pages/podee_products.html

not new actually I've seen them since my twins were born and I'm sure they were around before then...

they also sell bottle proppers...

my mom takes pride in the fact that she always held all of us while we had our bottles :)

http://www.babybottlecradle.com/
http://www.ezbabybottleholder.com/

[mamaduck]

New EZ Baby™ Bottle Holder allows parents to safely bottle-feed baby with one hand while attending to other tasks at the same time.

Ah. Well, I can bf with one hand while attending to other tasks. And the beauty of it is that the baby is nestled against me.

You know, the whole message used for marketting this stuff is "pay attention to more important things..." Good grief.

[Envision]

Well, that is sad for all the babies that already don't get held enough...
My little guy is so busy, I miss those 30 minutes we could just sit and relax and take a breather...even in the mall when I was shopping!!

Although...I would have to say that I would be interested when I am in the car (with dh driving) and there is no where to stop and my boobs are about to pop...I could see myself appreciating the contraption then...

Poor babies with no hugs :(

Oils :flower

[lauraess]

I just want to assert my opinion on why and how women have come so far detatched from their children. It's possibly our poor poor body image issues, our sense of our own unique nurturing women power, coupled with the societal pressures we have been taught to believe that doing and getting things accomplished is the prime goal in life. I say "we" because it surely has affected us all but somehow the "we" that is here on-line has a connection to their woman-power and a healthy enough sense of their being to give so wonderfully to their children. :thumb :thumb Bravo to us Non-Proppers.
Laura

[TupeloHoney]

I also prop feed. I prop my breast in DS’s mouth and I go back to sleep

I do the same thing :D

I cannot believe that people would use a contraption like that (well, I guess I can believe it). How freakin' lazy can you get. I am disgusted and will say so if I ever see someone using one.

[Brody'sMum]

From the Podee website:When you are overwhelmed by day-to-day tasks, the traditional Podee Hands-Free Baby Feeding System will provide you a welcome helping hand. So even when you are busy cooking dinner, strolling in the park, or driving to the supermarket, the Podee will feed your baby while you're doing your chores. BUSY STROLLING IN THE PARK?? I didn't realize that there is a problem with parents being too overwhelmed by strolling in the park that they can't stop to feed their babies.

This just makes me sad. I will agree with what some others have said about using this for multiples and MAYBE in the car but is it even safe to do that? Unless you are sitting right next to the baby I would think that it could be a bit dangerous to have the baby feed himself and not be able to sit up if he gets too much at one time and starts coughing.

I don't understand why feeding your child is considered a "chore". My baby and I each enjoy the closeness of nursing and he has become quite the cuddler even when he's not eating. There is nothing that makes me happier than when he crawls up to me and lays on me or gives me a slobbery kiss and just lets me hug him. I don't know if he'd be so cuddly if he hadn't been nursed for the last 10½ months.

Yeah, it sure does suck to have to spend all that bonding time with your child...

[crazy_eights]

This new gadget sounds like a recipe for overfeeding! What is to keep the kid from suck, suck, sucking away on the "pacifier" part while the mom keeps refiling it?

Originally posted by kater07
She was astounded that I didn't have a bottle prop, which I guess was used way back when, so I wouldn't have to hold the bottle for him. :(

On a similar note, I was horrified to see in one parenting mag. a "stuffed toy" gizmo that was actually a bottle prop! :eek They were showing a mom holding the babe while using the thing to have "one hand free", but you know that is not how people will use it. Yuck.

[Leslie in MD]

so sad for babies. too much technology isn't always a good thing.
Leslie in MD (presently holding my precious 2 month old)

[sleepies]

those things would be fantastic in a car!
my son use to scream when he was in the car and that would have been priceless.
otherwise, it is weird.

i saw one the other day, they do look like a feeding tube!

[lilyka]

I saw these advertised when dd #1 was a baby. I thought they looked dangerous as a strangulation hazard and as a hygene hazard (It would be very hard to get these clean i would think.) It amazes me how little peole will touch thier babies. If I didn't hold mine while I was feeding them and they fell asleep on thier own then would I hold them?

[lauraess]

Do you really think that using this contraption would be beneficial to all involved if we took advantage of them in the car??? When babies are young enough to be having a hard time in the carseat(mine did in the early months) and you're using your time carefully and/or feeding the child while in the store or wherever or just before you leave the parking lot, then why the necessity to feed in order to pacify. personnally, thats what pacifiers are for. sure some dont like pacifiers, and to this I say "ok." However, using some creative approches such as singing, whistling, pictures, mirrors, music----cant these be considered? and when these dont work -nothing worked for my dd for months, I know- then we just live with it and let them figure it out I guess. I found I couldnt drive any near-significant distance after 5:00 for dd's first year. sure, it was hard but we got through it.
Laura

[Bladestar5]

It is bad enough that some moms won't even try to breastfeed because they think it is gross, or they just don't want to (like my own mom). And then there are the unfortunate people that cannot because of medical reasons, etc...
But in a culture that is way too deep into synthetic replacements for natural things, this is just too far. I think that some moron just wanted to make money off of lazy parents. The point of parenting is to give love to a child, not to make a person so they raise themselves. The world is detatched enough from one another....this culture is perverse enough to think of a woman's breast as sexual when it is obviously made to produce milk for a baby. Now they are sending the message that it is ok to allow a newborn baby to take care of themselves. Choking hazard!! What if a baby is choking, and the lazy mom has left the room with a baby too young to help itself?
I also had to laugh at the hamster bottle comment...I agree totally.

[Sustainer]

Convenience is *everything* in this stupid culture.

[pjlioness]

Scroll down on the Podee site and see:

PODEE GIVE-ME-A-HUG BOTTLE INSULATOR

Italics mine. I am speechless.

:jaw :cuss :inthet :angry :scratch :shake :bang :firedevil :hammer :splat

Pam

[LunaMom]

Originally posted by gurumama:
What's next--a mechanical hand to pat the baby's back when they wake up in the middle of the night (in their crib, in their own room), with a voice recording mechanism of the mother saying, "Shhh, it's ok, go back to sleep"?

Well, there are bouncy seats that are voice activated, so when the baby cries they vibrate and play music...and there are two-way baby monitors so you can "soothe your baby without having to come into the room!" What marvelous inventions. :rolleyes:

Did anyone who linked to the Podee site notice that they said you could use this horrible contraption in a SWING? Oh, that's great, feed a baby while he's swinging back and forth. :rolleyes: And I just love how some of these sites make it sound like it's for freeing ONE hand while you hold the baby with the other. You know that is not how most people would use these. The only thing I can see is simultaneously feeding twins, maybe, and honestly, I have a friend with adopted twins and he feeds them both at the same time by sitting on his bed with each baby cradled in a boppy.

And I disagree with those who say this would be useful in a car. I don't think babies should be drinking/eating in a car if they are alone in the backseat. Too dangerous. I know that older ff babies get handed bottles in the car all the time, and I never understood this. I mean, I breastfed, so it was never an option to feed dd in the car when it was moving anyway. We just listened to a lot of music to keep her happy (and nursed BEFORE we got in the car!).

[Sustainer]

Juice used to be the only thing that would keep my dd from screaming the whole time in the car. Music didn't help. BF right before getting in the car didn't help. There was almost always someone in the backseat with her - usually my dp.

[lilyka]

I was at the mall of a,eric and saw these bottle insulators that looked like stuffed animals so that your baby would have something to snuggle while he ate. I had dd with me (3 weeks old) and the lady said "hey , just what you need" "No actually I have no need for that". I found it amusing though that you had to stick the bottle up the dolls butt.

[gurumama]

Ilyka, that contraption sounds so sad. It reminded me of the psychology experiment with the monkeys years ago, where they gave baby monkeys a wire mama-sized monkey or a soft, fuzzy-covered wire mama monkey, and they chose the soft one, of course.

so now we're covering our bottles with soft, fuzy things? cuddle your bottle?

I gave bottles to my first son (who is now 4) when we drove. He held his own bottle at around 6-7 months (though we always held him when he had a bottle--never propped). My second son is nearly 11 mo and he doesn't hold the bottle (he gets two a day for supplementing my breast reduction). He outright REFUSES. So he gets more cuddles! Good for him...

[bookmom]

Someone mentioned at the top of this thread that it's easier to bottle wean a baby who has been fed in someone's lap. I read this once in a book, too and I thought it was fascinating. The author's opinion was that a child can't walk around with a breast and have milk whenever he wants so when he weans it is easier. While the bottle-toting child gets attached to the bottle and it's harder to take it away.
I read this in an older child nutrition book as I was weeding the collection at the library where I once worked. I read that part out loud to my co-worker (who at the time had no children) and we recalled all of the toddlers we had seen coming into the library sucking away on a bottle. It's pervasive in this society.
Plus with this tube thing, how long would you use that? I mean do you use it when they are a newborn and then switch them to a regular bottle when they can sit up? I picture all these toddlers who have become so attached to their paci-bottles that someone invents a fanny-pack so they can carry around their beverage and keep sucking on the paci-straw as they go about their business.
Sick.

---Amy
mom to 2 non beverage hauling boys

[Jennifer Z]

Originally posted by pjlioness
Scroll down on the Podee site and see:

PODEE GIVE-ME-A-HUG BOTTLE INSULATOR



This was one of the first things I noticed and was surprised it hadn't been mentioned until now.

I thought it was horribly ironic that a product that keeps you from holding/hugging your child would have a bottle insulator with that name. Terrible!

[MommyT]

Originally posted by Devrock
Convenience is *everything* in this stupid culture.

It's very sad. :(

It's such a parent-oriented society that we are in and the children are suffering. What ever happened to putting your child's needs first? Needs also being holding, cuddling and embracing every opportunity....and what better opportunity than during feeding? So sad.

[Viola]

Originally posted by bebesho2
BTW, when I was small I was taught to prop bottles on blankets when I babysat my cousins... Scary.

I will admit to propping at times, when I had to babysit my nieces and nephews. When I was about 12, I felt like I had to give bottles all the time to my infant niece who lived with us, and frankly, I detested it. I guess her mom didn't like it much either since she had me do it a lot. Then my younger sis had a lot of kids, and she was always too tired to even wake up at night. She propped, and there were times I propped if I was babysitting two or more of them.

Dislike of bottlefeeding was one of the reasons I wanted to breastfeed so much.

I have talked to bottlefeeding moms who have made it very clear that they hold their babies and bond with them while giving the bottles, so I know that not everyone is a propper.

Yesterday in the dentist's office, I saw a little baby holding her own bottle in a carseat on the floor. She honestly didn't look any older than 6 months old to me. My daughter thought that was great, for some reason, and she keeps talking about how when her new baby sibling is born, the baby will have bottles. I keep telling her that she drank from my breasts and the new baby will too. It bugs me that she is so fascinated by bottles that she even calls them by the name she uses for nursing.

[MommyT]

Originally posted by Amywillo
I saw a little baby holding her own bottle in a carseat on the floor. She honestly didn't look any older than 6 months old to me.

My MIL *brags* to me all the time that when DH was barely 5 months old, he was holding his own bottle. In the same story, she'll tell me how he had such bad ear aches until he was 2 years old. Go figure.

According to her I'm STILL bfing; my son is only 9 months old. A mentality I'll never understand. Like he's supposed to be an adult at 9 months old??? He's a baby!!! I just remind her that it's recommended to BF until one year of age and toddler initiated weaning after, and that's what I plan on doing.

I've always wanted to ask her if I should offer him a steak instead of the breast at his OLD age, maybe with a snifter of Grand Marnier and a cigar. :rolleyes:

[Sustainer]

I took my baby to the park when she was seven months old. A little girl came up to us and asked where my baby's bottle was. I said she didn't have a bottle - she's breastfed. The little girl said, "At HER age? I don't believe it!"


When my nephew was 3 months old, I gave him an organic cotton bunny. My brother used it to prop his bottle. He called it "the bottle bunny - this thing is great." I wanted to throw up.

[LunaMom]

Oh, man, I would have taken the bunny back. That's terrible!

[kimbalicious]

QUOTE]that contraption sounds so sad. It reminded me of the psychology experiment with the monkeys years ago, where they gave baby monkeys a wire mama-sized monkey or a soft, fuzzy-covered wire mama monkey, and they chose the soft one, of course.[/QUOTE]



Oh my gosh -- I can't tell you how many times various contraptions for babies make me think of this! This feeding tube just upsets me. I, too feel so sad when I think of these babies not be held. I mean, it's one thing if the parent has a need (i.e. disability) that would necessitate the use of such a thing, but so many will use it just because it's convient. I (and dh) get so irritated with people who think children should be convient -- cause it so much more fun when they aren't.

I am so thankful that I chose to breastfeed -- I love snuggling with ds and getting those silly smiles and laughs and the occasional breastmilk spit take!