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Infant feeding

Breastfeeding a toddler, tips on feeding in public, reacting to people's negative opinions.

4 replies

ikeaismylocal · 28/07/2014 12:22

Ds is 19 months old, he breastfeeds a couple of times a day, mostly when we are home, but sometimes he will ask when we are out.

He has reacently started looking much more like a little boy rather than a baby, until recently he had very little hair and he had big blue eyes so he looked pretty baby like, but now he has more hair, a little tan, he is bigger and he says "boobie" very loudly when he wasnt to feed. I am also 7 months pregnant feeding him is no longer subtle.

I live in a country with very high breastfeeding rates for babies, I didn't have any friends who formula fed their baby but extended/full term breastfeeding seems to be unheared of.

I have recently had a few odd comments about feeding him and especially dp's family are very negative about me feeding ds especially as I will have a newborn in a couple of months.

I hope to breastfeed the new baby and I imagine ds will sometimes want to feed at the same time, so I'm not sure if limiting him to at home feeding will work.

How did you feel feeding in public as your toddler got older? Did you encourage them to only feed at home?

Any good replies to negative comments?

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PenguinsHatchedAnEgg · 28/07/2014 13:16

I would just tend to go with "it works for us". You don't tend to change people's minds on this stuff.

One tip would be to teach him a new word for it. That way the loud demands are a bit less potentially embarrassing. Smile

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Munxx · 28/07/2014 13:56

If asked how long you are planning to feed for say "ooh about ten minutes?".

I'd maybe try for another word (if possible!) my DS says bee bees. Which I suppose sounds like boobies....but still.

My DS is nearly two and still occasionally feeds when out and about and sometimes I do feel self conscious, especially as I'm not always dressed to nurse but I figure people would complain more about a toddler having a huge meltdown.

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wrapsuperstar · 28/07/2014 14:12

My DD1 fed up until about 2.3 (just before her sister was born, in fact; she had a faintly renewed interest when her sister arrived but has not returned to the breast in earnest. This was all led by DD1 by the way with no suggestion from me). We fed in public right up until about 20 months and she was (is!) a very articulate child.
Nobody ever made negative comments directly to me apart from the beloved ILs but I had a few aghast looks thrown in my direction. I always just acknowledged with a friendly smile and wave.

Strangely, I have recently had only my second nasty experience with someone who appeared to be offended by my feeding my (tiny) baby. DD2 is not yet 7 weeks and I was very intimidated by a man staring nakedly at me in Starbucks yesterday. He didn't respond to the smile and wave and just kept looking us up and down. He was only shame into turning away when my DH looked at him. Gross.

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ikeaismylocal · 28/07/2014 19:24

What a great respone "about 10 minutes" I will absolutely use that one!

wrap I am sorry to hear you had such a horrible experience, what an idiot.

Another word would make things less obvious, ds also likes to comment when other babies have "boobie" which maybe makes my friends feel a bit embarassed. I didn't really imagine feeding him when he could talk so we always just said "I think he needs boobie" so that is where he has picked it up, he used the sign for breast for a long time, maybe I can try to encourage him to use that again.

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