Petition to make it a criminal offence to discriminate against breast OR bottle feeding in public

[LazyFaire]

Calling for an amendment to the Equality act 2010 regarding discrimination against parents feeding children of any age either breast or bottle milk in public

currently 1,700 out of 2000 signatures. If you feel so inclined...

[DontLetTheMugglesGetYouDown]

Hmm, I'm all for people feeding their child how they see best but I'm not sure I understand this. People will always judge and a law won't stop that.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding it.

[Whistleblower0]

Of any age?? I'll pass thanks..

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

Not sure i understand donts point. People will always judge so no point making discrimination illegal? so discrimination based on skin colour or sexual orientation or gender or physical/mental ability should all be made legal again because people still judge?

[DontLetTheMugglesGetYouDown]

No I don't mean anything like that! I just mean that you can't stop someone judging your choices. Would it be illegal for your aunt to say "Oh you really should BF dear!" if you were sat in a cafe together?

I do agree that you should be able to feed your child however you want but just not sure how it would work out. And what about all those women that seem to have popped up recently that BF in the swimming pool, would they now be allowed to do that? Because that's really unsanitary IMO, same as FF in the pool.

I guess I'd just want to see some more information about it before I'd sign.

[LazyFaire]

Whistle, I'm not a massive fan of extended BF myself but I respect other women's rights to do so if they choose. I would probably think it a bit weird to see a 5 year old BFing in public but I don't think they should be asked to move on or stop any more than a mother with a baby.

As for at the pool, just sit out on the side? If a feeding woman swims she might leak into the water anyway and if she didn't have her child with her how would you even know? I think there are far more unsanitary things that go into public swimming pool water anyway...

I think they are trying to extend the rights already vaguely lent to feeding mothers to include bottle feeding and for an extended amount of time (England has only civil law, NI has no properly defined law, Scotland only serves until the child is 2 according to details on the page).

It's not something I ever had an issue with though I rarely fed in public but I think if I had been asked to leave somewhere (for instance) it would have been nice to have something solid like "It's against the law for you to stop me feeding my hungry child here" would have been nice to have. Anyway it's here for anyone who would like to sign