Caption! Moms at the Nurse-In

Yahoo | 11/21/2006

[Responsibility2nd]

Protesting mothers breastfeed their babies at Washington DC's Ronald Reagan National Airport in front of the Delta Airlines ticket counter as part of a nation-wide protest after a woman was kicked off a Delta airplane by a flight attendant for nursing her child.(AFP/Paul J. Richards)

Mothers Danielle Shield (L) and Alison Yaker (R) read a book about breastfeeding with their children near the Delta Airlines counter at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts November 21, 2006 as part of a national 'Nurse-In' protest in support of women's right to breastfeed in public. On October 13, 2006 Emily Gillette was removed from a Delta/Freedom Air flight out of Burlington, Vermont after she refused to cover her baby with a blanket while breastfeeding on the plane before take-off. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES)

Danielle Mountford, left, of Woodstock, Conn., breast feeds her daughter, Alexa Ross, 2 1/2, as Susan Parker, right, of Glastonbury, Conn., holds her daughter Anna, at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006. Nursing mothers staged 'nurse-in' protests Tuesday to take up the cause of a woman ordered off a plane for breast-feeding her daughter too openly. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

[Ignatz]

Well, you're currently running second for "stupidest post on the thread." But I'm willing to upgrade you to first if you repeat your performance.

Thank you for your well-reasoned, expertly researched and sourced rebuttal of my post. You have nearly convinced me that I am wrong!
Try using your terrific mental prowess on these questions:

• If it's perfectly fine for me (or my children) to see a women's breast in public while she's feeding her child, then there should be no objections to me (and my children) visiting a strip club, correct?
• If the act of breastfeeding a child is so "beautiful and natural" (even in front of my children) that it should be allowed in public, then isn't the act of intercourse that created that child just as "natural and beautiful" and should also be allowed in public (even in front of my children)?
• If it's perfectly fine for a infant or whatever age child to nurse in public, then it should be fine for me to pull up my wife's shirt at the mall and have a little lick myself, correct?

[Mrs. Don-o]

I nursed my son exclusively until he started grabbing for other foods at around 6 months; but I continued nursing for comfort (when he ws sick or upset,and at bedtime to calm him down) until he was a little younger than three.

A little short of the Biblical standard:

"Son, be considerate of me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, nursed you for three years, brought you up, educated and supported you to your present age.." (2 Maccabees 7:27)

But apparently he still got the full immunological value, since he is now 17 and has literally not been sick a day in his life.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Suing for a lot of money? That wasn't in the article. I sssume you saw it in some other article? Link, please?

[Mrs. Don-o]

She didn't show either one. So disappointing to the ogle-and-drool faction.

[spacecowboynj]

She's not even entitled to a refund. After they were asked to get off for their refusal to obey the flight attendant, they were immediately set up in a hotel (by the airline) and put on another flight.

What should happen here is that they should lose in court (and spare me the notion of state laws - the FAA controls the jurisdiction of airplanes - in fact, much of the business itself is federalized like Amtrack) and they should issue an apology. I would have them pay for damages too, but the "damages" are going to clearly be beyond their abilities. Delta's lawyers and going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. I've dated one, so I know. And these lawyers don't have a team of paralegals with their noses in books - their legal assistants are OTHER lawyers.

[N3WBI3]

My goodness how old is that kid nursing!

[chemicalman]

"Boobies, boobies everywhere, and not a drop to drink."

[Mrs. Don-o]

Everyone feed their kids in public. Or maybe you'd like to take a tip from our multicultural neighbors and say the ladies in the Americn Umma can only nurse under their burqas?

[spacecowboynj]

"I think you missed the original story. The flight attendant didn't ask her to cover her breast (which wasn't exposed.) She wanted her to put the blanket over her baby's head."

I've posted the original story from the AP and elsewhere, what, six times? You clearly missed it. I'll do it again if you ask nicely. But try and use some common sense and ask yourself this:

Do you seriously believe flight attendants walk around asking people to cover the heads of babies.

Let's see your reasoning skills on this one.

[bmwcyle]

It too over 300 posts to comment on my sarcasm?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Some nursing moms can't pump, though. I couldn't. So I guess I should just stay in purdah for a couple of years? Or decades, if I have a bunch of kids? Thanks, Mahmoud.

[Sally'sConcerns]

I breastfed my son for 12 months and never had a contingency plan. Of course, I was a stay at home mom at the time so where I was, so was he. My husband and I went out twice while I was nursing, once to his 10 year high school reunion and once to dinner. I expressed enough milk where the sitter had a couple of bottles in case she needed them. Of course, we didn't stay away too long because it can become kind of uncomfortable for the mom when the baby doesn't nurse.

In an emergency if Mom had to be separated from the baby then the baby would get weaned to a bottled formula. If it's a short term (a few hour emergency) situation then pedialyte could be used as a substitute. Formula could also be used but baby may not take it or it might upset the baby's' stomach.

The first 4 weeks I breastfed were difficult for me because I had puerperal fever but my idiot ob-gyn was treating me for a UTI. When it didn't clear up, my ob-gyn sent me to a urologist who wanted to immediately put me into the hospital. I refused because I knew I'd have to quite breast feeding. You should have heard the reaming out the urologist did to my ob-gyn! Anyway, the right antibiotic was finally prescribed and I quickly got well.

[Mjaye]

I don't believe for one minute that some momma is going to whip out the breast and feed her infant in the middle of a home closing or corporate meeting. Why? Because she plans on being away and organizes the events around the feeding time, the best she can.<<<<<<<<<

Amen. I don't understand why so many women are caught out at the shopping mall or in restaurants, etc. with no contingency plans or even a cloth for modesty purposes. Many on this site claim that lots of breastfed babies refuse to drink from a bottle under any circumstances. I'd hate to be in that situation as a mom who got sick or injured.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Jack, honey, you're being such a silly boy. Pee goes in the toilet. Poop goes in the toilet. Milk goes in the baby. All tis can be done without fussing and bothering people. When you've got that straight, Mommy will let you go out and visit with the grown-ups.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Well, back in the day, I was once or twice offered a blankie when I didn't need one. "Oh, no thanks, we're fine" seemed to take care of it without any fuss.

But yes, I'll ask nicely: please send me the link where it says she was indecently exposed, because I've read now three possibly redacted versions that either didn't allege breast exposure, or which quoted the mother's statement that there wasn't any breast showing. And there's the clue that the airline sided with the passenger and disciplined the FA.

As for the logic of the situation: there is a very small minority of people who are offended, not by (a) the sight of breastfeeding, but by (b) the thought of breastfeeding. Since this mother was shielded from sight by her husband seated in the aisle seat, it's reasonable to entertain the hypothesis that we're dealing with (b).

[Responsibility2nd]

Take a look at the kid in post 49. That one cracks me up. I've seen 5 years olds that size!

[newnhdad]

I worked for a formula manufacturer and they actually promoted breast feeding.. During that job I was exposed to a lot of literature of the issue of infant feeding and mental development and it sounds like you did it right.
The idea that I got from all the literature, mostly scientific studies and abstracts, is that a child should be weened off of the breast as a primary sustenance by 12 months or when they can "feed themselves" relatively speaking of course. Weening will help in their mental development and socialization, but having the mom around to nurture is a good thing. One of my closest friends did that until the teeth got to be too much (almost 2)

This issue has nothing to do with the health, but more it's like people using their children as political pawns. Was mommy trying to upset people around her to get a response and have this hubbub before peak travel season? There is a right and a wrong way to do everything and some people like doing things in ways that generate a response.

[A knight without armor]

You can crop the nipple and use the photo for your health club i.d.