[kerian]

get tired of certain family members?

my family is quite small, but we should be close.
i just am sick and tired of certain families negativity about how i am raising Kyla. thankfully my mom doesnt criticise me ideas and plans. but the rest make me so mad. if i hear one more time about how i should stop BF my daughter i will scream.
why cant people in this country realise that it is the best choice.
you know here in South Africa we have a phrase "to posh to push". because the upper class population choose to have c sections and think BF is gross.
i understand if you need to have a c section done. but leave me and my beliefs alone.

sorry ladies i just needed to vent and you ladies are the only ones who understand.

ok this started off as a family vent and went to my whole country. sorry.
and thankls for reading if you got this far.

[mgm78]

i was bf'ing DD (6 months old) at my grandfather's on Friday and my aunt made a comment about how bf'ing toddlers is disgusting it was hard to hear and still bothering me.

[Twinmamma09]

Some people think they are smart, but they are just plain ignorant.

I'm so sorry it is worse where you are Kerian. Just know you are doing the best and tune everyone else out.

We are proud of you here!!!!

[Pitridge]

I'm sorry... I think family members are the worse. I'm having the same issue with my family, they are suggesting that I stop BF Alex so often when I go back home to visit. I keep hearing how now BF is the best thing you can do for your baby because of the flu and Swine flu, not to mention all the other stuff....

[CalFan]

My mom went through exactly the same thing with my siblings and I - we were all born in a time and place in which BF was looked down upon and only the "poor" did it. BF was seen as crass and sexual. My mom was (and is) a very educated woman, and she and my dad both knew she would BF. My grandmother and great-grandmother gave her such a hard time. So did her friends. A lot of us now 30 somethings were FF. It's interesting to me to see how the pendulum shifts back in forth in different areas of the world over time. Perhaps by the next generation, South Africa will be pro-BF like the U.S. is now. And who knows, I wonder sometimes if the U.S. will swing back and be more pro-FF at some point.

[Pitridge]

Not to get in a debate about this, but how do people think babies were feed way before our time, before formula? Sometimes when people wonder why I still BF I tell them, it's not weird, people have done it for centuries.

[Twinmamma09]

Originally Posted by Pitridge

Not to get in a debate about this, but how do people think babies were feed way before our time, before formula? Sometimes when people wonder why I still BF I tell them, it's not weird, people have done it for centuries.

No kidding. I use the same thing when I talk about bf. Our bodies were made to feed our babies so why is it looked down upon?

[CalFan]

Originally Posted by Twinmamma09

No kidding. I use the same thing when I talk about bf. Our bodies were made to feed our babies so why is it looked down upon?

Exactly. I have degrees in Anthropology. There is an anthropologist named Kathy Dettwyler, whom I once heard give a lecture on BF. It's fascinating when you look at BF from an evolutionary sense; as a species, compared to other primates and where we fall in terms of body size and brain capacity, we should actually be BF for several years. But as she argues, our culture has sexualized the breast and taken away its true evolutionary purpose. So we wean early not because it's best for us as a species, but supposedly "best" for us as a culture.

[mutleysweet]

patty, so weird, this made me think of the dionne quintuplets. (what is the connection here, you say?) they were born in the 30s in Canada and they were fed formula:

According to wikipedia...

They were then fed with "seven-twenty" formula; that is, cow's milk, boiled water, two spoonfuls of corn syrup, and one or two drops of rum for a stimulant.

I'm thinking, what rum?!

Sorry kerian for hijacking your thread. Just sucks that family members are clearly misinformed. even the WHO recommends breastfeeding for 2 years.

[Mommy of 2]

I am sorry that you are given such a hard time. I admire you for doing what is best for you and Kyla even when there are ignorant people giving you unwanted advice.

[lauren in hi]

so sorry your family isn't more supportive.