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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
Why are people so grossed out by breast milk?
I was making Abby carrots today and I asked DH to taste them. I had mixed breast milk in.
He has never tasted my breast milk and refused to try the carrots because they had breast milk in them.
My BFF had the same reaction when I suggested putting breast milk in my coffee (it was a joke).
Do people not realize that they drink milk that comes out of a DISGUSTING cow? Who's been to a dairy farm, because cow's are gross. I went once with my parks and rec group when I was a leader and I swore off dairy for a good 48 hours after seeing their cows.
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Re: Why are people so grossed out by breast milk?
I bet it would taste good in coffee. Mine is super sugary. The stuff is sticky as hell.
It must be cultural.
Seriously. One look at a dairy cow and I'm not drinking milk for a month.
Yeah it's super sweet!
See, I'm fascinated by it.
When I was making her carrots today I was like, "I'm an ingredient. Cool."
It's because people think or associate it with bodily fluids and not the food that it actually is.
I agree about the cows milk thing. I cannot drink a glass of it anymore. I tried soy and almond for my cereal but I can't stomach it. The thought of this poor dairy cow having her teats pumped constantly makes me gag. It's hard to reconcile that mental picture. The same way it's strange when you pump and see your milk come out of your own body.
I have tasted mine on more than a few occasions (excess lipase) but DH is like super grossed out and won't touch my boobs for fear of leakage. I actually squirted him a few weeks ago in bed (I was feeding the baby and joking with him) and you would have thought I thew sulfuric acid on him.
Francesca Pearl is here! Josephine Hope is almost 3!
HAHAHA
And I took Abby to my church daycare for the first time last Sunday and they told me they couldn't feed her breast milk from a bottle because it was "bodily fluid."
I was so offended.
Seriously, it's milk. Bodily fluid?
a) what exactly can be transmitted and
b) are you opening your skin and inserting said milk? It's not blood!
I have tasted mine but DH won't. I think it is because breasts are mostly associated with sex maybe? I don't really know! *scratches head*
Ahh the bodily fluids thing, that must be it!
That is awesome and very funny!!!!
I have excess lipase so I scald my milk, but after discovering that I had tried to feed DD nasty milk before I knew, I am still paranoid about it being yucky, so I taste it almost every time I feed her expressed milk. Just a tiny sip to make sure it is okay. My DH frequently takes a taste to test it for me too and he isn't grossed out by it. He thinks it tastes pretty good! More people should try it-they might be surprised-LOL!
You made me LMAO.
I am very impressed.
i personally think it's disgusting that people think it's normal or healthy to drink milk from another species. i don't think breast milk is gross at all but i wouldn't want to drink a glass of it, either.
i actually know people who have put breast milk in their coffee. a friend's husband did it recently and my great great grandmother would do it [before i was born] when she ran out of cream.
You're a vegan?
I could do that pre preg.
I haven't tried since, maybe you have given me inspiration. I am curious about the flow even though I know it can shoot across the room.
Francesca Pearl is here! Josephine Hope is almost 3!
oh and i just remembered something a friend told me recently about a business partner of his: he and his wife have like 4 kids and they're pretty well spaced out but his wife has continued to produce milk since their first baby weaned because the husband drinks it in between children. maybe i'm just being ignorant but that is creepy to me.
Am I in the minority that I have never tried to squirt milk?
It sounds like you may have PTSD regarding breast milk ... those are some creepy situations ...
Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?! I would have thrown a fit. It is not a bodily fluid, it is your baby's food. Plus, how would they have known if you didn't tell them? Does it look that much different than formula? If a state licensed daycare can serve it, they can do.
Next week, give them the bottle and a pair of latex gloves. This pisses me off so much, my blood is boiling.
Francesca Pearl is here! Josephine Hope is almost 3!
I don't get it either.
They do give us a pager and a specialized room for nursing with a TV on the service, so I suppose I can't complain.
Is this a mega church?
I still don't think that's cool and would be really super upset. You are 100% committed to BFing but what if some other Mom is on the fence and church tells them they won't serve it. Then Mom switches to formula because "God" thinks breastmilk is disgusting, so why would you feed it to baby? I know this is a crazy hypothetical but this is how I think. That makes nursing seem wrong and inferior. It undermines it and that is what bothers me.
Francesca Pearl is here! Josephine Hope is almost 3!
i guess to me, it's less "gross" and more just a matter of being unnatural because a cow produces milk intended for its young. other animals don't drink milk from another species [obviously with the exception of a life-or-death situation or something like that] because milk is species-specific. the fat content and everything else in my breastmilk is specific to my baby at this time.
it also makes sense that about 75% of humans are naturally lactose intolerant, meaning our bodies stop producing lactase. people who are not lactose intolerant are generally those whose ancestors have a long history of including dairy into their diets, which is why there are places in europe with as little as 5% of the population being lactose intolerant.
i guess for me it's just about doing things the way nature intended. one pro to that is so that if my child[ren] or i end up with some sort of awful disease, i know i didn't contribute to it.
hopefully i didn't offend you. i just think it's odd that if the idea of drinking dog milk came up, most people would be grossed out because it's different but no one thinks twice about drinking cow's milk [and goat, etc.].
@ tct1219
I'm geniunely curious, as I don't know much about veganism, but isn't it unnatural to not eat meat? Humans were designed as omnivores, that's why we have incisors and canines. We have our eyes at the front because we're predators.
Wouldn't it seem that the only "natural" diet would be something like the caveman diet, raw meat and berries. Soy, rice and almond "milk" are a modern invention. Heck, if you stretch the "humans are the only animals that..." logic far enough, even cooking our food is "unnatural".
I always wonder these things when I hear people talk about veganism as being more natural.
Yes, it is.
I'm just confused regarding the harm of it. What could actually happen? I'm assuming there must be some liability somewhere ...
Well, yes, I don't plan on chugging anyone else's milk. That would be strange.
It is actually a bodily fluid and can transmit diseases if the mother has any. That's why donors or donor milk needs to be tested first. I've worked in many child care centers and while we would always agree to serving pumped milk, we had to wear latex or vynil gloves, just like when we worked with a child who was bleeding.
Locally, one of our child care centers recently fed the wrong baby a bottle of pumped milk. The "donor mother" had to agree to have testing done for transmittable diseases because they had to make sure the baby was safe. Those diseases, like AIDS for example, take a while to show up in a new case, so they couldn't test the baby yet, but they will have to test her at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after exposure just to be sure.
That said, I think people are grossed out because breasts are sexualized so much, that people only think of them that way, instead of for feeding an infant.
I'm butting in here because our day care totally treats BM as biohazard. I have to bring all my own pre-prepared bottles, can't leave anything overnight, I wash everything myself, the providers wear gloves when they feed DD, they make two people sign off on each bottle, and her bottles must be clearly labeled "BREASTMILK." None of these precautions are taken for the formula babies.
I'm not grossed out by breast milk or breastfeeding but it can transmit some pretty nasty diseases if it's not processed properly.
That's because these are probably required by the state. I know they are here.