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Breast Feeding in Restaurant

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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,921 ✭✭✭2 stroke


    If you look closely at our wedding video, you can see my sister-in-law breastfeeding their youngest at her table during the speeches. No bother to anyone.

    Link?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 515 ✭✭✭ck83


    hondasam wrote: »
    ck83 wrote: »
    But it's quite difficult to listen to a baby crying when there's absolutely no need. In my opinion, it's unfair to a small baby to leave it go hungry for no reason, other than the possibility of offending some strangers. It's also difficult to hold a conversation in an already loud restaurant over the noise of a screaming baby.
    It's difficult to enjoy a meal when your baby is crying. Also, a crying child, in my experience, is far more disturbing to the general public than a breastfeeding mother. And attracting of a lot more disapproval.
    And those are the reasons why, when my baby started to cry, yesterday afternoon, in a busy restaurant, I breastfed it.
    Who knows, maybe I, and not cheeky gal, was the one who started this.

    We can agree that babies cry for all sorts of reasons not just because they are hungry. Baby crying does not mean ''feed me now'' waiting twenty minutes will not harm the baby.
    Can I ask you, did you know the baby would be due a feed in or around this time?

    Firstly, a 20 min cry would not harm the baby, but would seriously disturb the meal and conversations of everyone in the room.
    I met friends for lunch. The baby woke, and was hungry a half an hour earlier than expected. So I fed him. But chances are, if he'd slept on, I'd have still been enjoying a conversation with my friends.
    Now. Don't get me wrong. I didn't bear all. I discreetly lifted the upper part of my nursing jumper and fed him. Not even the people at my table could see what I was doing (I would therefore be very surprised if I offended people at neighbouring tables).

    .


  • Administrators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,947 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Neyite


    ck83 wrote: »
    Fortunately, we live in a society where there are lots of different cultures, traditions, opinions. If someone else's beliefs (whatever they may be) are going to cause one a lot of anguish or discomfort, Then that person really needs to reconsider where they spend their time.

    I dont think that any religion, culture, tradition or opinion anywhere else in the world gets offended by breastfeeding. for instance, its actually encouraged by the Qur'an:

    Breastfeeding has a religious basis in Islam. The Holy Qur’an recommends that the mother suckle her offspring for 2 years if possible,and states that every newborn infant has the right to be breastfed (verse 2:233)

    Maybe a muslin can help me out here, but as their religion has strong Modesty Guidelines, and muslim mothers are encouraged to continue to breastfeed but be discreet. Thats why there are dedicated feeding areas for mothers to go and feed their child in shopping malls in Saudi Arabia.

    There are no such areas in Ireland. If there was a nice quiet area in a shopping centre with a comfy armchair where I could breastfeed in peace I'd use it every time over a loud busy restaurant full of ignorant people staring at me.

    I'd like to hear more about which cultures, religions and traditions find breastfeeding repulsive and immoral. Because I've genuinely never heard of any.


  • Registered Users Posts: 241 ✭✭Chain_reaction


    bensweeney wrote: »
    Imagine If I was in the middle of a busy restaurant and stood up, whipped out my lad and started taking a big long piss.

    Sure whats wrong with it? its only a natural bodily function!

    beeep beeep beeep beeep beeep!

    Quick everyone!

    The complete eejit alarm is going off!!!


  • Registered Users Posts: 34,788 ✭✭✭✭krudler


    Cheeky_gal wrote: »
    Thanks so I'm a "sh*tebag" now that's lovely. Just another insult in this thread to add to the list.

    Can people not have a discussion without insulting one another?

    A discussion you started by calling a breastfeeding mother "ignorant", you've spectacularly displayed your own ignorance about breastfeeding through this thread as well, especially the suggestion that there should be a specific place to breastfeed babies, like what a communal hall someplace in a city? or should every shop and restauraunt build an extension to house the rare sight of a woman publically breastfeeding just to appease people with archaic views?

    I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever seen a baby been breastfed publically, its probably way more than that but I never paid attention to it as its such a non issue.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    bensweeney wrote: »
    Imagine If I was in the middle of a busy restaurant and stood up, whipped out my lad and started taking a big long piss.

    Sure whats wrong with it? its only a natural bodily function!
    Lol - are you and your thankers TRYING to look stupid?! :D

    Read the thread - this was covered over and over and you're not being original or clever. A woman breastfeeding doesn't whip her tits out, and a piss doesn't feed a baby. Comprende? I'd be worried if you didn't...


  • Registered Users Posts: 34,788 ✭✭✭✭krudler


    bensweeney wrote: »
    Imagine If I was in the middle of a busy restaurant and stood up, whipped out my lad and started taking a big long piss.

    Sure whats wrong with it? its only a natural bodily function!

    You penis isn't designed for feeding babies (and if you think it is then we should probably alert the authorities) and taking a piss all over a floor is a germ hazard to other people, feeding a baby isnt.

    does that answer your ****ing idiotic comparion?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,400 ✭✭✭Medusa22


    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant. I agree with the OP, do it somewhere else. If you CHOOSE to breastfeed then do it at home. I don't want to look at it. In fact, I despise children being in restaurants at all, unless they are well behaved, but that is a rarity in this country.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 214 ✭✭bensweeney


    Dudess wrote: »
    Lol - are you and your thankers TRYING to look stupid?! :D

    Read the thread - this was covered over and over and you're not being original or clever. A woman breastfeeding doesn't whip her tits out, and a piss doesn't feed a baby. Comprende? I'd be worried if you didn't...

    They are both natural bodily functions. I see I use a PRIVATE area to have a piss. Women should also use a PRIVATE area when they are being relieved of bodily fluids.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 12,915 Mod ✭✭✭✭iguana


    You are joking, what did she say when asked to move rooms?

    It was her first week with her first baby so she left the room and fed the baby in her bedroom.After that she asked everyone who came to visit if they were ok with her feeding in front of them or if they'd if prefer she left the room. However in later years with later babies her attitude changed completely. She will feed wherever necessary and if someone else doesn't like it, it's their own tough. In fact I'd almost say she borders on militancy about breastfeeding. As pro-breastfeeding as I am she'd almost annoy me with her attitude if I didn't know the story of how cowed she was when she first started out.

    It's why I get so cross when people display attitudes like the OP's. They take something natural and make the women who are doing it feel like they are in battle rather than looking after a baby. It creates hostility on both sides. When there should quite simply be no sides. Just women doing the best for their children and other people minding their own business.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 241 ✭✭Chain_reaction


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant. I agree with the OP, do it somewhere else. If you CHOOSE to breastfeed then do it at home. I don't want to look at it. In fact, I despise children being in restaurants at all, unless they are well behaved, but that is a rarity in this country.

    So all babies should be bottle fed as standard to keep you happy?

    But thankfully at the end of the day you're the one with the problem not everyone else. Plus what makes you think that you're so special to the world that others actions have to revolve around your sensitivities.

    As a rule of thumb to avoid you violently puking over little people perhaps you should only enter establishments like the OP where no children are allowed or only after a certain time of the day if it annoys you so much.


  • Registered Users Posts: 673 ✭✭✭mrsWhippy


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant.

    In fairness, that's an extreme reaction. You are the one with the problem here ...


  • Registered Users Posts: 34,788 ✭✭✭✭krudler


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant. I agree with the OP, do it somewhere else. If you CHOOSE to breastfeed then do it at home. I don't want to look at it. In fact, I despise children being in restaurants at all, unless they are well behaved, but that is a rarity in this country.

    boo hoo everyone should have to pander to my idiocy


  • Registered Users Posts: 451 ✭✭LilMrsDahamsta


    iguana wrote: »
    I know someone who went to visit a new mother in her own home and asked her to go to a different room when she began breastfeeding.

    My sister did that to me, in my own home. Need I say more? :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant. I agree with the OP, do it somewhere else. If you CHOOSE to breastfeed then do it at home. I don't want to look at it. In fact, I despise children being in restaurants at all, unless they are well behaved, but that is a rarity in this country.

    Again - your problem, not theirs. you have no right, legally or otherwise, to demand mothers not feed their babies in public.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,312 ✭✭✭darlett


    Originally Posted by cruiser178
    Op if you go to any night club or anywhere, where people get dressed up to go out and enjoy themselves I can assure you, you will see more cleavage/tit then any mother has on display breast feeding their child.
    darlett wrote: »
    Why does this argument continue to be batted the ops way? What relevance do the dress code or ethics of a nightclub have to her post? Or people going topless at a beach? If the op was to sink to a similar level with her counter argument she might as well refer to dress code at a funeral home or the school yard. If she were going for candlelight dinner down at the local swimming pool she should of course allow for the possibility of seeing fellow guests wearing bikinis and speedos.
    Disagree with her point of view on breast feeding babies in restaurants, and accuse her of being unsympathetic to mothers who feel they have no other choice but you do nothing to the discussion by comparing apples with oranges.
    iguana wrote: »
    Breastfeeding an infant in a restaurant is every bit as appropriate as wearing swimwear at a swimming pool.

    Yes, thats what I said. I disagreed with countless people who have suggested is that the poster should have no problem with breastfeeding because what of what is appropriate in a nightclub.
    iguana wrote: »
    That's why people are making the comparison. You are the one comparing apples with oranges, not the other way around.

    You dont understand. Point me out my apples and oranges as you see it. Heres my five a day.

    Apple= Breast feeding in a restaurant.
    Orange= Going to nightclub and displaying cleavage/tit.
    Pear= Wearing swimwear at a swimming pool.
    Banana=Shirt and tie at funeral home.
    Grapes=Students wearing school uniform in the school yard

    Whilst I agree with the right of a mother to breastfeed the child, I dont believe that cleavage/tit on display in an establishment such as a nightclub means that its acceptable dress everywhere so as an argument against the op its a nonsense. Shes not eating her dinner in a nightclub, or in at a swimming pool as I used in my original example.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 12,915 Mod ✭✭✭✭iguana


    Neyite wrote: »
    I dont think that any religion, culture, tradition or opinion anywhere else in the world gets offended by breastfeeding. for instance, its actually encouraged by the Qur'an:

    Breastfeeding has a religious basis in Islam. The Holy Qur’an recommends that the mother suckle her offspring for 2 years if possible,and states that every newborn infant has the right to be breastfed (verse 2:233)

    Maybe a muslin can help me out here, but as their religion has strong Modesty Guidelines, and muslim mothers are encouraged to continue to breastfeed but be discreet. Thats why there are dedicated feeding areas for mothers to go and feed their child in shopping malls in Saudi Arabia.

    There are no such areas in Ireland. If there was a nice quiet area in a shopping centre with a comfy armchair where I could breastfeed in peace I'd use it every time over a loud busy restaurant full of ignorant people staring at me.

    I'd like to hear more about which cultures, religions and traditions find breastfeeding repulsive and immoral. Because I've genuinely never heard of any.

    When I lived in north London it was common to see muslim women breastfeeding in public. It seemed a bit incongruous that a woman would feel a need to cover her hair with a hijab but was fine with breastfeeding in the middle of a park. But I guess that even some people who follow a religion that sees a woman's hair as sexual doesn't see breastfeeding as even remotely so.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,400 ✭✭✭Medusa22


    It amuses me that a differing opinion is immediately considered to be ''idiocy''.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    bensweeney wrote: »
    Dudess wrote: »
    Lol - are you and your thankers TRYING to look stupid?! :D

    Read the thread - this was covered over and over and you're not being original or clever. A woman breastfeeding doesn't whip her tits out, and a piss doesn't feed a baby. Comprende? I'd be worried if you didn't...

    They are both natural bodily functions. I see I use a PRIVATE area to have a piss. Women should also use a PRIVATE area when they are being relieved of bodily fluids.
    What private area? The jacks? There's a baby in the mix here also, despite your reduction of it to "draining bodily fluids". She covers her boob, you don't have to look. Not her problem you think breasts are only for ejaculating on...


  • Posts: 1,427 [Deleted User]


    I'm goning to have to repeat what I said in an earlier thread on this topic:

    A lot of backwards attitudes on display in this thread.

    The health benefits to infant and mother from breastfeeding are now a well established medical fact. Breast milk contains precisely the right nutrients in the right amounts for a growing infant. It also contains immunoglobulins A and G which boost a child's immunity to common pathogens before their own imunne system is fully up and running.

    The medical profession has for years now been trying to promote breastfeeding but its widespread acceptance is being held back due to the outdated, unbased and just plain wrong opinions that can be seen here.

    Even if the sight of breasts offends you for some strange reason, you'd be hard pressed to actually catch a glimpse of them the way most women go about their breastfeeding. So people aren't even being offended by the sight of breasts, they're being offended by the idea of breasts. If this is the case these people have some serious psychological issues that need addressing.

    I think my paediatrics prof summed it up best when he said "For christ's sake it's what they're FOR!"

    To the people who are offended by a woman breastfeeding in public:

    YOU are a problem in society. Legislation has been specifically created to prevent your backward and ignorant attitudes from adversely affecting the health of children and their mothers.

    This is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of fact. There should be no debate here. You are just plain wrong. The sooner you realise this and cop the fcuck on the better for everyone.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,872 ✭✭✭Sittingpretty


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant. I agree with the OP, do it somewhere else. If you CHOOSE to breastfeed then do it at home. I don't want to look at it. In fact, I despise children being in restaurants at all, unless they are well behaved, but that is a rarity in this country.

    Actually interested, why? Is the boobs? Is it the baby? Is it the milk? What offends your sensibilities so much?

    Just don't get it at all :(


  • Posts: 0 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant.

    So do I; but I'm aware that this is not a normal reaction, this is my problem. If I can't eat because of my unnatural nausea, then tough - I don't eat.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 515 ✭✭✭ck83


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant. I agree with the OP, do it somewhere else. If you CHOOSE to breastfeed then do it at home. I don't want to look at it. In fact, I despise children being in restaurants at all, unless they are well behaved, but that is a rarity in this country.
    Maybe you should eat all your meals at home.


  • Registered Users Posts: 34,788 ✭✭✭✭krudler


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    It amuses me that a differing opinion is immediately considered to be ''idiocy''.

    when that opinion is idiotic, then yeah.


  • Registered Users Posts: 353 ✭✭BackScrub


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    I find the idea of breastfeeding utterly nauseating. I wouldn't be able to continue eating my meal if I saw someone breastfeeding in a restaurant. I agree with the OP, do it somewhere else. If you CHOOSE to breastfeed then do it at home. I don't want to look at it. In fact, I despise children being in restaurants at all, unless they are well behaved, but that is a rarity in this country.

    If you CHOOSE to eat in a restaurant and you're not happy there, then eat at home.

    It's obvious to me now that this is an April Fool's thread. There's no other explanation for stuff like this.

    Well done OP, you got me.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,733 ✭✭✭dirtyden


    I have never ever actually seen a woman breast feeding in a public place. This thread has me wondering why actually is that? Is breast feeding uncommon nowadays, or is it that mothers might feel unomfortable in a public area?


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,985 ✭✭✭Dunny


    Cheeky_gal wrote: »
    Was out for lunch in a very busy restaurant today and a woman at the table next to us started breast feeding. Couldn't believe it. I thought it was so ignorant. I looked around at people's reactions and everyone seemed shocked. Obviously it's not something people haven't seen before, but in a restaurant while people are eating?

    There's a time and a place.

    I wonder if the majority of people feel this way. Going by people's facial expressions in the restaurant they weren't too impressed.

    What an idiotic reaction/post


  • Registered Users Posts: 562 ✭✭✭haminka


    hondasam wrote: »
    We can agree that babies cry for all sorts of reasons not just because they are hungry. Baby crying does not mean ''feed me now'' waiting twenty minutes will not harm the baby.
    Can I ask you, did you know the baby would be due a feed in or around this time?
    I'm not sure how experienced you are with the baby feeds but I could bloody well tell you, when my daughter was hungry. the smacking sounds she made with her lips when she was very small, later on pulling at my shirt to get to the food source. waiting twenty minutes to feed a baby means twenty minutes of listening to a baby crying. now, which restaurant wants that? or you can discretely put the baby on the boob and noone's any wiser.


  • Posts: 0 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Actually interested, why? Is the boobs? Is it the baby? Is it the milk? What offends your sensibilities so much?

    Just don't get it at all :(

    For me it's just something weird, it's not the boob, it's the baby. I'd probably have a MUCH easier time being near a breastfed baby, I can't stand seeing babies being fed with a bottle, and when they go onto solids... I just really, really can't handle it. And if I see (and smell) a baby spit up, I'm finished.

    I have no idea WHY; I am 3 years older than my younger bro, and my mother told me she could not feed him at the table, because I would puke up. I thought I would outgrow it, but... 31 now, and still (almost) as bad.

    Just thought I'd give you my perspective, though like I've already stated, I know this is a totally abnormal, unnatural reaction and the issue belongs only to me. If you're afraid of heights you don't go up the Eifel Tower then whinge that they built it too high; if you find babies eating as weird and horrible as I do, then you just don't eat when a baby's being fed. Simples.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    Medusa22 wrote: »
    It amuses me that a differing opinion is immediately considered to be ''idiocy''.
    It amused me that you feign innocence and pretend your obnoxious comment is just a differing opinion. And it has been explained very clearly why it's idiotic.


This discussion has been closed.
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