Breast Feeding

[SyberBitch]

Like I said before:-

Whats wrong with bottling your expressed breast milk before you come outside and feed the kid with the bottle?

This reason alone proves conclusively that there is no practical need whatsoever for breastfeeding in public.

It can be very painful for some women to use the pump and sometimes it doesn't even work.

Yes, as I stated earlier (completely overlooked by Opie, apparently) not only was the pump very painful for me to use, but I could hardly get any milk out with it. I certainly am not alone in that issue either. As Ramsey mentions above, it can also cause 'nipple confusion' in infants. Often an infant who is offered a bottle very often, will start rejecting the breast because bottles are easier to drink from.

I think a woman can feed an infant in public without it being very noticeable, but no one wants to see a toddler hanging to your tit which I have seen quite a few times.

I've never seen a toddler nursed in public. I'm sure it happens, but it has to be rare. By the time they are toddlers, most little ones only nurse when they go to sleep.

There are just as many studies saying it is healthier to start weaning by 7 months.

No, there definitely are not. I wouldn't be surprised if someone somewhere did a study to demonstrate that it's better to wean early, but there is overwhelmingly more evidence to show that it is better to nurse longer than not. I'm sure I could post hundreds of links if I wanted to put the effort into it. When I was looking for material to debate the 'extended breastfeeding' supporters, I couldn't find a single thing to show that it was better to wean early.

Edit: As a side note, I also am not an advocate of humans drinking milk past the weaning age and I don't personally like to drink milk. I don't mind it cooked into food and I don't mind cultured milk products (yogurt, cheese, etc) but I gag if I try to straight out drink it. The exception is that I can drink flavored milks and milkshakes, but rarely do.