"Are you feeding that baby food yet?" "No, Nan. She's only 3 months old. She can't eat solids yet." "Nonsense! What about homo milk?" "No, I'm breastfeeding her." "That's disgusting. Give that baby a bottle, you're starving her". I can still hear the voice of my seventy year old Grandmother lecturing me on the prehistoric values of infant nutrition. I still roll my eyes at the thought of it all. At the time, this conversation rocked me to my very core. Was this woman from Mars? Had she never scanned a parenting book in her life? Probably not. But this was my Nana. She was not that old. How could 2 women's take on parenting be so different? What changed in the past 50 years?
Maybe it's just me but I have encountered many older women recently who have conflicting views on breastfeeding. Women in my church, workplace, and my own family have revealed to me their objective opinions on the subject. "I never breastfeed. It was too weird" or "Breastfeeding was not for me. I saw what it did to my mother and I did not want any part of that." It got me thinking: What triggered this change?
I don't think any one source can be traced but the reality is things have really changed. My bookworm self would love to slam my Grandmother with some 30+ articles I've read on the benefits of breastfeeding or that infants can't actually swallow solids until at least 4 months, but what's the point. Old philosophies die hard and at the end of the day, I'm the Mama.
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