November 14, 2006

• And why is this more effective than rotating a nipple clamp?
• Suckle Strong. Those bracelets are on the way out, aren't they? Please?
• Hope not - I can't get the trunk magnets to stay on my breasts.
• *blinks at flash slideshow* Funny, I'd never noticed before that babies' hair changes color and thickness when they start feeding...
• I'd give my left nut for one of those bracelets. ...or was it my right nut???
• Is this SFW?
• Slideshow with clad mother and baby, one closeup of breast-feeding tot. And lots of pastel bracelets.
• Well, there's goes my great idea about using refrigerator magnets ...
• I think this is more about showing off how great you are for nursing than anything else. Coming from a generation of 'clampers', as I've been informed in innumerable bouts of parental guilt, wouldn't it be fairly easy for a mother to know which nip was more tender than another? And if not, what difference does it make anyway? Amazing how the human race has managed to survive this long, without all these gadgets...
• On closer inspection -- the site claims that this is an aid to preventing 'lopsidedness'. Wouldn't any lopsidedness be obvious in its own right? And any necessary corrective compensation also be just as obvious? Such a goddamn industry...
• Take my word for it when I say that it is possible to forget what side you fed on last, especially if you feed on both sides in one session. Early in breastfeeding it's possible to look and feel lopsided but over time everything evens out in terms of amount produced and amount consumed and breasts don't get so engorged before feeding. It's not the end of the world if you forget and feed the baby on the same side twice, but it could mean a very uncomfortable night's sleep on the unsuckled side. A friend just switches a hair elastic from one wrist to the other, or puts a clothespin on the arm of her nursing chair on the side she needs to start feeding on. I generally remembered by which arm was last to fall asleep from baby's giant heavy head resting against it. There you go, more than you needed to know.
• I'm 43 and the word "engorged" still makes me chuckle.
• Must be hell for a one-kitten cat to remember!
• At first, before they showed someone wearing those, I wasn't convinced they went on the wrist. It seems to me that a woman could do so many other things without spending money. Fridge magnets, a ring that went back and forth, rubber band, permanent marker...
• Oh Jesus! I've been using two of those things as nut separators!
• My mind reeled as well, envisioning something along the lines of a BDSM breast bondage contraption. It just seems a way to exploit or guilt a new mother into an unnecessary purchase, kind of like those full bred dog owners who neuter their dogs, and then get those Neuticles (prosthetic dog testicles) implanted...
• "Must be hell for a one-kitten cat to remember! posted by fish tick" Took me a moment. Now I'm going to pass the link along to a pregnant friend just so I can work that line into the resulting conversation.
• Mums begin 'lactivism' after airline bans breastfeeding
• I have a hard time believeing that the woman on the plane was being as discrett or covered as she claims she was. Why refuse the offer of a blanket, if for no other reason than just to shut the flight attendant up? Of course, I could be projecting from all my time at the art museum spent trying to keep angry, offended parents from giving their kids snacks and drinks right up next to the paintings. There seems to be a segment of the population who believes that having children is some kind of trump card justification for doing whatever, wherever, and however you feel like.
• Sigh, I wish there was something more salacious about nursing, but there ain't. The woman in question was on the window seat, her husband sitting on the aisle (presumably no one in between) in the second to last row. Just how could anyone be offended? Who could possibly see anything? The woman was following the law and what this really was all about was the "issues" of the flight attendant, and only the flight attendant. Their being kicked off of Delta was a gross violation of the flight attendant's power. In other news, US Air is trying to take over Delta, US Air being famous for last week's incident of kicking off six imams for praying IN THE TERMINAL.
• My two cents: I tried nursing kid #1 in public by putting a muslin cloth over him, but he was a summer baby and it was far too hot and stuffy for him to relax under cover. I imagine the stuffy atmosphere on a plane would be similar. TUM, I promise I would never let my children even stand close to art in a gallery, let alone eat food in front of the paintings.
• Breastfeeding is also a good way to help babies deal with the changes in cabin pressure during take-off and landing, not to mention the general stress of getting on a plane. For all passengers' sake, it's better if an infant can suckle (breast or bottle or binky) than be left screaming when his/her ears hurt.
• Well, since we weren't there, we can only guess at what the situation looked like. I admit I'm more predisposed to take the word of the flight attendant over the mother (and really, she said/she said is what it boils down to) because I've spent more time in the position of the former than the latter. If the mother had been as discreet as she's claiming, I don't see why the flight attendant would have even noticed her. Mothers nurse on planes all the time. If this flight attendant had some kind of personal issue with the act in and of itself, I find it hard to believe that she doesn't have a history of these kinds of conflicts, and that it wasn't mentioned in the article.
• And speaking from my personal experience as an airline passenger, I also find it hard to believe that a flight attendant would ask ANY passenger to stop doing something disturbing (short of something that could be interpreted as potentially threatening behavior) without being prompted by a request from another passenger.
• ...I also find it hard to believe that a flight attendant would ask ANY passenger to stop doing something disturbing... without being prompted by a request from another passenger. Still, my hydro company has habitually bent me over a barrel in the past. Imagine my surprise when I ended up with a four hundred dollar credit. Just because the sun rises every morning...
• The whole concept of women needing to hide their breasts strikes me as mucho bizarro. The criteria is, apparently, if the organ has a function, you must hide it. Viewers of all ages can see breasts presented in a sexual, provocative manner and do every time they buy groceries and pass through the checkout line and gander the magazine racks. Or for that matter, go to the beach, or watch any number of TV shows, movies, yadda, yadda. But to see a mom with a tot's face clamped onto her boob? Horrific! It is beyond belief that our society would find the unnatural act of inserting plastic into a breast to make for more pleasing display of cleavage to be okay, but for a breast to be used for its sole intended purpose -- well, that dare not be seen. To those who oppose mothers breast feeding in public, I wonder, whose sensibilities are they trying to protect? Who would be harmed by witnessing this act? How would they be harmed? Is the mom gonna be asked to do a lap dance when she finishes with junior? Is some child gonna think, hey, look, there's a breast being used as a...breast! Are there any Mofi parents who would object to their children happening upon a breast-feeding mom who is being fairly discreet? Are there any Mofi's who they, themselves would not want to come upn such a scene? If so, why? What on earth is the reason?