In a now-deleted post to Reddit, two teen parents have been fighting over if they should continue breastfeeding their 6-month-old baby after the dad told the mom (who is the OP) it was “weird.”
“My boyfriend and I are both 18, we have a 6 month old daughter who is exclusively breastfed,” she wrote. “She hasn’t shown much of an interest in food yet, and I have absolutely no intention of formula feeding, provided I’m still able to BF.”
The boyfriend allegedly has asked her on more than one occasion when she plans to stop.
“I’ll stop when I have to or when baby self weans, but my goal is to make it to 18mo if I can,” she said, adding how her boyfriend really has no idea how women’s bodies work, “and just doesn’t quite get things.” The OP went on to reveal while she was nursing their daughter to sleep — he brought it up again.
“Yesterday, he came upstairs at bedtime when I was feeding baby and said, ‘I think she’s getting a bit too old for that; it might be time for formula and real food.’ This kind of upset me because I know the average age to stop breastfeeding around the world is between 2.5 and 7 yrs, and he’s constantly making stupid remarks,” she wrote.
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“I was mad and I told him, ‘You don’t get to decide how old is too old until you carry her around for nine months, push her out, and then have her attached to your tit everyday. Fuck right off.’ And he did fuck off to his friend’s for the night.”
After her boyfriend left — the mom created a group message to some friends regarding their fight and a handful quickly sided with her boyfriend — stating he should have a say in the situation.
She ended the post with an edit, adding that the reason her boyfriend doesn’t like the fact that she’s still nursing is that he thinks “it’s weird.”
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One person commented: “Completely correct to want to continue breastfeeding. But using the “I birthed the kid” trump card was the wrong way to handle it. Show him some actual research on breastfeeding. Ask him why he thinks you should stop. Talk about introducing solids etc.”
While another said: “I was with you right up until you described the way you handled the situation. You are 100% right in your reasoning and totally wrong in your execution. Nothing good comes from talking to each other like that. Your kid is young; just wait until it starts picking up on the way you talk to each other and sending it back your way. It’s better to get used to being kind to each other right now. You decide how long to breastfeed. He can have an opinion about it, but the ultimate choice is yours.”
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