Dear Tonya,

Okay, this story is a little long.  Keep in mind I'm an educator myself, a
breastfeeding zealot and I love being with children.  My opinion, as a new
parent in the public school system, is that by approaching it from a
science and nature angle, it all seems quite normal and non-offensive to
our bottle feeding culture.  It's something that needs to be a normal part
of our society, which continues to be a struggle.  With a 75% breastfeeding
rate in our community, perhaps it won't be as hard when these breastfed
babies become grown-ups.  Or perhaps I'm dreaming and need to nap...I was
up til 1am last night witha bright eyed baby who wanted to play when the
rest of the family wanted to sleep  : )

These have been my personal experiences in just the first two months of
kindergarten with my oldest daughter.  About two weeks ago, Virginia was
telling my husband and I about how her class was talking about different
types of animals-reptiles, amphibians, etc. that week.  Well, since my
husband's undergraduate degree is in zoology, his ears really perked up.
They began talking about what makes a reptile a reptile and so on.  She
learned from us about what makes a mammal a mammal, including hair or fur,
live birth and producing milk for their young.  She said she shared the
information she learned from us with her class a couple of days later.  She
told her class that humans are mammals too and that we have hair, give
birth and make milk for their babies.  I wonder what will be mentioned at
parent-teacher conferences next week!?

If Christina (my youngest daughter) is hungry, I'll nurse her while I'm
waiting with other kindergarten parents and grandparents to pick our
children up.  I'm surprised no one has complained, either parents or
schoolteachers, but I am very discreet about it.  It has struck up some
interesting conversations among the adults, mostly women...  "You don't see
women nursing much anymore", "My breasts were too small to make enough
milk", "I could never breastfeed in front of other people like you do", "I
had a C-section so I couldn't breastfeed"- and given me the opportunity to
correct a lot of misinformation.

Most people can't even tell that I'm nursing, but Virginia let the cat out
of the bag about three weeks ago as she announced in the hallway to her
friends and teacher, "There's my mom!  You have to come see her!"  I had a
number of 5 year olds around me along with her teacher.  They wanted to see
her face but Virginia told them in a matter of fact manner that she was
nursing right then and they could see her in a few minutes.  Some kids said
they were breastfed or they remembered their brothers or sisters being
breastfed.  One of her friends, a little cowboy who lives on a large cattle
ranch with his nuclear and extended family, said that's just how their cows
and calves do it (he was bottle fed).  I agreed with him and said that
human babies like Christina eat this way too.

Presently, they are talking about healthy foods and nutrition in class.
Virginia and I  were talking about the dairy food group this weekend and I
reminded her that mother's milk is part of that group.  She said she'll
have to tell her teacher about that-we'll see!  And when was the last time
you saw a breast on the food pyramid!?

Excellent question!  Good luck with your studies!


Maurenne

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Maurenne Griese, RNC, BSN, CCE, CBE
Birth and Breastfeeding Resources  http://www.childbirth.org/bbfr
Manhattan, KS  USA
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