Would you feed your baby someone else's BM?

[Anonymous]

If someone offered it to you, instead of formula or to complement formula, would you?
A friend offered it to me for my 10 week old DD.

[Anonymous]

No way! It is a body fluid and I have no idea if it is tainted with alcohol or meds. Anything that comes out a hole in someone else's body is grose! Formula is man-made, but at least it is sterile (unless it is made in China). In fact, sometimes i think my kids would have been better off with formula than my BM!!!!

[Anonymous]

Um, seems like it was a very nice thought for your friend to offer. Is it because you are unable to breast feed?

Personally, I don't know if I would do it or not. The idea does seem a bit strange. I guess it depends on the person and circumstances with my child.

PP, I wouldn't off-hand call it "gross" (or grose, sic). There are all kinds of reasons why someone might want to do this (illness of mother, etc.). Remember, there used to be "wet nurses" (and maybe still are?), so its not like this is an unusual concept.

[Anonymous]

I would consider accepting AFTER testing for HIV and Hep.

[Anonymous]

I would if i knew enough about their drug use (rx's, etc) and disease status. Also their diet..

[Anonymous]

No - too "personal". But, I come from a family where we joke about how all the breastfed kids get sick all the time and the ones that were formula fed are healthy as can be! Makes me wonder about the true health benefits of BM since I see this in my own family (one BF-always sick; one FF-never sick). So, I am not convinced that BM is THAt good that I would take some from a friend.

[Anonymous]

Why is it that it is so acceptable to drink milk from cows, but not to share BM from someone you know?

[Anonymous]

Of course I would! That liquid is gold. The only thing, is that I wouldn't accept that from a complety stranger (e.g., from the internet), but a friend? Yes!

I am assuming here she is a true friend - since she offered- and you know her well.

[Anonymous]

I have a close relative who was breastfed (directly) by his aunt on occasion when his mother was really tired. We all found it a bit weird, but who are we to judge? I know people donate BM, but not much about who uses it. Worth looking into, I think.

[Anonymous]

No way. Formula works just fine if you can't breast feed enough from your own breasts. The "breast is best" arguments are about your own breast milk.

[Anonymous]

Yes - if I knew the person well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a close relative who was breastfed (directly) by his aunt on occasion when his mother was really tired. We all found it a bit weird, but who are we to judge? I know people donate BM, but not much about who uses it. Worth looking into, I think.

This used to be the norm - if a woman was unable to breastfeed or ill or indisposed for some reason, some other woman in her community would feed her baby. My grandmother did it for her best friend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way. Formula works just fine if you can't breast feed enough from your own breasts. The "breast is best" arguments are about your own breast milk.

No the breast is best argument is about breast milk always being nutritionally superior to formula. And it is. Does that make it wrong to give babies formula, of course not. But the truth is BM IS better than formula. That is fact.
OP, I would consider it only if I knew the person very well and knew all about her health status, RX, etc...

[Anonymous]

Only if it was medically required for health of the baby reasons, and only after testing for problems. Put another way, not in a million years on a voluntary basis.... It's gross.

[Anonymous]

In this case I would honestly say that that BM is on a pretty even playing field to formula. The BM you make is specially formulated for your baby. This other BM is not. Yes, it does have nutrients in it that you can't find in formula...but as someone earlier said, you can control what is in your formula and not what is in someone elses BM.