Comments about Breastfeeding

Last night Eric and I had a chance to go out to dinner – just the two of us. Ordering at a restaurant is always difficult because they often don’t have ingredient menus and they have to go back and look for each item you are trying to order to see if it contains any ingredients you can’t have. This process has led to some very interesting responses when I say I can’t have certain foods.

The first question is, “So you have an allergy?” If I respond with the correct response, “No, my son does”, only about half the people get it, ok that was an exaggeration, only about an eighth of the people get it, and the others somewhere throughout at the meal finally figure it out. I’m guessing after collaborating with a co-worker they feel ingenious that they have figured it out. Regardless, they always make a point to let me know they have figured it out. Here are some of the quotes I’ve heard:


“I bet you can’t wait to stop breastfeeding! Wow, I did not think of that. I guess it makes sense what you eat gets to them.” (Um, did you just make that realization??? I sure hope people figure that out before drinking or taking drugs…and for the record, I can’t wait for him to outgrow the allergy – not to stop breastfeeding. If it were that much of an inconvenience don’t you think I would have stopped already?)

“Man, no wonder he’s a big baby. All that breast milk and stuff make them so big. You might have to stop nursing him, that’s what my sister had to do because her baby was too big.” (Hmm…actually breastfed babies are usually smaller than formula fed babies but OK?)

“Do they know why he has a reaction; is there something you can do to fix it?” (Um yes, it’s called an intestinal allergy and yes, I can eliminate it from my diet…did you think I just was doing it for fun?)

I have to say the best is when they don’t get it at all and assume that us coming in contact with the food somehow translates to the baby through our breath or something. The reason I know this is because when I make a certain request, if they don’t get it, they assume Eric needs the same accommodations.

So, to any servers out there, what you eat gets passed through to breast milk. Please pass this knowledge on to all your other friends so they can be in the eighth of people that do it get right away, or just don't say anything at all, really that is ok.