Breast feeding mom upset with Six Flags Great America

Health concerns? People's naked butt holes and genitals are essentially floating naked in the pool. That's a hell of a lot more disgusting than the natural act of a woman breastfeeding (not to mention her and the baby are obviously not submerged). The life guard should be fired. What a moron.

It sounds like the lifeguard just didn't understand the law or the park didn't educate him/her on the policy. I think firing is a bit harsh, just dicipline them and re-educate the whole staff on the policy and move on.

"Discrimination" is a word that gets thrown around too much but I don't have any problem with a woman breast feeding a child in public.

Let's see...milk from the breast or piss from the ____. Which would I prefer to swim in?

Sounds to me the life guard and/or management did not understand Illinois law. It isn't really anything to be offended over, all women should be encouraged to breast feed their newborns, and it certaintly is more healthy then the pool water full of spit, pee, and feces that normally overrun the pool. It's not like she was flashing her boobs just to get a rise out of some guys, this lifeguard clearly doesn't understand what is acceptable behaivor, and what isn't. Fired...no, retrained to understand the laws and park policies...yes.

Good points Dan. Ignorance and Discrimination are two completely different things.

Irony:

1) Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs:

2) Debating 'health issues' with a breastfeeding mom in a kiddie pool while children standing in it three feet away fill their diapers.

-CO

They have these things called locker rooms and they usually have a place for women to do this. My wife never had to whip out a boob in public. If you are planning on going to an amusement park why don't you pump some milk and bottle it. That is what my wife has done in the past. I think the "health concerns" were for some of the coaster geeks that have never seen a real boob before!!

Nursing in the wading pool? OK, that IS a bit much. Use a changing room or locker room.

But did you read the article? She had every right to nurse as she pleased.

Fortunately, ignorance can be found as much INSIDE the coaster community as OUTSIDE of it.

Legal or not there are places provided to take care of this. I just don't understand why she could not take care of this in a more private place. So do you guys like it when a parent changes a diaper on a table in a restaurant next to you? You have a right to do it but come on.

Crap and food don't mix.

Crap and pool water do all the time--whether or not you're aware of it.

Women do it in Minnestoa too: In restaurants, at the mall, other places. 75 percent of the time, you won't even notice. Nobody's obligated to stare at the woman's appendages. Just move along.

Ask enough of the missus' friends. I'm sure you'll find at least one to slap ya. ;)

-'Playa

You are comparing changing a diaper on a restaurant table to breastfeeding your child in public?

What year is this?

Should you be able to blow your nose in public?

I read it. These laws need changed so that if changing rooms exist, they are the allowed place to use.

I, for one, report it to PKI Security if I see someone nursing anywhere other than the kiddieland areas. And more than once, I've seen it dealt with. I.E asked to go to Hanna-Barbera or the infant care building.

Okay, there is a big difference between chaging diapers and breastfeeding. If someone at the table next to me in a restaurant changes a diaper, I'd be upset because that's where I eat. If they were breast feeding though, it would be okay. I'm eating, why cant the baby?

And for those of you who thinks breastfeeding should be confined to bathroom/locker rooms, I dare *YOU* to have *YOUR* lunch in a locker/bathroom.

The real heath concern here was for the baby. Eating around all those nasty people in the pool....:)

The point behind the diaper was to show that places exist to take care of situations like this in a private manner. If there was no looker room facilites then how about LEAVING the pool and sit on a chair in the corner and take care of your baby. Why did she have to feed the kid in the pool. I have two kids and neither one starved to death while my wife found a restroom. Legal, yes. Proper place, no!

You can tell the enthusiast crowd is a sausage party judging by the responses above. Hostyl is right, I'd like to see you eat in a bathroom or locker room. If you find breast feeding makes you uncomfortable, that's your problem, not the mother's. There is nothing dirty, obscene or immoral about the very thing that gives life. Get over yourself.

I'm all for the woman's right to breastfeed in public. You shouldn't have to go to some changing room or such. That said, I do believe it is very inappropriate to do it in such a way that makes everyone around you uncomfortable, but that's just human decency.

The women I know that breastfed in public always did it in a very polite way. Throwing a blanket over the activity (or a towel if we're at the pool), both for their own privacy and so those around aren't made uncomfortable. Thankfully, this lady was polite. But the law doesn't require you to be, and I think that's where the law needs to be changed.

*** This post was edited by Blaster_1578 7/15/2005 11:40:47 AM ***

The article mentioned that she moved to a chair and continued to breastfeed without incident (and then left) so it's not so much a concern about breastfeeding in public as much as eating in the wading pool.

If the mother was bottle-feeding the infant in the water and was told that she couldn't do that in the water (I'm assuming that the park does not allow folks to take food and drinks into the water) I don't think it would have created any kind of uproar. It certainly wouldn't have made it to the paper a month later.

I think that's the distinction here.