Parenting

People Are Losing Their Minds Over This Photo Of A Toddler 'Breastfeeding' His Sibling

by Ashley Austrew

People are actually infuriated by this photo of a toddler pretending to breastfeed.

If you’ve ever visited an online comment section, then you know the internet has no chill, but a recent photo shared by a pro-breastfeeding Facebook page has some people jumping even further off the deep end than usual.

A page called Breastfeeding Mama Talk recently shared an adorable meme of a toddler attempting to breastfeed his infant sibling. In it, a baby is lying down and his older sibling is hovered over him, squeezing his breast the way a breastfeeding mom would when she’s trying to get her baby to latch. In the corner of the photo it says, “Don’t worry, Mom. I got you covered!”

Since it went up, the photo has been shared over 15,000 times, and dozens of people have responded by posting photos of their own toddlers trying to breastfeeding their siblings or breastfeeding baby dolls. Still, even the inherent sweetness and normalcy of the photo hasn’t stopped trolls from descending en masse, calling the photo “pornographic” and even reporting it to Facebook for “nudity.” Here are some of the more ridiculous comments:

“This is disgusting to say the least. If it were the mother….that’s different……I see no problem….but to allow a sibling…that is just sick. I see no humor in this at all!!”
“Definitely gone too far with this picture. People will do anything for a like or comment or share. The little babies interests was definitely not top priority.”
“Pornographic picture really… you sick woman.”
“What’s Next his penis? This is not normal. You are one sicko mother.”
“I think it’s a shame that anyone would be that flamboyant with something that personal, especially with their siblings and allowing their siblings to touch each other.”

Pornographic? Sicko mother? What? Talk about blowing things way out of proportion. Kids imitate what they see, so it makes complete sense that a toddler would try to mimic his or her breastfeeding mom. I only breastfed my son for a few weeks, but even in that short time, his toddler sister caught on and tried to feed her stuffed animals and told everyone moms “feed babies with their breast powers.”

There’s nothing abnormal about little kids noticing and even attempting to copy the act of breastfeeding. In fact, it’s kind of adorable and encouraging to see so many kids growing up knowing that breastfeeding is normal and breasts aren’t just sex objects. If people think a toddler putting their chest near a baby is pornographic, that says something disturbing about the person commenting, not the little kids.

As obnoxious as these gross comments are, it’s wonderful to see so many people speaking out in support of breastfeeding and normalizing it for their kids. We might not be able to stop misguided trolls from trying to sexualize the act of feeding, but we can raise an entire generation that knows better, and that’s something worth celebrating.

H/T PopSugar