Chinese - Not a fan of breast feeding?

First and foremost, being a Malaysian in a multi-racial society, I am in no way being racist with particular reference to this blog.

My son just turned 6 months old and he had to take his Hepatitis B 3rd Dose jab. So, this morning, I took him to the government clinic for his jab as usual and there was a nursing room at the clinic. Knowing that I would have to wait at least half an hour for my turn, I brought Little Jen into the room to nurse since it was also about time that he would be crying for milk.

In the nursing room, there were 2 Malay ladies with their babies chatting away. I used my nursing cover while nursing Little Jen as usual. Once done, I covered myself and took the nursing cover off. One of the ladies asked how old was Little Jen and I replied her that Little Jen was already 6 months old. Both of them looked very surprised and commented that Little Jen looked older than 6 months old because of his size.

Both their babies were also 6 months old and both were girls. One was about 6+kg and another was about 7+kg. When I told them that Little Jen already had 2 teeth since he was about 4+ mths old and now, 3 more teeth showed their presence at the gums already. The proud mother of the 7+kg baby girl then said that her baby too had 2 little teeth but the 6+kg baby girl's mother said that her daughter had none.

They then asked if I nursed Little Jen exclusively, to which I proudly replied yes but I had to give him expressed milk when I was away working. They then commented how good breastmilk was for babies and that too bad very few Chinese breastfed their babies. Well, I supported their statement by saying that even my own mother breastfed for less than 2 weeks and my mother in-law did not breastfeed at all during their time. Having both mothers who were not experienced in breastfeeding, it was much harder for me as I had to learn the art of breastfeeding on my own. The only time I had someone experienced teaching me was during my stay in the hospital after delivery and mind you, that was only once the Nurse taught me. I was left dangling with so many questions in my head and so many hurdles to overcome on my own.

Thanks a lot to the book - The First Years and the lots of internet research done while expecting and after the confinement month, I managed to pull through.

Back to why my own mothers were not supportive of breastfeeding, at least during their time, one of the reasons given was that Doctors never advised them to do so and that formula milk was so over-rated, it was said to be even better than breastmilk that time. Also, of course, due to the pain during early breastfeeding period was not encouraging at all. Maybe now since there have been extensive studies done over the decades, breastfeeding is again back in the scene.

Looked like Little Jen was growing well physically although he took only breastmilk and best of all, his teeth sprouted early as well. I wanted to quit after 6 months but considering again, I might not.. Let's see.