Should "Sesame Street" Teach Kids About Breastfeeding?

Every few years this non issue arises. If a baby is hungry, feed them. If you are in public, please be discreet. I am a mall security supervisor and have never had a problem or complaint about any woman breastfeeding her baby, and it is not uncommon. I am leery of people who think that a possible split second glimpse of a breast is going to scar their children for life. My Ten yr old granddaughter was present when her new born cousin was being breast fed. She asked me if I could do that and I explained to her that no, men are not able to breast feed. Yes I know it is possible in certain circumstance but that was good enough for a ten yr old. She then asked me if it Hurt. I told her it didn't hurt but she should direct that question to her aunt. She asked me what it felt like and I told her I really did not know, and referred her to her aunt once more. Her last question had me struggling to keep control and not burst out laughing. She asked if it felt like giving yourself a Hickey. Out of the mouths of babes.

To those who think it is gross for milk to come from a breast, well, I hate to make you gag on the cheeseburger, pizza, ice cream, or coffee (not black) you may be ingesting while you read this, but guess what...you are eating/drinking bodily fluids from a cow tit. Bon appitite!

Children are the last people on earth that will be hurt by seeing a breast. Their first post-partum experience is...*gasp*...sucking on a breast!!! It represents comfort, nurturing, providing nourishment, maternal attachment...since when are these qualities we don't want to teach our kids? Kids shows teach them about basic family values and social mores, and breastfeeding is naturally included in that. They don't have to be graphic, but where some children (like my own) would be accustomed to seeing a nursling, other children have never seen a breastfeeding baby, and absolutely SHOULD be exposed to this natural experience!

Breasts are not sexual objects to children who understand their true purpose: feeding a baby. They are sexualized by other means, like the dregs of pop culture - things such as cheap beer commercials, Bratz dolls, and the Kardashians.

Who are the most vehement critics of nursing? That's right - the formula companies, and the "conservatives" who seem to have a nasty Puritan hangover. But remember - even the Puritan babies suckled their mothers' breasts! People need to lighten up & get over it already.

Comments like the ones quoted in the story are exactly why Sesame Street needs to show breastfeeding as a normal way to feed a baby so the next generation is not prejudiced. I can't believe the word "gross" was used. It's what they are for.

People are idiots. I recall breastfeeding my child and getting rude glances as people mutter their comments and such. I was covered with a blanket, sitting in the corner of a HOSPITAL waiting room. If you can't breastfeed in the hospital, where can you?

What is gross about breastfeeding? Are we so detached from our human nature that we can't even handle a baby feeding? Sometimes I wonder about the society I live in. It's okay for people to view boobs as a sex object but not for feeding a child? Ridiculous.

It's funny how people think it's inappropriate for children to SEE breastfeeding when it's children DOING the breastfeeding! That's who it's for!

Nobody is signing petitions against half naked women on magazine covers (which is not normal nor should be acceptable), but want to fight against public breast feeding, which is the most natural act in the world for a mother to do for her child? Something is wrong there.

They broached the subject tastefully and with tact. I fully support Sesame Street airing those clips or updated versions of those clips.

I don't understand people getting SO upset when they see someone breastfeeding (discreetly) but it doesn't bother them when women wear shirts with basically their whole boob sticking out. And the article talks about magazine covers where a mom is breastfeeding is inappropiate for children to see, but other magazines that have basically nake women on the cover is OK, give me a break.

Breast feeding isn't unnatural, formula feeding is. The human body is a survivslist and will not generally waste its energy or resources producing something that seves no purpose.Your body is producing the perfect food for your baby. It not only provides your baby with the calories needed to develop and grow, it provides passive immunity from disease. During my time working in the ER I would always ask mothers of sick babies if they bottle fed or breast fed. They invariably answered that their babies were bottle fed. Studies have shown that breast fed babies are healthier and more intelligent, that's not even mentioning the important bonding that goes on between the mother and the child during nursing. My wife breast fed all of our children, and each of them is healthy, and at the top of their class in school.

I know it's more convenient/ socially acceptable to bottle feed, but making sacrifices is what parenting is about.

Either I feed my child and you can look away, or you get to hear a crying baby the whole time your in my presence. You choose.

"Steve68112" commented at The Huffington Post. "This does not belong on TV or in public, it is gross." So his only argument is that it is gross??? He sounds completely immature.

This is silly. There is no reason it should be taboo. It is as natural as seeing a baby horse nurse. The only way it is gross is if someone applies a link between nursing and something sexual. In that case, people need to deal with their own issues and check in with what makes it sexual to them. It is a baby and its mother, not some mom trying to get her jollies. You could pervert anything if you try hard enough.

Here's the gist of this controversy:

Those who are against public breastfeeding regard breasts primarily as objects of sexual gratification. The males in this group have also learned that their urges brought on by images of such objects are shameful, but they haven't the self-awareness to properly address their shame, so they attack the women who've caused their unsettling mixture of feelings. It's very similar to smashing their car into a lamppost while ogling an attractive woman and then blaming her for the accident.

The women in this group see how the men react and also blame the breastfeeding women because it's less intimidating than confronting the men. Also, as with the woman in the story linked above ("Related: What I really think about breastfeeding — 8 moms share their stories and opinions") who was raised in the Mormon church, they have their own issues of shame with their bodies and sexuality but are afraid to address them and therefore lash out at women who apparently do not.

The solution, then, is for these people to become educated and enlightened about human sexuality. But with that itself being such a controversial subject, it's not likely to happen soon.

Good God, when did people become so hypocritical? It's o.k. for obviously "implanted" individuals to walk around with their nipples poking through their shirts and low cut tops all over television but put a baby in front of a breast and OMG!
News flash! Stop making a big deal out of it and the kids you're all trying to "shield" won't be able to care less. That's how mammal babies eat. Get over it.

How many of those who object to nursing a baby are men? They seem to think God gave us breasts just for them. WRONG! God made us perfect to nurture our babies. You do not really think Eve had baby bottles do you? I thought we had gotten this all straightened out in the 70's but apparently not. Nursing is healthy and you would think in this era of worrying about fat children that more people would be on board with feeding what comes naturally to most women.

the show got fucked up its not orginal anymmore its just plain remixed and is pathetic...

Only in America can you watch a hour long action movie with people getting shot with guns, stabbed with knives, brutal fistfights, blood, gore, lyin, cheating, steeling, violence all over TV and mainstream media, and then in the face of all the violence & war ... have some oblivious people getting upset about a mother nursing her child. Words can't describe this type of counterintuitive stupidity!

really people it's 2012...can we please progress forward already.