# Were you nursed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 15, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804 "2014-03-15T23:56:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/41 "2014-03-16T18:25:38Z")
I was, in 1980, when it was just beginning to be done again in these parts. Of course it’s never been gross to me, why would it? It’s not like I remember it. I’ll have to ask my mom if she ever got any shade cast on her about it though. (You’d think I’d know, since now that I am also Great With Child it seems that’s all she and I ever talk about anymore.) I was also cloth diapered, not because my mom was a crunchy hippie but because disposables at the time were not really up to dealing with very skinny legged babies. So my mom’s the only one who hasn’t been incredibly rude about us planning on cloth diapering, oddly enough. (Everybody else is all “ahahaha, yeah, give it a month” or “gross!”) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/42 "2014-03-16T18:29:26Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > Is the term “nursed” used in the US because the more correct/specific term, “breastfed” includes the word “breast”? > > It seems like a confusing euphemism. I was nursed, in that a nurse cared for me during hospitalization. I was also breastfed - mum was a hippie! No, people usually say “breastfed”. Except Target, which labels an aisle “Natural Feeding Supplies”. This fills me with homicidal rage. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/43 "2014-03-16T19:30:58Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > Is the term “nursed” used in the US because the more correct/specific term, “breastfed” includes the word “breast”? > > It seems like a confusing euphemism. I was nursed, in that a nurse cared for me during hospitalization. I was also breastfed - mum was a hippie! It’s not a euphemism it’s an English language definition going back hundreds of years. It is just as correct and specific. In fact I would say nursing is the more old fashioned way of saying it and the more usual modern American way is to say breastfed. Have you never heard the term wet nurse? To answer the OP, don’t know don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/44 "2014-03-16T19:41:11Z")
> [@saje](#): > > Yes breast feeding is perfectly natural, and it stills quicks me out a bit. No, I don’t have kids. I was breastfed, as was my brother, which of course came up when lil bro was born and at age six I was old enough to wonder about what was going on. My mother occasionally comments that her mother thought it was “animalistic and gross” as if that’s a horrible attitude. So I’ve never told her that I find the idea of breastfeeding kind of icky too, not from the POV of the baby, but in trying to imagine doing it myself if I have kids. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/45 "2014-03-16T23:57:40Z")
Nope, Mum tried it, but it didn’t work out- she just wasn’t producing enough and the health visitor told her to switch to bottles. I don’t think it’s weird at all that mothers bring up stuff like that with their daughters- especially, as in this case, as there was an issue which could be partially genetic. Come to think of it, there’s at least one photo of baby me breastfeeding; it’s just no big deal in my family. ---
**Author:** ![starryspice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@starryspice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starryspice)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/46 "2014-03-17T03:13:01Z")
I was breastfed, but I had a heart condition, so I think my mom switched to pumping after awhile because breastfeeding made me too tired and the bottle was less effort for me to take. (My twin sister was breastfed all the way through because her heart condition healed itself.) I remember being pretty young and asking my mom a question (I don’t remember what) and she showed me how, if she squeezed, she could still get a little bit of milk out of her breasts. I thought it was interesting and it definitely wasn’t something I recalled seeing before. Definitely wasn’t grossed out. I have found (in my experience, not a universal principle) that the people who are grossed out by breastfeeding are also otherwise uncomfortable with their bodies or sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/47 "2014-03-17T03:21:00Z")
What if I was? Whose shoulder should I throw up on? Yours? (People effing with this board makes me so mad I want to mess up some Reddit threads) ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/48 "2014-03-17T04:27:48Z")
All four of us Carnut siblings were nursed. In my generation it was still fairly common. I remember my dad’s cousins nursing their kids too. But when I was babysitting age, a lot of people were using formula. Now, my niece’s friends are nursing and using formula when it is more convenient. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/49 "2014-03-17T06:18:01Z")
I think so. My mother had had Nurse training (didn’t graduate\*), so did most things in the medically recommended way, which I’m sure, even at that time (the 60s), would have included breastfeeding. \*_She became a Mum so gave up her training. Much later she completed her training, but she was a bit too old by then and was only an Enrolled Nurse for a few years before having to retire._ ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/50 "2014-03-17T08:28:01Z")
Northern California/Bay Area - mid-70s. My siblings and I were breastfed. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/51 "2014-03-17T08:29:01Z")
Yep, maybe up to the age of two because my first conscious memory was of our mother telling me, “You’re biting it!” ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/52 "2014-03-17T14:22:00Z")
I never asked, but I assume I wasn’t because my mother was re-hospitalized for a severe hemorrhage issue just a few days after I was born, and I didn’t see her for the next six weeks or so. She still feels guilty about that, but I think it’s less about the breastfeeding and more about the early bonding time. I, of course, have never held it against her because I don’t remember and because she almost died. When you almost die, you stay in the hospital as long as they tell you to. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/53 "2014-03-17T14:45:27Z")
I was for the first 6 months. My mom wishes she could have nursed me for longer but my parents were poor and she had to go back to work. I don’t have children but I don’t think I would be able to breastfeed if I did. I know the benefits, etc. but it just skeeves me out too much. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/54 "2014-03-17T15:41:24Z")
Nope. I’m a baby of the late 60s and a mom who wasn’t going to be tied down to that sort of thing, so there was a zero chance breast feeding was going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/55 "2014-03-17T17:25:46Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > (People effing with this board makes me so mad I want to mess up some Reddit threads) Why? What did Reddit ever do to you? > [@the\_diego](#): > > Yep, maybe up to the age of two because my first conscious memory was of our mother telling me, “You’re biting it!” Care to elaborate? ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/56 "2014-03-17T17:46:39Z")
They were biting mom’s nipple. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/57 "2014-03-17T17:59:48Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Care to elaborate? Sharper than a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child who bites the nipple that feeds him. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/58 "2014-03-17T18:01:23Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > They were biting mom’s nipple. All of them? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/59 "2014-03-17T19:34:51Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > All of them? Tough neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804/60 "2014-03-18T00:12:10Z")
Jocks all of you. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-nursed/683804.md?page=4)