# Why is it taboo for anyone older than a baby to drink breastmilk? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2003, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667 "2003-02-04T07:02:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/21 "2003-02-04T15:27:35Z")
Don’t underestimate the “gross factor” of ingesting body fluids. Especially body fluids from someone _else’s_ body. For example, it is common lick lick the blood from one’s own cut, but not so common to lick someone else’s. I grant that certain other body fluids are able to overcome this negativity. Nevertheless, it is a negativity which needs to be overcome. Those other fluids, to the extent that they are favored at all, are favored mainly because of the situations which cause those fluids to be produced, and not because of the fluids themselves. ---
**Author:** ![80sHairMetalMaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/8/ed655f/32.png) [@80sHairMetalMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/80sHairMetalMaven)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/22 "2003-02-04T15:43:50Z")
I’m going to do some research to see if I can find a cite but I recall awhile back on the news there was a bit of a stinkeroo where the DCFS took a child away from her mother because her mother allowed her to still breastfeed when the little girl (who was about 4 or 5 I think)wanted to. Why is it such a taboo? The female human body was designed to feed their offspring by nursing them at the breast.It’s a beautiful thing.I have never understood why it has always been viewed in some lights as shameful. Then again…the baby doctors always say ‘breast is best’ and there’s the La Leche League which fiercly advocates it. I’ve heard horror stories from a few of my mom’s friend’s daughters about them.They said that the LLL comes into their rooms after they give birth and tell you if you don’t breastfeed you’re commiting a form of child abuse or something.😮 IDBB ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/23 "2003-02-04T15:55:22Z")
Actually, **Incubus** , if you use breast milk as a creamer, you don’t need to add sugar. ---
**Author:** ![rhinostylee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@rhinostylee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhinostylee)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/24 "2003-02-04T16:06:19Z")
I’m drinking breast milk right now! Mmmmmm, it really is sweet! And my favorite part is how it is dispensed! Hold still, mom . . . ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/25 "2003-02-04T16:27:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lauramarlane \* > \*\*Actually, **Incubus** , if you use breast milk as a creamer, you don’t need to add sugar. \*\* Breast milk is 7% lactose; cow’s milk is 5% lactose. In an ounce of milk added to coffee that would be a difference of about half a gram of lactose, a sugar that is only 16% as sweet as sucrose to begin with. I doubt if anyone would ever notice. ---
**Author:** ![nogginhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5e9695/32.png) [@nogginhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nogginhead)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/26 "2003-02-04T17:13:09Z")
This is getting close to my million dollar idea, which is to collect mother’s milk from all the lactating moms on my street and sell it as the only la leche league-approved substitute for ‘direct’ breastfeeding. (There are a lot of babies about.) My wife likes her coffee sweet and light, but she still drank it black when the alternative was her own pure product. I have tried it once or twice, but since she won’t dispense it to me from the source, it’s not as much fun. I heard somewhere, and it may be just a myth, that the average age for weaning worldwide is 7 years old. [TMI?] Those breasts are mine, dammit, and I don’t want to share them with the little parasite! My wife claims they aren’t even erogenous any more. [/TMI] ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/27 "2003-02-04T17:18:59Z")
Well, I didn’t really want to provide this much info, but… Actually **Exapno Mapcase** I tried this out and it did taste sweet enough without the need to add sugar. And, even though there isn’t much of a difference in lactose from cow’s milk, breast milk does taste sweet–something along the lines of melted vanilla ice cream. ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/28 "2003-02-04T17:20:09Z")
Oh, I can’t provide a cite for any of this and I’ve only sampled my own so I can’t speak for the milky masses (no pun intended, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/29 "2003-02-04T17:26:02Z")
Back to the OP: Cultural taboo. During most of human existance, when life was pretty chancy and generally stacked against, infant mortality was high; often because there wasn’t enough breast milk for adequate nutrition. Anything that diverted this resource away from the infant would be contra-survival, and thereby culturally discouraged. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/30 "2003-02-04T18:29:11Z")
**nogginhead** when my wife was nursing our firstborn, about 12 years ago, I made the unfortunate mistake when kissing her breast to suckle and say “mama” in a baby voice. I thought it was uproariously funny, however she felt different 🙂 We laugh about it now, me in a ha-ha-funny way, and her in a I-am-going-to-kill-you-one-day-nice-and-slow-see-nice-and-slow way. I think the issue people take with it has to do with the breast serving a sexual function and the thought of drinking a serving of a co-worker’s breast milk throws the dichotemy of breast as a food source and as sexual pleasure into sharp relief. ---
**Author:** ![X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbe5ce/32.png) [@X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X_Slayer_ALE)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/31 "2003-02-04T18:48:20Z")
There is positively no real reason for any human to gag or be disgusted by human breast milk. I posted a similar question in another forum and some preferred the idea of rat milk to human milk (…kids ☹ ) anyways this quote from this cite: [http://www.familyresource.com/health/16/285/](http://www.familyresource.com/health/16/285/) > [@](#): > > FYI: Human milk is not considered a bio-hazardous body fluid like blood or saliva, and OSHA and the CDC agree that it does not have to be treated as such. For more details on handling breastmilk in a work or day care setting, see the article on “Returning to Work or School”. The article “The Caregiver’s Guide to the Breastfed Baby” gives concise information on handling human milk that you can share with your baby’s care provider. while it may have kinky sexual connotations when obtained the natural way (See FordPerfects plight) what is so sexual about drinking expressed milk from a glass? Human milk is way healthier for humans than Cows milk. Cows milk are meant for large 4 legged animals so that they can grow big fast. I for one would love it if they sold it in stores. I would much rather have that than cow or soy milk. … BTW how many breasts does soy beans have? ---
**Author:** ![Horrifying\_Howler\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Horrifying\_Howler\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horrifying_Howler_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/32 "2003-02-04T19:00:06Z")
One of my mother’s cousins till breastfeeds her daughter, and the kid is 6 years old now. She is also the most pale and sickly looking child I have ever seen. Not that I am saying there is a connection, but if breastmilk is good for you, I would think she would look better. And ewww. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/33 "2003-02-04T19:00:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nogginhead \* > **I heard somewhere, and it may be just a myth, that the average age for weaning worldwide is 7 years old.** :eek: I hope that’s wrong. \ In order for the figures to come out right, if some children are weaned at age 2, that means some kids are weaned at age 12! :eek: \ ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/34 "2003-02-04T19:06:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by flodnak \* > **the majority of the world’s adults are lactose intolerant, and therefore should avoid any milk.** That is a rather bold statement to make. But I looked it up and it does appeart that a large chunk of the world (I don’t know if it’s half) has some degree of lactose intolerance. [http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/digest/pubs/lactose/lactose.htm](http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/digest/pubs/lactose/lactose.htm) > [@](#): > > Between 30 and 50 million Americans are lactose intolerant. Certain ethnic and racial populations are more widely affected than others. As many as 75 percent of all African Americans and American Indians and 90 percent of Asian Americans are lactose intolerant. The condition is least common among persons of northern European descent. and [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper/qanda981.htm#pops](http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper/qanda981.htm#pops) which gives similar numbers, and also asserts that: > [@](#): > > Intermixing of the population… [means that in a] few generations LI will be mostly a thing of the past in the U.S. Well, I’m not sure about _that_… sounds like more opinion than fact to me. ---
**Author:** ![Pablito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Pablito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pablito)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/35 "2003-02-04T19:20:47Z")
True, semi-related story about breastfeeding: When my mom was doing her internship after medical school, some forty years ago, she spent some time visiting homes in the Appalachians and providing healthcare advice, doing surveys, etc. She visited one large family and began running through a long list of topics and information with the mother of the household, a rather care-worn, tired woman. As they were talking, my mother noticed one of the children, maybe 10 years old, had walked over to the corner of the room and, bending over a small bowl in the corner, was reaching into his mouth for something. My mom asked, “what’s he doing over there?” The woman answered, “I always make him take out his chaw before I give him the breast.” Mom: “That’s a good policy.” ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/36 "2003-02-04T19:30:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by X~Slayer(ALE) \* > \*\*I for one would love it if they sold it in stores. I would much rather have that than cow or soy milk. > … BTW how many breasts does soy beans have? \*\* :eek: [sup]You people amaze me![/sup] > [@](#): > > _from Hemlock’s link_ > **The operator said he won’t try to continue serving the dishes. The six women he employed to provide the milk returned to their hometowns in the countryside.** > [@](#): > > _originally posted by Cal Meacham_ > **about a parallel Earth in which some humans are specially bred as “milkers”. People there can’t stomach the idea of drinking milk from cows.** Either you are talking about using women in the same way as we use domestic animals or of genetically creating a human species designed for the same purpose. That doesn’t seem to bother anyone but me. 😕 Among all the other reasonable ideas given in this thread is the fact that a woman can produce just so much milk and if she has more than one (or maybe two) child(ren), it is necessary for them to grow out of liking to breast feed. A taboo is a good method of insuring this. Even if there is only one child, there is a reason to stop nursing a child. That reason is called **teeth**. ---
**Author:** ![X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbe5ce/32.png) [@X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X_Slayer_ALE)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/37 "2003-02-04T19:46:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kniz \* > \*\*:eek: [sup]You people amaze me![/sup] > Either you are talking about using women in the same way as we use domestic animals or of genetically creating a human species designed for the same purpose. That doesn’t seem to bother anyone but me. 😕 > \*\* Aww cmon! its not like we’re gonna herd topless women into stalls, stick electric suction machines to their boobs and have them sit there for eight hours chewing their cud. Given the right infrastructure, you can have mothers express milk to meet the demand. [http://www.familyresource.com/health/16/283/](http://www.familyresource.com/health/16/283/) they could do it as a full or part time job. Its no worse than waitressing or manual labor. So long as the mother is well fed, happy and healthy, her income from the milk could be a welcome bonus to a steady job’s pay. as far as milk being good for you, it is. It doesnt mean it should be the only thing you drink. After a certain age, you need other foods to suppliment milks goodness. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/38 "2003-02-04T20:00:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Either you are talking about using women in the same way as we use domestic animals or of genetically creating a human species designed for the same purpose. That doesn’t seem to bother anyone but me. How can you deduce that I don’t find this idea objectionable on the basis of what I’ve posted? Piers Anthony wrote the piece to shock. He succeeded. It was printed in **Dangerous Visions** , after all. If this one bothers you too much, don’t try to read the others in the collection. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/39 "2003-02-04T20:28:30Z")
**lauramarlane** , everyone agrees that breast milk tastes sweet compared to cow’s milk. I just find it hard to believe that the extremely tiny extra amount of sugar in a whole cup of liquid would make a difference for someone who usually takes sugar in coffee. The psychological knowledge that breast milk is involved may make a difference, though. **neuroman** , lactose tolerance comes from a dominant genetic mutation. The effect over history has been to quickly spread lactose tolerance throughout populations. The usual figure for LI worldwide is 70%. The US figure is no more than 20%. Will LI be wiped out in the US (except for new immigrants) after a few more generations of intermarriage? That may be hyperbole, but the percentage will undoubtedly be much lower, because that’s the way all trends point. ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667/40 "2003-02-04T20:38:46Z")
Well, **Exapno Mapcase** , it tasted sweet enough to me but you’re right, the psychological factor might have enhanced the experience. And as for the taboo, is this just an American thing or would other cultures feel the same way? It just reminds me of the fact that we have to have specific laws allowing women to nurse in public so moms don’t get arrested for feeding their babies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-taboo-for-anyone-older-than-a-baby-to-drink-breastmilk/152667.md?page=3)