I don't find it particularly groovy OR gross.

My mother & her friend nursed each other's babies at least once that I know of - they used to laugh about it. But, you know, it was the 70's.

As it turns out, I'm healthy as a horse and happy as a clam...but I did grow up to be a liberal queer-loving feminist atheist intellectual.

I'm sure some conservative or another will draw a causal connection.

Anyway, I certainly don't think it's my job to tell other women what to do.

If I had to vote, I'd say that the ones who think it's groovy should do it if they think it's best, and the ones who think it's gross probably shouldn't.

“But there's something about the visceral response to the idea of cross-feeding that intrigues me.”

Me too. Is it the idea that breastfeeding is something gross, but natural and necessary? Like peeing or pooping? So cross-nursing is like wiping someone else’s ass?

My visceral reaction was “eww” before I actually stopped and thought about it.

As for the La Leche League warnings—please read the article before you comment on them. I initially thought, “those Breast Nazis are at it again!” But then I read the article, which largely gives important, non-judgmental information such as 1) not drinking, smoking or taking medications, 2) being disease-free, and 3) cross-nurses should have babies of similar age.

The website also has links some to other (more recent) cross-nursing articles: http://www.llli.org/NB/NBmilkdonation.html with the main message being “Cross nursing is not a decision that should be made lightly.” http://www.llli.org/NB/NBNovDec05p253.html

Also, Emily, you're a "liberal queer-loving feminist atheist intellectual?" You're a conservative's worst nightmare! Congratulations!

"In Asia and Europe, wet nursing was common among the elite until the 19th century..."

Honey, it was common in the US well into the 20th century. In the American South, it was quite common for black women to nurse white babies. This was true in the days of slavery and in the days of Jim Crow.

Well the whole idea of giving your own "mother's milk" might go against the grain deep down biologically...although we do see a similar type of thing in the wild...momma birds feeding other bird species. You can look that up if you need more info but you'll see the absolute giant bird feeding much much tinier chicks..

Not really sure what to think of this but we're already outsourcing so many different things now, all kinds of labor and services.

It seems to me that a lot of reasons, generally given as positive for breast-feeding mothers, would be negative if someone else is breast-feeding your child.

What about protecting your child from allergies? If you don't have allergies and the wet nurse does, will your child not receive the necessary anti-allergy antibodies that he would have from you?

What about the assertion that a woman's breast milk is custom-made for her child and changes as her child grows and his/her needs change? How does this work if someone else does the feeding?

It seems unlikely to me that breast milk is SO much better for the child that you would rather hire a wet-nurse or swap nursing with someone else, and run the risks associated with it, than just feed your baby formula.

I don’t have children yet – I’m currently deciding how a baby/child might fit into my life along with another married, female friend. We’re talking about co-opting care out so we could each work part time and parent both kids part time and how that might work and how much the dad’s would need to pitch in on weekdays, etc. Just in the very planning/day dreaming stage at the moment and we’re talking about all sorts of issues that might come up.

We’ve spoken about nursing for each other too. We’re both healthy and we’re the same age with similar diets and histories and we think it sounds better then fussing around with a breast pump at the moment. Anyway – I still think it’s worth experimenting with when the time comes.

Can't believe breastmilk from another human is gross, but cow's milk is okay. (By the way the milk in a gallon may have come from hundreds if not thousands of different cows.)

Fall off my chair to think that synthetic, fake, milk-like beverage is considered better or more acceptable than human breastmilk.

Think about it. It's called formula.

What hubris to think we could create a substance better than nature has already perfected.

"LLL also stresses that boob swapping

can confuse the baby and

disrupt maternal bonding."

What twaddle.

The baby's just going to have two sources for food ...

a soft place and --on occasion-- solace.

Be good for everybody.

[Watch the neuroscience.]

is perfectly acceptable for babies whose mothers don't/won't/can't/shouldn't breastfeed. Just ask my 21-month-old daughter.

My question is not whether breast milk is or isn't better for babies. We've all had it drilled into us that it is. Even the formula boxes state that breast milk is the best food for babies.

My question is whether another woman's breast milk is better than formula for your baby. I don't think anyone can say with authority that one is better than the other.

The commenter who said something about breastfeeding being like wiping shit from your ass - sheesh, I just don't get it. Even Carol Lloyd seems to have a thinly veiled disgust for breasts and breastfeeding.

Everyone's grasping at straws to try to make it sound B-A-D (the kind of B-A-D that makes marijuana, homosexuality, and marrying your cousin "wrong"). Really, it's just a baseless taboo. The risks of cross-nursing are easily managed and diseased breastmilk screened out; and if cross-nursing really hindered maternal bonding, then fathers apparently can never bond with their children. Nonsense.

Boobophobia, anybody?

Cinzia writes:

"What about protecting your child from allergies? If you don't have allergies and the wet nurse does, will your child not receive the necessary anti-allergy antibodies that he would have from you?"

There seem to be a lot of people who think that breastfeeding *prevents* allergies. I don't know if that's what Cinzia think, but I think many people are confused about this.

Breastfeeding is supposed to lower the chance of allergies, but it does not mean your child will not have allergies. My mom breastfed my brother and me. My brother had terrible asthma through most of his childhood, though most of his allergies have decreased with age. I'm 38 and I've had extremely bad allergies my entire life, including severe food allergies and the more common pet / pollen / environmental allergies that send me into full blown sinus infections or bronchitis about once a year.