For the first six months of our lives, our food options are pretty limited. It’s mainly breastmilk or formula, because newborns can’t physically eat anything else .
But what do you do if you’ve run out of formula , and have a hungry baby? For one mother, the obvious answer was to breastfeed . The only problem is, the baby she fed wasn’t hers , but that of her brother and sister-in-law.
The mom took to Reddit to wonder if she was in the wrong for breastfeeding her four-month-old niece.
Using a throwaway account, the mom posted to Reddit’s AmITheAsshole sub , asking, AITA for nursing my brother’s child (4 month old)?
“Me and SIL gave birth around the same time this year, so we have babies of similar age, just that mine was born a month earlier than hers,” she said.
“[Two] days ago, brother and SIL came over for lunch with their 4 month old. Everything was cordial between us till then.”
“After lunch , SIL and brother hands over my niece to me for babysitting so that they could attend a formal event held by SIL’s extended family near my location.”
“During the time they were gone, my niece starts crying because she was hungry. Unfortunately we ran out of formula and don’t really rely on it in our household as I nurse my own baby most of the time.”
“I really did not have any other alternative except nurse my niece which I did a few times because they were gone for quite long.”
“They come back and me and SIL had a casual conversation till I tell her that niece was hungry and we ran out of formula, so I nursed her.”
“SIL looks at me sternly with a hint of disgust and berates me for nursing niece.”
“I did not retaliate because I was too shocked at why she would be so agitated when all I did was feed her child. If I had formula I would have used it for niece but I ran out of it and it was only me, my child and baby niece.”
“There were only diapers, rash cream and pacifier in the bag she gave me, no formula powder.”
“So am I just supposed to let niece be hungry till they come back? I don’t know what she expected me to do.”
The user ends her story by saying that the SIL wouldn’t speak to her, so she couldn’t apologize. But she began to wonder if she had to apologize to begin with.
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The post gained a lot of attention, with hundreds of users weighing in on the woman’s story.
Many users agreed that OP was not in the wrong, and it was the sister-in-law’s responsibility to make sure her daughter had formula.
“If you want your baby to drink formula- pack the formula,” one commenter said.
Others pointed out that this was pretty situational.
If OP had fed the baby despite there being formula, and she just didn’t agree with its use, that would be one thing. But OP was left with no other option than to nurse.
It was clear that OP was just doing her best.
One comment read, “They did not leave formula so what were you supposed to do? They should have made sure it was available so that this would not happen.
“I can understand SIL being upset, but come on, what was the alternative given that you could not go out to get any?”
That said, others had a bit more sympathy for the sister-in-law.
One commenter wrote, “I’m on the fence here because it does seem wrong for someone to nurse someone else’s baby without permission. BUT it was SIL’s responsibility to pack formula for her child to make sure the child could be fed.”
At the end of the day, the SIL was definitely more at fault than OP.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
