‘She was inconsolable.’
A woman has spoken candidly about ‘dry-nursing’ her grandchild to soothe her.
The woman was left to mind her two-month-old granddaughter, who was suffering from colic, when her own daughter returned to work.
As a mum to a one-year-old herself, the woman had her hands pretty full.
The younger baby’s colicky cries were setting off the one-year-old, and the woman was at a loss for what to do.
“None of my children ever had colic,” she wrote on Scary Mommy.
“I felt helpless, useless, and defeated.
“I wanted to be a good mom and grandmother, but I felt like a resounding failure.”
Though she had stopped breastfeeding her own baby, she instinctively went to put the child to her breast.
“My maternal instincts kicked in and so I latched her on my breast.
“I didn’t think about it really. She rooted, I offered, she accepted. Within a few minutes, she was sound asleep.”
The woman continued that when her daughter returned to pick up her baby after work, she wasn’t fussed about the dry-nursing.
The woman admitted she’d done it every time she’d been left to mind the baby since then.
“I love my daughter and granddaughter and will continue to do anything and everything I can to help them both — even dry-nursing.”
Her story has provoked a strong reaction online, with mums coming down strongly both for and against dry-nursing.
“With the mother’s blessing, I don’t see the problem here,” commented one woman one Facebook.
“As a grandmother and mother I can’t picture myself being comfortable with this from either role,” wrote another.
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