I remember reading that the food pellets used to feed lab rats have more minerals in them than baby formula.

As a mother who breastfed my daughter exclusively for 11 months, I had to breastfeed in public. Only I did cover us up so "people" wouldn't be able to see my breasts. Those are for my baby and my husband. You can be discreet you know!

Jonnysmith, American law might different to English, or to European (I think English and American have more in common), but I'm pretty sure that private property is NOT the definition of shopping malls, restaurants, etc., that you mention! Private property means private homes and such.

"...his restaurant, mall, shopping center, etc." - Whoever heard of a shopping mall privately owned by an individual? They are owned by corporations. You need to think things through, including that society as a whole has a duty toward infants, whether yours or not.

Though small restaurants might be considered private if there is one sole owner, they are still public places, ie open to the public - this includes babies.

Jonnysmith, "The owner of the property has every right not to allow it if he so chooses. No one put a gun to your head and forced you to go into his restaurant..."

Soooo.. by your standard, I'm allowed to go into a public restaurant and eat, but to give my baby the same right is up to the restaurant, mall, shopping center???  That's the equivelant of letting someone into a public area but not allowing them to breathe since they are on your property with the argument that if they dont like it, they can leave your property.  It's absolutely ridiculous.  Why should the method of how the baby eats be an issue?  Whether he is eating from a bottle or breast, why would you even care?  I'm sure you didn't mind seeing a magazine or picture in that same public place with a woman showing a little cleavage?  Will you place protest or call the police over that as well?  Will you ban all cleavage-showing women from also entering your said property?  

Not just fascism, Jonny, apparently illiteracy too. Debrah says if you don't want women feeding babies in your own home that is your right, and you say that by that definition you have the right to come and defecate on her floor!

You say that or course a woman invited onto your property would be allowed to breast feed but I wouldn't like to put it to the test. You do seem to have a problem with breastfeeding that you're not owning up to; equating it with defecation is a bit of a giveaway there.

For most of us, objecting to public breastfeeding (in shopping malls or whatever) would be more fascist than trying to stop it.

By the way, show your posts here to your own mother, see what she thinks.

This breastfeeding mom sides with jonnysmith.  We are all dehumanized when private property rights are not respected.  And, private property does include properties owned by giant corporations.   If you do something that violates a policy of a giant corporation, and they ask you to leave and you refuse, yes indeed they can have you arrested for trespassing.

But in a free market, you have opportunities to educate.  Forcing change at gunpoint (what happens when you demand the government legislate change) denies any opportunity to educate and enact real change.  For example, if Whole Foods starting kicking out breastfeeding moms, and LaLeche league mounted a boycott, the impact to their bottom line would quickly change the policy.  In fact, a new competitor might take advantage and all consumers would benefit by the ensuing price wars.  

But, if the government simply pounds everybody into submission, there will be no benefiting competition, while taxes will go up to pay for enforcement and the stores would be forced to set up “mommy rooms” (b/c some moms would clamour for privacy to enact their “right”) and raise their prices further to pay for this.  So moms will have to work more to afford this new right, meaning even fewer would breastfeed...

You see,  everybody loses when the government gets involved.

If large facilities open to the public are private then the law IS very different in the US. And you DON'T find it dehumanising that a nursing mother may be threatened with arrest?? Wow, cultural difference!

Making it mandatory to allow breastfeeding would not lead to any shop being *forced* to set up baby feeding rooms; it would be a matter for each to decide whether it would be economical for them. After all, no one *forces* employers to have water coolers, it's a cultural development. If they're not doing it now they probably wouldn't do it then, either! In any case, it hasn't happened in countries where breastfeeding is ok anywhere, so you can stop worrying about it.

Law changes do not remove the chance to educate and they can make real changes. Anti-discrimintaion laws don't change how people feel overnight but they do form a starting point. But you're right about it being a matter of education. Civilisation, really. What's right or wrong depends on what society believes. The idea that breastfeeding is any more objectionable than breathing plays into the idea that there are two breeds: people and women; that there is something basically *wrong* with women. To quote Joss Whedon on this: the sky is not evil, just look up.

LadyPam wrote "In any case, it hasn't happened in countries where breastfeeding is ok anywhere, so you can stop worrying about it."

I gotta admit, anytime someone tells me to not worry about potential impacts a law *could* have, I get a cold chill down my spine.  The government that can force you to do this on your private property can also force you to wear a burka and not feed outside the house.  Here's another way to look at it.  Germany, in it's frantic effort to distance itself from its' Nazi past has been so zealous in passing anti-discrimination laws that it close to becoming again what it has feared.  A totalitarian regime where thoughts and actions are all subject to government control.  

I want my kids and grandkids to have the freedom to decide if they want to be intolerant sobs, and I want the freedom to teach them not to be.