When babies are hungry, they need to be fed — ASAP. But what if you're watching a friend's child and don't have the right food? One woman was recently faced with this predicament when she decided to "emergency breastfeed" the baby so he didn't go hungry. The only problem? The kid's mom was pretty ticked when she found out, and now she's furious at her friend, who says she was trying to lend a hand.
The anonymous woman, who shared her story on Reddit this week, says that her best friend has had a hard time adjusting to motherhood.
The friend gave birth only eight weeks ago, but seems to be suffering from postpartum depression.
"She never wanted kids and she disconnected from her pregnancy and never really connected to the baby after he was born either," the friend wrote.
Luckily, the poster had also recently given birth to her own baby just two weeks after her BFF, and in an attempt to give her some time to herself, she offered to watch both babies for the day.
"Her son has a really bad digestion problem so he can't ingest regular formula, only breast milk or special formula," the woman continued. "She doesn't breastfeed, so he takes the special formula."
Before the friend left for the day, the poster said she asked her if she'd packed diapers, wipes, a change of clothes, and bottles in the baby's diaper bag. The mom assured her that she had, and then left.
"For the first three hours everything was fine, the babies chilled out together, we all played, I put on some music and danced around for them," the poster continued.
But when it came time to feed her best friend's baby, there was a problem. A major one.
"I went to fix him a bottle and realized she hadn't packed his formula," the poster continued. "When I asked if she had packed bottles she answered literally, but I never specified if she packed formula as well, I thought it was given."
The poster tried to call her friend -- four times, to be exact. But each time, "she kept sending me to voicemail," the woman shared.
She also tried to text her friend, and noticed that her read receipts showed that she was indeed getting her messages — just not responding. The mom was at a loss.
"I couldn't go to the store and get a jar of formula because she didn't leave me his car seat and I only had my infant's seat," she explained. "My older child is 7 and doesn't need an infant seat anymore. I don't know my neighbors and other than my husband I don't have family in the area."
"At this point the baby was crying and screaming so hard I thought he might get sick or hurt," she continued.
In her mind, there was only one thing left to do: She had to breastfeed him herself.
The mom added that she's "completely healthy," and that "the baby was not at risk for anything" by her breastfeeding him. So she thought she was doing the best thing possible.
Finally, after 3-1/2 hours of no response, her friend returned.
"I remained calm, but told her that she can't leave her child with someone and not answer when that person calls and texts, because it might actually be a serious emergency; and that she also hadn't packed any of the baby's special formula," the poster recalled. "I told her how badly he got upset and how worried I was so I breastfed him myself."
She likely expected the friend to be grateful. Apologetic, even. But it turns out, her BFF did not take the news well at all.
"She freaked out on me and accused me of some horrible things and then left," the poster shared. "She blocked me on social media, something I learned when a mutual friend told me Best Friend was saying some awful things about me online. I don't know what to do, I can't even talk to her about this."
Most people on Reddit told the mom that she shouldn't feel guilty in the least -- but she should be concerned about her friend.
"Newborns need to be fed every two to four hours as you know," one person wrote. "She forgot to pack the formula and ignored your calls and texts. You did what any mom would do … meet the needs of the poor kid. I am seriously worried about your friend and the baby’s well being. Hate to be extreme but you may want to call CPS for a welfare check."
"I'd honestly prefer this over starving my child," someone else added. "Your friend had a very odd reaction … "
"She’s probably projecting all over you her fears of inadequacy and feeling personally attacked like you were saying how you can take care of her baby better than her," a third person wrote. "It was an emergency and you did what you had to do."
Other people didn't see it that way, and actually thought the poster was out of line for breastfeeding someone else's baby.
"Ignoring all the excuses — at the end of the day, you breastfed someone else’s baby without permission," one person wrote. "Wtf is wrong with you, three hours would not kill it."
Someone else wasn't convinced by the poster's logic, either.
"Is she really upset you breastfed her kid, or she pissed about the guilt trip you laid on her about having to do it?" the commenter asked. "Because it seems like you could have just let her know by text that she'd forgotten formula, and let her know that would breastfeed him if you didn't hear back from her in XX minutes."
But in a later comment, the writer shot back, saying that she was panicked when it was all going down.
"I texted her and left her about 10 different messages telling her she hadn't left the formula and that her baby was screaming," she wrote. "I tried for nearly and hour and a half to get her to talk to me while her son screamed himself purple in the bassinet.
"I wouldn't have fed the baby from my own body if I had even so much as a cough or sniffle," the mother wrote.
In the end, the woman feels like she did the right thing -- regardless of what anyone else thinks.
"When you leave your kid with someone else you sort of need to be reachable at all times," she wrote. "Now, if she had said she was having a mammogram or receiving confession or talking to the police, yeah I'd understand being unreachable. But when your infant is 8 weeks old and with someone else, you need to have your phone on at all times and answer it. I have never not returned my babysitter's calls."
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