Breastfeeding family members...

I love a trashy mag. The trashier the better. I like stories of tumours with teeth and tales of fake boobs exploding in Morrisons. However, in my most recent foray into the world of smut, I must confess I nearly ralphed when i read the story of the daughter feeding her dad her breast milk to help his fight against cancer.

I'm a fairly liberal minded gal and I know that human milk is chock full of all kinds of goodies helpful to the immune system and, apparently, quite a few cancer patients have reported better health after supping on milk fresh from the boob. I'm cool with that. In my trashy mag the girl in question had already lost her mother to cancer and was very fearful she'd also lose her dad. So, whilst feeding her new born she'd express a little extra and give it to her pa. So far, a tad icky, but can still stomach.

The problem began when she started getting chaffed norks and realised she couldn't continue to express milk anymore. So after a lot of (no doubt freaky and uncomfortable) conversation, she eventually coerced her dad into taking it direct from the boob. Good God.

Now, as I said, I'm a pretty liberal kinda gal. But turning the page of my magazine to be confronted by a fully grown woman breastfeeding her grey haired father (WHY take a picture?? WHY????) really put me off my tuna sandwich. The whole concept is borderline incestuous and smacks of men in nappies wanting to be punished. Could her nipples really be THAT sore?? I'd suffer through chipmunks gnawing through my nips before I even entertained the idea of a family member suckling on them.

And couldn't he just BUY some boob milk online? Apparently there's a thriving market for the sick (and the just plain sick) on the internet? Can't he drink a stranger's milk? Seems much more hygienic (and way less freaky). When is he fed? How frequently? Does he cry if he misses a feed?