A breastfeeding mother was left heartbroken after strangers shamed her and her daughter.
35-year-old Amy McGlade, also known as ‘the breastmilk queen’ on Instagram, has been posting pictures of her breastfeeding journey with her children for the last six years.
She has gained over 50,000 followers who need support and advice.
But Amy, who still breastfeeds her daughter Scarlett, has revealed that she also receives cruel messages from trolls.
She told Kidspot how sharing parts of her life on social media makes her feel like she’s ‘inviting people into their home.’
“I am inviting people into my home, I am sharing my children, my family and my life and I would hope you’d be kind. But name calling and attacking my children isn’t alright.
“Trolls have so much time for hate, and I just delete and block them but they keep coming.”
Many people sent her cruel messages for breastfeeding her kids beyond 12 months, with some calling her daughter names like ‘hippo’ and ‘fat c***.’
“They say your kid is a fat little c*** that depends on you. Or that I am messing them up psychologically. They think I am damaging my kids,” she said.
“Everyone is OK with you breastfeeding a tiny baby, but as that baby grows older people expect that baby to be moved on to cow’s milk or a bottle. They don’t expect a baby with teeth, talking or walking to be breastfeeding. They expect you to stop.
“Breastfeeding a toddler is confronting to some people, they are not used to seeing it.”
However, it is not only trolls who criticize the mother. Other parents say they don’t understand why she shares her breastfeeding photos.
“It is the only way breastfeeding will be recognised as not just normal, but pretty cool,” Amy explained. “Breastfeeding needs to be seen to be understood. If we don’t see it, we are never going to understand it.”
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