I Breastfed My Sister’s Baby to Help, and Her Response Shocked Me

Babysitting an infant is a big responsibility. It needs attentiveness, proper care, and patience. For parents, it is a relief to have your family on your side to support and extend a helping hand to care for your baby. A woman who reached out on the internet was willing to care for her sister’s baby. But her help and effort weren’t appreciated.

It was a request she accepted.

The woman wrote about her situation on Reddit, “My sister (25F) has a four-month-old, and I (28F) have a six-month-old. We are very close, and she asked me to watch her baby overnight last night. She brought bottles and pumped milk, and informed me she’d never tried giving her a bottle, but ‘It should be fine,’ and left.

A couple of hours later, her baby was hungry. I prepared a bottle and tried feeding her the bottle, but no matter what I did, she wouldn’t take it. She just kept crying. After two hours of trying to feed her a bottle and then trying to spoon-feed her and her screaming, and me being unable to reach my sister, I informed my sister of what I would be doing, and I breastfed her baby.

I guess she didn’t check her phone for several hours because I ended up feeding her baby twice before my sister responded, and she was furious. She said I had no right to do that, and I should’ve figured something else out. So I’m wondering, am I in the wrong here? She hasn’t spoken to me since picking my niece up.”

People on the internet have shared their thoughts.

• Your sister is wrong for her negligence, lack of preparation, and not having her phone on in case of a baby emergency, which there was. What parent completely walks away from their phone when they’ve left their toddler for a few hours? Her irresponsibility is staggering.
  You did everything you could before you resorted to breastfeeding her child. It literally was your last resort, after trying for hours to feed her with the bottle, and then even a simple spoon. Your sister’s baby was hungry, extremely upset, and you had no other alternative.
  In your care, the child came first. Your sister could learn a lesson or two in mothering from you. © EmploymentLanky9544 / Reddit
• What was the alternative? You couldn’t reach your sister, and the baby wasn’t feeding from the bottle. If it was this important to your sister, she should have gotten the baby used to the bottle beforehand. If she didn’t have the time or didn’t think of that, she can’t blame you for prioritizing making sure her baby was fed when all else failed.
  Surely that’s the priority, even over what your sister ideally prefers (and she wasn’t available to ask anyway). The baby was in need of food and was in your care. © kurokomainu / Reddit
• I’m a working mom who breastfeeds and pumps throughout the day. My six-month-old finally just started taking bottles for my husband, and it was SO awful when he wouldn’t. If he (or someone else I trusted) could have nursed him, I would have been all for it.
  Honestly, I’m trying not to judge your sister, but leaving a breastfed baby with someone overnight when they’ve never taken a bottle and then not answering your phone is wild. © EnvironmentFront7945 / Reddit

The woman gave clarification about her sister.

She was asked, “Why was she unreachable over the phone when she has a 4-month-old? What if something serious came up, and you went to the hospital with her child? Anyway.
Figuring it out was her job. You do not give your baby to someone without making sure she even takes a bottle. This needs to be trained. Question: Is this her first child?”
And her answer was, “Yes, it is. I don’t think it occurred to her that babies can refuse bottles.”

Another responded, “I’m more worried about your sister, OP. This is weird behavior, and she might be going through some postpartum issues. She just left her baby for hours without giving her a bottle? And wasn’t checking her phone? You should check in with her, imo.”
She replied, “She has been struggling postpartum and needed sleep. She is definitely overwhelmed with being a new mom. She’s not a bad mom at all, she’s just having a hard time adjusting.”

She also stated, “My sister isn’t toxic. She’s really quite a wonderful person. Adjusting to motherhood has been hard, though, because she’s essentially doing it alone, because her husband’s job requires him to be gone a lot.
She’s overwhelmed, but not a bad person or bad mother at all. I love her, I just needed some perspective on the situation because to me, that’s something I’d have wanted her to do if my baby were in the same situation.”

In another story, a father was asked to change his sons’ diet for the sake of his ex-wife’s new family, which he refused to do. The next thing that happened was a headache. Find out what happened through this link.