Every so often something happens to reignite the debate over nursing in public and this time the breast-feeding controversy takes a turn down Sesame Street.
More than 7,000 people have signed a petition at www. thepetitionsite.com to "Bring breast-feeding back to Sesame Street," the popular children's television show.
The push started after blogger Lani Michelle posted links to videos from the 1970s and 1980s showing babies being openly breast-fed by their mothers juxtaposed by a video from the 1990s that had been edited to include only bottle-fed babies.
"I don't see why 'Sesame Street' wouldn't show these images," said Kim Opitz, a St. Louis Park mother of three. Opitz plans to share the old "Sesame Street" videos with her 4- and 6-year-old daughters, who are often curious when she's breast-feeding her 6-month-old. "Their exposure to breast-feeding is going to make them stronger women when they grow up and more confident with their own bodies."
The petition encourages "Sesame Street" to portray both bottle feeding and breast-feeding as normal ways of feeding a baby.
In one clip from 1977, Canadian musician Buffy Sainte-Marie breast-fed her baby while Big Bird curiously watched. "See? He's drinking milk from my breast," she explained. "Lots of mothers feed their babies this way ... and he likes it because it's nice and warm and sweet and natural. And it's good for him."
The show released a statement to the Star Tribune that said: "Sesame Street is a research-based educational program designed to teach our preschool audience. Each new season is intended to deliver on a specific curriculum; this year the curriculum is science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). We have depicted breast-feeding in the past when it was a natural part of the storyline."
Many breast-feeding mothers and their supporters are baffled that public breast-feeding still creates such controversy.
