Most people have heard that breast milk has a lot of good antibodies and can help with infections. But one person may have taken it a little too far by deciding to put her breast milk in her 7-year-old niece's ears to try to help her ear infection.
Once the child's mother learned about this, she banned her sister-in-law from babysitting and from being around her daughter without supervision. She took to Reddit to figure out if she was in the wrong for making such a major decision.
The woman's daughter had an ear infection.
The mother wrote that her daughter, Rose, had a double ear infection that kept her from going to school because of a low-grade fever. The woman still had to go to work, so her sister-in-law said she would look after her niece.
Woman learned that her sister-in-law put breast milk in child's ears while babysitting.
"Everything seemed to go well until I picked Rose up and my SIL told me she had put breastmilk (she has a 12 week old) in Rose’s ears to help with the ear infection," the post read. "She even offered to send some home in a dropper bottle so I can keep giving it to her. She claims it’s a great remedy and that Rose was already starting to feel better."
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The woman flipped out.
The mother snapped upon hearing this. "I couldn’t believe that she did this to my child without asking. I yelled at her for it, we argued, and I told her she will no longer be able to babysit/be around Rose unsupervised."
Everyone is upset.
"Now Rose is upset that she can’t go to her auntie’s house anymore and my brother called me to say that I upset his wife, she was just trying to help, and that I overreacted."
Rose's mom defended her decision.
"This is a woman putting her bodily fluids in my child’s ear. I think I have a right to be upset. It seems that everyone is against me on this so I wanted to know if I was the asshole for banning her from babysitting or being near Rose unsupervised."
Reddit users weighed in with their opinions.
Many users jumped in to give their opinions. A lot of people seemed to think that the woman was not in the wrong at all, while some believe she overreacted a little.
Here's what the ones who didn't agree with her reaction had to say.
"NTA- but you did overreact," one person commented. "Make it clear to SIL not to do that again or give her anything without your permission but you should still allow her to babysit/see Rose. You’ll need a babysitter again. She had good intentions, you just need to set boundaries."
Most people felt the sister-in-law was way out of line.
"You are NTA!" one user shared. "This isn’t about whether or not breast milk is beneficial to ear infections. This is about you SIL deciding to treat your daughters illness without your permission. Since your daughter is too young to understand and consent, it is your role as her parent to protect her and make the best medical choices for her – no non-parental figure has the right to make that call."
Many noted that the breast milk could make the infection worse.
"Breast milk does contain lots of great stuff for your baby," one person noted. "But you don't put body fluids on other people's kids. It's [expletive] up. Putting fluid in an infected ear will likely cause pain. Putting milk which contains sugars and nutrients will feed infection."
What do you think?
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