Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi just came for the mom shamers again. The score is now Mom Shamers, 0; Snooki, 1,000.
Snooki is no stranger to mom-shaming. She has three children, and she's very open about her life as a "mawma" on social media. Somebody always has something negative to say, whether it's about putting her older kids in a stroller at Disney World or working out after giving birth.
Most of the mom-shaming comments go unanswered by Snooki, because truly, with a newborn and two older kids to care for, who has the time to chat with trolls?
But sometimes she just has to say something. She's become great at simply shutting down the criticism. Because as open as she is about her life, fans ultimately don't know the details of her family or health. Nobody has any business shaming a stranger for her parenting choices!
This latest incident involved Snooki drinking a glass of wine while bottle-feeding her baby.
Snooki recently posted a photo of herself with her youngest son, baby Angelo. In the photo, she's drinking a glass of wine, and Angelo is drinking milk from a bottle.
"'What’s mom life like with 2 kids and a newborn?' THIS. #MomJuice #ImAGoodMomISwear," Snooki captioned the photo.
A lot of fans completely understood the post.
"This speaks to me on so many volumes #mylife," one woman commented.
"That's multitasking at its finest! Cheers girl!" another fan wrote with two wine glass emojis.
But not everyone was so positive. Some commenters began to call Snooki out for drinking alcohol while breastfeeding, which Snooki presumably still is (although she's not breastfeeding in the photo).
"You not suppose to drink alcohol if you breastfeeding your baby," wrote one commenter.
The comment racked up hundreds of likes, and a tense debate ensued.
Snooki herself had only one thing to say to the critic.
"You're not a mom," she pointed out. "I allow myself to have a few glasses once a week to stay sane with 3 kids. I do what's necessary to clean my milk for my baby. Let a mawma live and keep being 17."
Other moms defended Snooki.
Moms already can't drink alcohol during pregnancy, motherhood is stressful, and wine is great. So a lot of moms can definitely see where Snooki is coming from regardless of whether or not they'd do the same.
"Isn't this how all moms get through motherhood?" one fan wrote.
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, moderate alcohol consumption is "not known to be harmful to the infant." It defines moderate consumption as up to one drink per day, or in this case, one glass of wine. It also says that it's best to wait at least two hours after drinking before nursing.
If you have more than one glass (like Snooki apparently does weekly), the CDC recommends waiting two hours per drink before nursing. Any milk from before that point should be "pumped and dumped."
So, yes, there are definitely ways to safely relax with some wine and breastfeed at the same time.
Snooki herself wrote that she makes sure to clean her milk for her baby (not that she owed anyone an explanation in the first place), and she's the mawma in charge here!
Snooki isn't the only mom who drinks while breastfeeding. In fact, her photo was arguably much less controversial than a previous drinking-while-breastfeeding photo from Jessie James Decker.
Snooki wasn't actually breastfeeding in the photo with the glass of wine; Angelo is drinking from a bottle. But in Jessie's photo, she is literally drinking a glass of champagne and breastfeeding at the same time. Obviously, she received a flood of criticism for the bold post, and she totally related to Snooki's photo.
"Im feelin this one," she commented on the post.
Despite the CDC's official recommendations, mothers continue to receive conflicting advice about breastfeeding and alcohol.
For example, in an article posted by La Leche League, Dr. Jack Newman writes that mothers can continue breastfeeding as normal while drinking a "reasonable" amount of alcohol. Meanwhile, other medical experts say that the safest option is to avoid alcohol altogether.
There's also all sorts of folk wisdom on the matter, such as the saying that if you're sober enough to drive, you're sober enough to breastfeed.
It's not clear-cut, so this is another one of those cases where moms should consult with their health professionals to decide on a course of action — not base their decisions on the random advice of a stranger in Instagram comments.
But sometimes, the advice actually is helpful.
A few hours after the wine photo, Snooki posted a photo of baby Angelo sticking out his tongue. He looks SO cute, but one commenter noticed that his skin looks a bit dry and flaky. She recommended a solution.
"Raw African shea butter or a cotton ball soaked w organic olive oil works wonders on flaky baby skin…I know it's normal I just wanted to share mom to mom," she wrote.
Now that's a helpful comment.
Snooki responded with gratitude:
"Love it thank you!" she wrote.
See? It's not always arguing and debating with mom shamers.
But until the entire human population learns to stop mom-shaming (and dad-shaming and body-shaming and etc.), moms like Snooki will continue shutting the trolls up.
