Welcome to the Dairy

[equusregia]

Last year I thought a lot about the weirdness of pregnancy. Now I'm confronted by the weirdness of breastfeeding. A famous comic once wondered who was the first person to decide to squeeze a cow's teat and drink what came out. That isn't really remarkable, since humans understood about milk and nipples long before they domesticated cattle. The

Comments

[equusregia]

I do actually know that men can lactate. rt_hon_rackman and I were discussing that just the other day. And I'm aware of the genetics behind it from my days as a bio major, but it still seems to me that the development of nipples is strange, and males having them is also strange. I would love to read the essay you recommend. I'm always happy to know the science behind something.

[equusregia]

I don't mind having things explained to me, particularly if I asked for it. The problem is I didn't define my question well enough. I don't need to know the genetics behind male nipples, I want to know why the genetics evolved the way they did. So the essay you recommend sounds perfect.

[sirreality]

I wandered over from khedron's journal (Ailsie is indeed a great name).

I can't help chiming in that at about one week, our pediatrician squeezed out a drop of milk from our daughter. She explained that breasts are hormone-responsive tissues, and our new daughter still had enough of my wife's hormones to go around.

The interesting part: she claimed it works with boys too.

[equusregia]

Hi! Thanks for wading through my boob musings.

Yup, boys and men have fully functional lactation systems. And yet I can't convince my husband to take estrogen pills and nurse the baby. Go figure.