Dads, Have You Ever Thought Of 'Comfort Feeding' Your Baby On Your Nipple?

While this baby girl’s mum was away, she still managed to enjoy the comfort of bonding while feeding with her dad, despite no milk coming out.

Twitter user SlimeBallDuke_ shared a video of his daughter dozing off while laying over his lap and sucking intently on his nipple.

“Baby girl was obviously confused,” he wrote on the tweet.

In the comments, many parents said from their experience, babies often like to latch on for comfort rather than food.

And apparently this is nothing new, according to a paediatric doctor. In 2005, Dr. Jack Newman, a breastfeeding specialist and author of ‘Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers’, told ABC News a father’s nipple was a “good fleshy substitute” to calm a crying baby.

“This is not about producing milk, but strictly calming the baby with the father’s breast,” he said. “They will be just as content sucking on their mother’s breast as sucking on a pacifier, someone’s finger or a bottle nipple as they would their father’s nipple.”

Back in 2014, dads were discussing this on Reddit too, after one dad wrote on the social media network: “Sometimes when my baby is crying in the night and it’s my turn to quiet and soothe her, in desperation I’ll try to get her to suckle at my nipples. Sometimes she latches on, and I find myself experiencing a confusing mixture of joy at the connection between father and daughter, and horror at what I’ve become. Do other dads do this?”

While some dads said they’d never done this before, others revealed they had done this too, or used their finger to get their young baby to suck. “I don’t think it’s very common, but really, whatever works, right?” one dad wrote. “If it soothes her and you don’t mind, I’m not going to judge.