People are loving this dad's genius hack which lets him 'breastfeed' his daughter
A dad’s genius parenting hack that allows him to breastfeed his daughter is taking the Internet by storm.
One of the trickiest aspects about breastfeeding is the fact that partners aren’t unable to lend a helping hand.
But one dad has come up with a simple, yet clever trick, which allows him to ‘nurse’ his baby daughter while her mum is at work.
Anthony Favors, a 31-year-old chef from New York was having trouble figuring out how to feed his daughter, Lily’ahna, when his wife Shalanda Favors, 25 wasn’t there, because the 10-month-old has been breastfed since birth and would “always cry” when offered a bottle.
So the dad-of-five came up with the genius plan of cutting a small hole in his shirt and poking the teat of a bottle filled with his wife’s breastmilk through the gap to create a ‘functional boob’.
“I’ve always had trouble feeding Lily’ahna because she is a very fussy baby,” he said.
“She would always just want her mum’s boob because it really soothed her. I’d always feel so useless and wished there was something I could do to help,” he continued.
Anthony said that when he was taking care of his daughter she would constantly be grabbing his chest and would shake her head at the bottle.
“I would tell her ‘I’m sorry baby, I don’t have milk in there.’ It made me laugh. But she would get so frustrated and start crying, thinking that I was holding out on her.”
In the end, when his baby daughter was five-months-old, Anthony decided he’d had enough of her refusing the bottle and ‘screaming the house down’ when his wife was at work.
“The idea just came to me. I cut a hole in my shirt and stuck the top of the bottle through,” he explained.
“My wife couldn’t believe that I actually cut up an expensive shirt. But that wasn’t on my mind at the time. All I cared about was my baby.”
Anthony said that at first Lily’ahna was confused, but after pouring some milk out she realised what it was and started drinking.
“She absolutely loved it and it made her really happy. She went straight to sleep.
“I was so relieved that I had figured something out. I felt like the best dad in the entire world.”
Since sharing a video of his clever hack on social media, it has quickly gone viral clocking up almost 200,000 shares and receiving hundreds of comments from other parents praising him for his quick thinking.
But it’s his wife that Anthony credits for inspiring him to be the best parent he can be.
“I’ve always been in absolute awe of my wife throughout her pregnancies and in childbirth,” he says.
“It’s amazing what a mother’s body can do for their children and the sacrifices they have to make. I see my wife breastfeed and I can see how hard it is. I’m so proud of her and everything she does.”
He’s thrilled the new feeding method will help to give his wife a break.
“Mothers and fathers should both have equal responsibility for their children,” he says.
And ‘breastfeeding’ his daughter has fuelled such a special bond between Anthony and his daughter that he even admits he wishes he had done it with his other children.
“It has made me feel so much closer to my baby girl,” he says.
“When she looks up at me with those eyes while she is feeding I can see how much she adores me.”
“I will keep doing this for as long as it takes. I’ll always be there for her when she needs me.”
The subjects of fatherhood and breastfeeding have been courting headlines of late. Back in January Kristen Bell admitted that she once breast fed her husband Dax Shepard. For medical reasons.
And earlier this month a mum-of-two revealed that she was making thousands selling her breast milk to men.
Meanwhile last November a new mum divided the Internet after pranking her husband by making him a cup of tea with her own breast milk.
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Read more from Yahoo Style UK:
Kristen Bell once breastfed her husband Dax Shepard – for medical reasons
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