Beyond DC

Bizarre Breastfeeding Contraption #1: The Breastfeeding Hat

Posted by Amanda Hess on Jul. 9, 2009, at 3:52 pm

In my column this week, I profiled local mammographer and inventor Ella Laseinde, who created the Shield-Me-Baby Nursing Bib to allow women to breast-feed in public without flashing everybody. Laseinde’s product isn’t the only contraption on the market that encourages public breast-feeding while discouraging public displays of mommy’s food-source. Hundreds of inventors have patented similar devices. Many: weird.

Bizarre Breast-feeding Contraption: The Breastfeeding Hat

Patent No.: Patent pending.

Inventor: Sam, Diane Margaret

Description: “The breastfeeding device includes a head-receiving portion sized and shaped to receive the head of a child, and a brim portion extending radially outwardly from the head-receiving portion. The brim portion is sized and shaped to substantially cover a woman’s breast when the head-receiving portion is received on the head of a child breastfeeding.”

Milkable: In doubling as baby sun-hat or Panamanian costume, the Breastfeeding Hat (patent pending) may very well help shield the mother’s breasts from public view—without inadvertently calling more attention to the mother’s breasts. The hat will get a lot of stares, though, I’m sure.

Sucks: Just a fucking hat.