Mass baby feeding falls short

About 80 babies (and moms) took up the annual Parenting in Ottawa Breastfeeding Challenge Saturday morning, hoping to set a world record for having the most babies breastfeeding in one place at one time.

Organizers had hoped a world record was in store after 217 moms registered online. The city hall attempt fell far short of last year’s world-record-setting event in Chilliwack, B.C., with 213 feeding babies.

Still, this year’s Ottawa event was an improvement from last year, when 72 babies participated, placing Ottawa 11th out of 187 cities that participated worldwide.

The annual event, which attracts thousands of participants in cities around the world, is held to raise support for breastfeeding mothers who need to feed their children in public. It was jointly sponsored by Ottawa Public Health and Breasts Out for Ontario Babies (BOOB). It’s held during the first weekend of October to mark World Breastfeeding Awareness Week.

Results for this year’s challenge won’t officially be tabulated until later this week once all of the cities participating report back to global organizers.

But Ottawa Public Health program manager Marino Francispillai was encouraged by the growing numbers of participants in the nation’s capital.

“This was just a teaser for next year,” he said.

“Next year, we are going to blow the record out of the water.”