Singapore MRT: No Feeding Baby on the Train

It’s a hard life for a wee baby in Singapore. If you get hungry and get fed milk on the train, expect to be stopped at mid feed by an MRT official.

The whole story seems embarrassing to me and really extreme. The officials can only see in black and white with no room for compassion. But I really blame the top management because it usually comes from the top. The officials are too scared to think out of the box to allow some things that common sense would dictate. It’s pretty darn ridiculous if you ask me. The no eating drinking rule is to prevent littering. The mother is not going to litter by throwing her milk bottle in the train, is she?

Anyway shouldn’t they be focusing on their security issues instead? Also ask any commuter and they will say a fed baby is better than a hungry wailing baby. Here’s the letter from the frustrated mother to the Straits Times:

Jun 14, 2010, Straits Times
Does MRT no-drinking rule apply to babies?
LAST Friday, at about 3pm, my mother, my aunt and my six-month-old child were travelling on the North-East Line from Outram to Serangoon.

My mother was feeding my baby milk from a feeding bottle during the journey when a staff member approached her and stopped her from doing so. He told her that the “no drinking and eating” rule applied to everyone, including babies.

When my mother explained to him that my baby was crying and needed to be fed, he told her that if she continued to feed the child, she would have to get off the train and seek permission from the station master. My mother was then forced to stop feeding my crying child.

Is the train operator so unreasonable as to forbid a baby from drinking milk? Would it also forbid a mother from breastfeeding her child?

I am shocked that this can happen in a society that is encouraging people to have more babies.

Michelle Joan Fernandez (Mrs)