A mum-of-four has defended her decision to help her sister, who has low milk supply, by breastfeeding her nephew.

Janelle McAloon shared a video of her sister passing over her baby son so that he could continue breastfeeding, from his aunt. The video caption reads, “When your sister has low milk supply but you are a human cow’.

The TikTok video has amassed more than three million views, and attracted thousands of comments. Many fellow mums commented that they’ve done similar with their own sisters and nephews and nieces. While others were critical of an aunt breastfeeding her nephew.

“I feel like this would hurt my feelings,” commented Autumn Shortridge.

Luna Fox said, “I couldn’t.. this bothers me.. but I’m glad it works for you guys.”

“My jealousy so deep I would think my baby would call my sister mum if this happened,” said Christine Marie.

While Maranda Mitchell added, “That’s not going to help your supply and most likely why it’s low.”

Janelle decided to address the comments in a follow-up video, saying she’s happy to answer any questions about the video.

“So she just got done breastfeeding her baby and he was still hungry, still crying, he wanted more milk,” Janelle explained. “She didn’t have enough so I was like, give me him, I’ll feed him for you. No it’s not like an everyday thing, I’m not just like feeding him all the time but I will help her.

“Like if she needs help and I know that she would do the same thing for me and it shouldn’t be considered weird to people, it’s literally just milk. It’s just nutrients for the baby.”

What is wet nursing?

Breastfeeding someone else’s child, or wet nursing, isn’t a new concept. It’s thought to have started as early as 2000BC – as a way to help mothers who were unable to breastfeed. There were no bottles or formula, so a wet nurse was the only option to keep a baby alive.

Women were also hired to breastfeed other (usually wealthy) women’s children.

Wet nursing is far less common now due to more awareness about the potential risks of infectious diseases that could be passed through breastmilk.