Breastfeeding mum told off by elderly man in Speedos

A Sunshine Coast mum who was breastfeeding in public for the first time was reduced to tears after a stranger told her that what she was doing was "disgusting".(canvas prints photo on canvas canvas prints australia)

Jess Eva was feeding her 13-day-old son, Fred, on the Mooloolaba Esplanade on Monday when she was approached by an elderly man wearing Speedos.

He stood in front of the breastfeeding mother, who had her son covered with a cloth, and pointed at her.

"He shook his finger and said, 'that's disgusting, that's disgusting. Go home you little girl, go home'," Ms Eva said.

"I apologised and stopped feeding. But I wish I didn't. Not at all."

Ms Eva, on maternity leave from her role as breakfast co-host on 91.9 Sea FM, said the encounter had just thrown fuel on the doubt she already had on herself being a first time mum.

"His reaction made me doubt everything again. I was made to be felt about an inch tall," said the mum of one, who says she was suffering the 'baby blues' when it happened.

"If it had happened in a couple of months I would have shrugged it off, but being my first time in public I was already nervous about it.

"I wish I stood up in some way. It's just justifying his opinion."

Yesterday was her first time back out in public since the incident.

She fed Fred with a bottle, saying she didn't have the confidence to breastfeed in public again yet.

"I'm not going to let him stop me," she said.

"The more mothers doing it, the more accepted it will be in the long term. If we keep going and doing it, it will be accepted."

The experience was detailed on the Sea FM blog earlier this week.

Since then, mothers in similar situations have reached out to her.

"It turned into a nice support network. I've found other mothers have experienced the same thing," Ms Eva said.

"We're not alone. There are a lot of new mums on the Coast, and they're great people."

Australian Breastfeeding Association Queensland spokeswoman Dr Maya Griffiths said some people saw breasts as a sexualised object and had difficulty viewing them for any other purpose.

"It's just disappointing some members of public have such a narrow and old way of thinking," she said.

"We don't tell adults to go home when they're hungry."