An Argentine police officer who was hailed for breastfeeding a crying and malnourished baby has been promoted to sergeant.
Pictures of Celeste Ayala caring for the infant went viral across the world after she discovered him alone at a children’s hospital on the outskirts of Buenos Aires last week.
Ms Ayala, who has a 16-month-old daughter, decided to breastfeed the baby after speaking to hospital management. He had recently been taken away from his mother.
Her colleague Marcos Heredia posted a picture of her “great gesture of love” on Facebook, with more than 100,000 people sharing the post.
Cristian Ritondo, the city’s security minister, announced Ms Ayala’s promotion to sergeant and congratulated her on Twitter.
He wrote: “We wanted to thank you in person for that gesture of spontaneous love that managed to calm the baby’s cry. That’s the type of police we’re proud of, the police we want.”
Reports in Argentina suggested the baby was one of six siblings who were all malnourished.
Ms Ayala told website Cronica: “I noticed that he was hungry, as he was putting his hand into his mouth, so I asked to hug him and breastfeed him.
“It was a sad moment, it broke my soul seeing him like this. Society should be sensitive to the issues affecting children; it cannot keep happening.”
