Kentucky mom says restaurant manager tried to cover breastfeeding infant's face with a napkin

A Kentucky mother says a restaurant manager approached her and tried to place a napkin over her breastfeeding baby's face after another customer complained.

Sadie Durbin was eating Nov. 15 at Texas Roadhouse in suburban Louisville when a manager brought over a napkin and attempted to cover up the 7-week-old infant's face, reported the Courier-Journal.

"He explained that he had another patron complain and that he really needed me to cover up," Durbin posted on Facebook. "I politely explained to him it is against the law for him to ask me to cover up and that I was well within my rights to feed my baby."

She said the manager, who she identified in the post, threw down the napkin and angrily walked over to another woman seated nearby.

"I then saw him ever so sweetly, with a hand on her shoulder and all, explaining to the woman who complained that he had spoken to me and that I refused to cover up," Durbin said. "She rolled her eyes. Wow. I wish I'd at least been given the same respect when he tried throwing a napkin over my infant's head."

Durbin filed a lawsuit against the restaurant for "extreme and severe emotional distress," and the 20-year-old manager is taking time off after allegedly receiving threats over the incident.

Kentucky law has since 2006 protected women's rights to breastfeed in public, and prohibits interference with that right anywhere the mother is authorized to be.

Durbin also sued the restaurant's Louisville-base corporate office, complaining the company had failed to train their employees about breastfeeding rights.

"He's a 20-year-(old) employee," said Travis Doster, a spokesperson for Texas Roadhouse, "other guests were complaining about Ms. Durbin. He was trying to find a compromise between guests."