Breastfeeding Archives - Page 2 of 3

October 9, 2015

The Eight Stages of Breastfeeding

Lots of moms seem to go through the same stages of breastfeeding in the early days following their baby’s birth. These range slightly from situation to situation, but mostly follow the same patterns.

Stage One: Prenatal Bliss

You are pregnant, in the home stretch, maybe only one to two months to go. You have read a few books, gone to that breastfeeding class your hospital or birth center offered, and every woman with a snot nosed toddler and a sassy five year old in tow has told you their horror story. Still, you figure, that won’t be me, breastfeeding is NATURAL. Besides, they don’t want it as much as I do. At this point, you also probably have a lot of feelings about babies sleeping alone, toys staying out of your personal space, and still going on date nights once a week.

Stage Two: Post-partum (The Hospital)

Congratulations! You have a healthy baby! (or you don’t) and they latch right on after birth! (or they don’t) In the next 24 hours, your baby is bathed, washing away the scent of you, and making it hard for them to find you again. Then they are vaccinated, poked for a blood draw. This is followed by prodding, weighing, measuring, photographing, wrapping, and eye goo smearing. Finally, after all that, handed back to you…1-3 hours later. This is if everything goes right and you don’t opt for unnecessary surgeries!

Stage Three: Bliss Bubble

You are floating in a bliss bubble, and so is everyone else you know. They are all crowded around, asking to hold the baby. If the baby latches, you may not even notice it is bad, or that it hurts (my first born literally gave me hickies on 80% of my breast) until the nurses start bothering you. Everything is measured: weight, blood sugar levels, jaundice levels, body temperature, how often/how much you are nursing, and poop and pee output. By the way, their answer for all of this, is supplementation.

Meanwhile, it is really hard to nurse on demand when everyone you have ever known is in your postpartum room, holding your new baby. That is when the nurses and doctors aren’t doing their rounds.

This is about half of my IMMEDIATE family. I know what I am talking about.

Stage Four: Hospital Help

At this point you may see the hospital’s Lactation Consultant. Or, you may see a nurse who once sat through a two hour course online, who calls herself the Lactation Consultant. If you are lucky, she will help you with latch and she will give you great tips on how to better position the baby. If you are extremely lucky, and the hospital is empty, she will look at the baby’s oral anatomy as well as yours and make sure everything is working properly. If you catch her on a good day, she will treat you like a human. Often, none of this actually happens.

Stage Five: Things Change

You arrive home, finally. Perhaps you are already are supplementing or using a nipple shield just to get out of the hospital. Maybe this was for good reason, or maybe this was a band-aid that was put on a problem that was ignored. You are tired. You are grateful to be home. You are ready to start enjoying your baby. His latch is great! Everything is going so well!

And then, The Milk Fairy arrives! Suddenly, your breasts have swollen to the size of bowling balls and the baby won’t latch. Or, your milk isn’t coming in and the baby cries all day. Your nipples may be sore, cracked, even bleeding. You are worried the baby isn’t latching correctly, or that you just don’t know how to do this. You saw a Lactation Consultant in the hospital, do you really need a home visit from one now?! You call the hospital. You realize you can not talk to the kind and wonderful LC you talked to when you were there anymore. That is against the rules.

Stage Six: Home Help

You find the number for a International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in private practice. You make an appointment. She will come to your home, spend as long as it takes with you and your baby making sure everything is working properly, and give you a care plan. She will communicate to your healthcare providers. She will empower you to make good decisions based on your goals and your baby’s needs. Best yet, your insurance is required to reimburse you for her services, just like they covered that shiny new pump you received a few weeks ago.

Stage Seven: Healing and Learning

Lactation Consultants can’t make everything all better with just one visit. They can, however, empower you to do so. The first weeks out of the hospital are difficult. You don’t have to go it alone. There is still going to be a learning process and a period of really getting to know your baby, their likes and dislikes and quirks. There is also a getting to know yourself as a mother period, so be kind to your body, to your soul, this all takes time, this is not a skill you just know how to do. And you are NOT alone.

Stage Eight: Breastfeeding Boss

You are pain free! You can now cook while you tuck Junior under one arm, latched the whole time. You no longer fear public places, or feeding time, or returning to work. You are a pro! Your baby is growing, and thriving, and starting to smile at you while he nurses. You might even be thinking, you could do this all over again in a few years…

August 31, 2015

Myth Monday: Daddy Bonding pt. 2

So, this meany IBCLC doesn’t want daddies to feed their babies? How small minded and unfeminist of me! Don’t you realize that lots of women work?!

Whoa. Let me assure you, I am a big fan of bottles when breasts aren’t available! Rule number one of parenting is this: FEED THE BABY. Bottles can be helpful for a parent who is returning to work, and should be introduced at some point between 4-6 weeks by someone other than the mother, but that isn’t what we are talking about today.

The problem with the whole, “pump so daddy can feed” thing, is:

If you aren’t removing milk from your breast at every feed you are decreasing your supply. Period. So if you plan on sleeping through that feeding the daddy is taking over, don’t, you best get up and pump! And if you are up anyway, why not just feed the baby and save your sweetie all those dishes to wash?
Pumping is a lot less fun than holding a cute, cuddly, big eyed, sweetly smelling baby.
When you get in a cycle of pumping and bottle feeding, you breastfeed less and less, which ultimately decreases your supply and YOUR ability to bond with the baby.
You will most likely, want to slap the bottle out of your dear loved one’s hands. Hormones make us protective of our little ones and of our milk supply. It is why our breasts let down when we hear a kitten meow sometimes, we want to feed the WORLD! This doesn’t go away just because you pledged your life to this guy with the bottle, your gut will rebel against someone else feeding your baby.
Pumps just aren’t as efficient as babies, and sometimes, you won’t be able to pump at all. This has NOTHING to do with your supply, simply with the intelligence of your breasts. They know this droid is not the baby they are looking for! However, the sight of two bottles with drips of milk in the bottom after 30 minutes of not bonding with your baby can be really disheartening.

Enjoy your only job for the next few weeks being to feed and enjoy your baby!

August 24, 2015

Milk Myth Monday: Daddy Bonding pt 1.

Myth: Daddies will not bond with a baby unless food is involved.

I hear it all the time, “I plan on breastfeeding, but want to pump and introduce the bottle so that my husband can bond.” Or, “I want my partner to feed the baby at night so I can sleep.”

Truth: Daddies and non-breastfeeding mommies can bond with their babies in a LOT of ways!

Daddy bonding time is important and (surprise!) doesn’t have to include a pump or a bottle. Some of my favorite memories of my husband are the moments after birth when he held them, dressed them carefully, kissed their tiny noses and cradled them very gently in his arms. He was the only one who could put our youngest to sleep for the longest time. He had a magical way of bathing them without tantrums erupting. His broad shoulders settled their tummies and his fearlessness helped them grow confident and secure. None of these daddy bonding rituals involved a bottle, and to be quite honest with you, the few times we tried a bottle, I nearly knocked it out of his hand in a hormonal mama lion way.

Here are a few other ways your partner can bond with baby and become a partner to you and a parent to your new little one:

Baby-wearing
Bath time
Diaper Changes
Naps on your chest
Baby massage
Taking goofy Instagram pictures with baby
Dressing
Skin to skin care
Playing video games while baby sits and watches you (captive audience)
Walks
Bedtime routine
Burping
Sing to them
Making silly faces at the baby
Reading Stories
Loving and taking care of their breastfeeding partner
Skeet Shooting

Ok, that last one is for a bit older child, I admit. Still though, there are a ton of ways that babies and their parents to bond and be involved with each other that don’t include food. Here are some more great ideas from Code Name Mama.

August 18, 2015

Milk Myth Monday: Circumcision

I realize this may lose me more business than it will gain, and I am going to keep this short and sweet, however, in the past few weeks I have seen too much of this to keep quiet about it any longer.

1. Circumcision hurts. Babies have the same nerve endings we do. Their penis is just as sensitive as any other male’s. There is even evidence of in utero masturbation for pete’s sake! When you cut, peel back, and cut skin from the penis, it is going to hurt. Period.

2. Circumcision affects breastfeeding. If you had just had surgery on your genitals, you probably wouldn’t want to be pressed up against anyone for a while. Too bad that is exactly what happens when breastfeeding properly. Tummy to tummy contact means that your little one’s open and fresh wound is pressed up against your body, which hurts. The reason it hurts? Check out #1.

Often, in the days following a circumcision, the baby will reject the breast, pull away from mother, avoid eye contact, and will fail to bond properly. This causes a domino effect of consequences to take place, such as: Lowered milk supply, weight loss, jaundice, lowered blood sugar, screaming and crying from the child.

3. Circumcision is pointless. It has been proven so needless, that some Jewish communities are bypassing full Brists for more humane practices including symbolic cutting and blood letting that leaves the foreskin alone. I am sick of the penile cancer argument. Women have a much higher incident of breast cancer, and yet we don’t remove little female’s breast buds at birth.

So really, why risk it? Why give your son an unnecessary cosmetic (and most times unmedicated) surgery at birth that can put your breastfeeding relationship at risk? So that he can match his daddy? Honey, if the only difference between your husband and your son’s penis is the amount of skin on it, you have more problems than I realized.

July 30, 2015

5 Reasons to Hire an IBCLC

How do you know when to throw up your hands and call a professional to help you with breastfeeding?

1. The pain of breastfeeding makes you wish for the days of leather straps and a strong shot of whiskey.
Breastfeeding should not make you dread every feeding. It should not make your toes curl. It should not make you cry. Sometimes, yes, it can be mildly uncomfortable for the first couple of sucks, but it should not make your nipples bleed, bruise, or bevel. That is not normal, and you should seek help from an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) before help from a plastic surgeon is needed.

2. Your baby isn’t gaining weight
Don’t reach for that handy dandy bottle of formula that came in the mail just because you signed up for a baby registry! Instead, pick up the phone and call for help. If a baby hasn’t gained their birth weight back by 2 weeks, it doesn’t mean your milk isn’t good, or there isn’t enough. It could mean that they aren’t able to transfer enough because of latch or perhaps because they would rather sleep! Simple tweaks to breastfeeding management might be all they need to get them gaining again.

3. The baby won’t latch
Sometimes, due to extenuating circumstances, babies develop a preference for the bottle, and prefer not to nurse at the breast. If this happens, you aren’t alone, you don’t have to give up, and breastfeeding CAN be regained!

4. You would like to have your boobs back but you don’t know where to start…to stop.
IBCLCs have knowledge to help you from pregnancy all the way to helping you come up with a weaning plan. Weaning gently is one of the hardest things to do emotionally, don’t go it alone.

4. Something went wrong the first time
If this is your second (or third, or fourth) and you have struggled with breastfeeding in the past, set yourself up for success, and get a prenatal consult. Talking with a professional with what went wrong before can help you work out how to avoid the pit falls and “boobie traps” that are so common in the first weeks of parenthood.

5. Any other reason that you feel like you can’t do it alone
If you want to punch the next person that tells you how “natural” breastfeeding is, it might be time to call in an expert. If it is a quick question, call me, I do free help over the phone. If it is a problem big enough to warrant a home visit, then we will take those steps, but questions are normal.

Ultimately, the early days of parenthood is rough enough without trying to take it all on alone. Peeing is also natural, but if it burned every time, and you started seeing blood, you would go to a doctor, right!? Don’t feel like you must go this alone. Historically, we used to have our aunties, mothers, cousins, friends, sisters, all who breastfed openly and around us, to be our lactation consultants. We have ALWAYS needed help learning this skill, we just don’t have the support systems and knowledge we once did (thanks Similac!).

July 22, 2015

Weaning or Nursing Strike?

“My baby ‘self weaned’ at 6 months, 9 months, a year old.'” In fact, my mom told me the story about how I self weaned at 6 months old. I just simply didn’t want the breast any more, apparently. However, I remember clearly the last time I had a pacifier, and it wasn’t pretty, so it wasn’t like I didn’t want to suck on SOMETHING. Many times, what looks like weaning may actually be a nursing strike. A nursing strike is a sudden refusal of the breast, brought on by teeth, illness, growth, or introduction of solids.

Let’s look at the difference.

1. Babies rarely wean before a year of age. After all, if solids are fun until age one, what exactly are they eating at such quantities that they don’t need breastmilk anymore at such a young age? Usually, this means too many solids have been introduced, a bottle preference has been established, or a nursing strike due to teeth or some other developmental milestone.

2. Weaning is slow and steady, and takes months to complete. Weaning of course, starts as soon as something other than the breast (or bottle if exclusively pumping) is introduced. This is recommended as starting the middle of the first year, around 6 months of age. Look for signs of readiness to make sure your baby is ready for solids. If your baby suddenly refuses the breast, you may have a nursing strike on your hands.

3. Look for reasons your baby is refusing the breast. Do they have a cold? Getting teeth? Have an ear ache? Eating too many solids? Learning something new? Some babies simply just get distracted by the world around them (usually around 4, 6, and 10 months old) and can’t be bothered by snack stops.

4. Remember that as babies get a bit older, they get more efficient at the breast. So, just because they are nursing for short spurts every few hours, it doesn’t mean they aren’t getting enough. Keep an eye on output and weight, but don’t expect a 10 month old to continue taking 20 minutes at the breast!

When faced with a nursing strike, look to your goals. If your goals are to nurse for a year and beyond, keep going! Keep offering! Use medication or ice to help sore gums, see a doctor if you suspect an ear infection or cold. Go to a dark room to nurse so your baby can calm down and nurse peacefully. Cut down on solids a bit, and offer before each meal. Be patient, this strike could last for anywhere from a couple days, to a week or two. I encourage you to stick with it.

Likewise, if your goal is to wean at an early age, take advantage of this strike, keeping in mind to replace nursing sessions with a bottle or sippy cup of formula or expressed breastmilk, as your baby still needs the nutrients and calories from either formula or breastmilk until age one.

July 20, 2015

To Eat or Not To Eat (Part 2)

The Myth:

There are a number of foods that people (and Pinterest) will tell you to avoid eating while breastfeeding. Beans will make the baby gassy, dairy and citrus will make the baby break out, cabbage will give baby a tummy ache, spices will make the baby fussy, caffeine will make the baby sleepless, and alcohol is pretty much the same thing as child abuse. I even saw one article that said to avoid garlic, because it has a strong flavor.

The Truth:

Variety is the spice of life. Any thing that you drank or ate all the way through your pregnancy, is going to make your milk taste familiar and delicious when you are breastfeeding. Garlic has actually been proven to make babies eat MORE at the breast, not less, and as long as your baby has been exposed to caffeine in the womb, it is unlikely it will affect them that much outside of the womb. Eat what you like, drink what you like, and keep it all in moderation. Science has also proven, the more variety you eat while pregnant and nursing, the less of a picky toddler you will have on your hands. BONUS!

If you are the kind of person who likes rules, here are some:

Don’t go crazy with the carbs and sugar, because yeast LOVES sugar
Don’t restrict calories
Watch your baby, if a certain food doesn’t agree with him, don’t eat it as much.
Don’t go overboard with alcohol because:
- In SUPER high doses it can affect the baby’s eating and sleeping
- It can inhibit your letdown reflex, and cause the baby not to get as much milk
- No one wants to deal with a newborn with a hangover! However, pumping and dumping is not recommended. You can’t get the alcohol out of your milk by pumping any more than you could stop being drunk by draining your blood.

July 16, 2015

5 Best Boob Books and Blogs (and one App)

I love books. When I was new on the mommy scene, I read everything. No topic was off limits and I read everything about parenting, from sleep to feeding, potty training to discipline. Not all books are created equally though, and not all blogs are worth the time it takes to click on them.

Aside from this blog, obviously, there are a few other resources I want to be sure to mention!

1. Breastfeeding Made Simple by Nancy Mohrbacher and Kathleen Kendall-Tacket

Based on the idea of 7 natural laws of breastfeeding, this is an easy to read, and informative guide of what normal breastfeeding looks like and how to make it more intuitive and less of a struggle. I recommend it to all my moms, and have even based my Breastfeeding 101 class on it.

2. Peaceful Parenting

While not specifically a breastfeeding blog, Dr. Momma has some great, evidence based articles on latch, breastfeeding, pumping and just parenting in general. There are some things I don’t agree with, but like with any blog, take what you want, leave the rest.

3. Adventures in Tandem Nursing by Hilary Flower

If you are going to nurse during a pregnancy, or after, this is the book to read. It is non-judgemental, easy to digest, and will walk you through what to expect each step of the way. I was so grateful for this book when I was pregnant with my second and still had my boob addicted toddler reluctant to give up his habit! It made me feel like all of the feelings and thoughts that were making nursing difficult were normal, and nothing to be ashamed of!

4. Kelly Mom

This isn’t exactly a blog, but it is the single most useful site I have seen regarding breastfeeding. From growth charts, to information on common medications, to ages and stages of children, to wonderful accounts of overcoming breastfeeding struggles, this website is something I refer to all the time.

5. Dr Hale’s Infant Risk Center

Dr. Thomas Hale is the leading authority on perinatal pharmacology. Meaning, all he does, all day long, is study the effects of medications on pregnant and lactating mothers and their babies. He and his team work tirelessly to give full and understandable scientifically researched information about the safety of every single medication out there. You can reach the experts a few different ways too! Their website has some good blogs, but if you need help with a specific medication, you can call them Monday-Friday 8am-5pm central time at (806) 352-2519. Or you can download the “Infant Risk” app on either iphone or android devices for a small fee. Or, heck! call me and I will read off the information, that app is invaluable!

July 15, 2015

Weaning Whines

I live in a very breastfeeding friendly, nearly stringent, bubble. Having worked with La Leche League as a leader for the past five years, I have seen breastfeeding babies from ages newborn all the way to five years old. Nothing tickles me more (internally of course, because I am a lady!) than a first time pregnant mom who comes to a meeting and sees a gigantic toddler latched on and sprawled out on his mother’s lap. The fear in her eyes say, “That baby has TEETH, and a pretty hefty vocabulary!” In fact, because of this bubble of breastfeeding, I saw a toddler nurse FAR before I ever witnessed a newborn doing the same.

I’ve seen women hell bent on nursing through pregnancy, tandem nursing, and nursing until the baby self weans, as if each goal will earn them a merit badge. I have seen the same women feel extremely guilty when they realize they can’t stand the feeling of nursing anymore during a rough pregnancy, or when they need sleep more than they need to respond immediately to every peep from both their first and second born kid with a breast and a smile. I have seen women worry that weaning their 2 year old will mean ostracizing from their friend group, that they will be pariahs for admitting that they are done with nursing before their baby. On the other hand, I have seen women force their baby to the breast, because they aren’t ready for their toddler to wean yet.

It is great to nurse babies until they are done, don’t get me wrong. However, there might be reasons that a mom wants to wean before the baby is absolutely done. This is okay. There might also come a time when the baby is done, and the mother isn’t. Breastfeeding is a relationship, one that involves two people. To ignore the feelings of one of the people in that relationship can be a major mistake.

I am here to say, it is okay to wean. It is okay if that happens before you wanted it to. It is okay to set goals, but it is also okay when those goals change. Over the next couple of weeks, I will explore this taboo topic, and how to wean in a way that is gentle, safe, and loving to both parties in the relationship.

July 13, 2015

Foods to eat, or not to eat (Part One)

Two questions I hear very often from breastfeeding parents: What can I eat to increase my supply? and What should I avoid eating during breastfeeding? This Monday I will focus on the first question, next Monday I will focus on the second.

The Myth of the Galactagogues – “The More Milk Makers”
There are a lot of urban legends floating around about foods that will boost your supply. Recipes for “lactation cookies”, steel cut oatmeal, flaxseed, and article after article about supplements such as fenugreek, goats rue, and blessed thistle. One mother I knew drank pineapple juice, an entire glass, every time she sat down to nurse. I know of a mom who was force fed milk by her mother, because “to make milk you must drink milk.” Most recently, and oddly, women are swearing by blue Gatorade and Oreo cookies. I don’t know why it has to be the blue flavor but apparently IT DOES.

There are tons of old wives tales, cultural foods too lengthy to list here, and homemade remedies. I am sure, SURE, someone is selling an essential oil that they say will make milk flow like the Mississippi.

The Truth
I say to you. The best way you can make more milk is: FEED YOUR BABY MORE OFTEN. Yep, that’s it. The more you feed, pump or express your milk, the more milk you will make. The longer you let your milk stay in your breast, the less you will make. So, eat to hunger, drink to thirst, and avoid eating too much sugar, it will only make you pack on the pounds and possibly land you with thrush. Is steel cut oatmeal a bad idea? Absolutely not! It is a nutritious breakfast full of fiber! Have at it! Do you need to drink gallons upon gallons of milk or water or eat five cookies a day to meet your baby’s needs? Nope.

Remember, you are enough, you can do this. Below you can see my favorite recipe for lactation cookies.