Nursing Your Kids

I saw this on the front page of Yahoo.com this morning. It’s not every day a breastfeeding article makes it to the front page so I thought I’d post it here. This study is particularly interesting because it compares children who were breastfed to their siblings that were not. While I’m sure the naysayers will make some excuses for why this study is bogus, at least they won’t be able to make the same tired arguments about parental intelligence and socioeconomic factors.

Study links breastfeeding to high grades, college entry

“By focusing on differences between siblings, we can rule out the possibility that family-level factors such as socioeconomic status are driving the relationship between having been breastfed and educational attainment,” said Rees, an economics professor.

This article from US News & World Report says that breastfeeding is good for your heart.

The women provided information on their diets as well as their breast-feeding history. Researchers also collected information on body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) and the women’s medical histories. All participants sent in an annual medical review during the study. The average time in the study was just under eight years.

After a year of breast-feeding, the odds of having high blood pressure dropped by 12 percent; the odds of diabetes decreased by 20 percent; the rates of abnormal cholesterol levels went down by 19 percent; and the overall risk of cardiovascular disease fell by 9 percent, compared to women who never breast-fed, according to the study.

The Motherwear Breastfeeding blog posted links to two videos showing different methods of hand expressing milk, The Marmet Technique and a technique taught at Stanford Hospital.

PHD in Parenting wrote about breastfeeding “Nazis.” The two points in the piece are that, “…lactivists have not killed millions of people like the Nazis did,” and that, “…calling someone that is an enthusiastic advocate of something a Nazi trivializes and minimizes the suffering of the victims of the Holocaust.” Yes, exactly. Thank you. You may recall that I am completely offended by the comparison and appreciated reading another person’s point of view.

Back in October I got up on my soapbox and wrote about the importance of keeping your child rear-facing in their car seat for as long as possible. Now the American Academy or Pediatrics has updated their recommendation. Instead of one year and 20 pounds they recommend keeping your child rear facing until the age of two.

Keep your toddler in a rear-facing car seat until age 2 (not 1)

To see if your car seat is installed properly and to find a certified passenger safety technician in your area, visit www.seatcheck.org or www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cps/cpsfitting/index.cfm. You also can call 866-SEATCHECK (866-732-8243) or 888-327-4236.

If you think your child looks uncomfortable, remember that broken legs heal more easily than a broken spine. My 3 year old, still under the weight limit for his seat, rides backwards comfortably and happily.

From Ecomall.com, 10 reasons why breastfeeding is good for the environment.

1. Producing artificial baby milk contributes to inefficient use of land, deforestation, and soil erosion. Each grazing cow that produces milk used in artificial baby milk needs about 10,000 square meters of land. Wooded land is cleared for pasture, leading to deforestation as well as depletion and erosion of the soil.

I won’t go so far as to say that Friday’s blog from Judith Warner is anti-breastfeeding and it is not nearly as offensive as Rosin’s piece in The Atlantic. But is it really necessary to ban the breast pump? I have been lucky enough not to have to pump milk with regularity for my two boys, but I have pumped on many occasions. While it is not my favorite past time, it is not grotesque, nor is it something that makes my husband cringe with disgust.

A few excerpts from the article and my reactions:

She’s talking about pumping breast milk – the grotesque ritual carried out behind closed office doors nationwide by beleaguered working mothers who are fully “committed” (as the lactation consultants put it) to the goal of long-term, exclusive breast-feeding.

Pumping is not just for the working mothers. Mothers of premature babies, babies with special needs, babies with trouble latching pump milk to provide the best possible nutrition for their child. Mothers pump so they go out on the town with their spouse or friends. Why supplement with formula if you don’t want to?

Why have we made such a fetish of breast milk when there’s no evidence to prove whether, as Rosin puts it in the Atlantic video, “what’s key about breast feeding is the milk or the act of breast-feeding”?

There is no shortage of evidence that breast milk has numerous benefits for babies and the act of breastfeeding has numerous benefits for mothers.

Why, as a society, have we privileged the magic elixir of maternal milk over actual maternal contact, denying the vast, vast majority of mothers the kind of extended maternity leave that would make them physically present for their babies?

Part of what I found so offensive about Rosin’s article is that she seemed to be against that kind of maternal contact. She made feeding babies out to be a chore. Maternity leaves in the United States are embarrassing. There is no question that parents should have time to bond with their children.

“…I’m hoping pump companies will just disappear.”

Disappear? Really? So the preemies who need it most shouldn’t have breastmilk? So babies who have difficulty latching right away should be deprived? Why is it an all or nothing proposition? Why can’t women choose to supplement with formula without banning breast pumps?

This incredible and unusual story about a community of women who stepped in to nurse a baby when his mother died in childbirth had me in tears this morning. Here are some excerpts:

Women step up to breast-feed motherless infant

Charles Moses Martin Goodrich was born at 3:26 a.m. Jan. 11 at Marquette General Hospital. Eleven hours after giving birth, his mother Susan Goodrich, 46, died of amniotic fluid embolism - a rare obstetric emergency that is not age-related, Goodrich said. Moses is the Goodrich’s second child - Julia was born in 2007 - and Susan’s fourth. Still in shock over his wife’s death, Goodrich realized he had to figure out a way to feed his newborn son…

A schedule was put together with feeding times at 9 a.m., noon, 1:30 , 4 , 6:30 and 8 p.m. Six times a day a different mother has been feeding Moses for the past two months. During the night, Goodrich bottle-feeds his son breast milk that was pumped by the women…

Cross-nursing in this country is uncommon and often reviled. Many women are completely disgusted by the idea of it. But this story of a group of women giving up their time and bodies to feed and nurture a motherless child is inspiring. Moses isn’t only getting the benefit of breastmilk, he’s getting the benefit of skin to skin contact.

The nice people at Upspring contacted me to see if I’d be interested in testing out their milkscreen alcohol test kits. As a woman who enjoys a drink, I jumped at the opportunity.

Tonight I had one drink over the course of an hour and a half. It was a Manhattan, so it was all alcohol, no mixer. Figuring that one drink wouldn’t have much of an effect on me I tested my milk shortly after finishing the drink. It was a little awkward, hunching over a test strip in the bathroom trying to hand express some milk for the test, but I was able to get enough to thoroughly cover the test pad. I shook off the excess and waited. Then I remembered that I was supposed to set a timer so I yelled for my husband to set the timer for 2 minutes. The timer went off and according to the darkest patch on test I was basically loaded and shouldn’t be breastfeeding.

I waited an hour and tested again. The second test, timed exactly, was as clear as can be. But in the meantime the original test turned black. After a few minutes the second test started to get darker. Within an hour the second test also turned black.

Forgive the blur, but I’m having some formatting difficulty.

From left to right: test one, test two, and the two tests half an hour after the second test

My husband thinks that because I waited longer than the two minutes to check the results the first time that the test may have been compromised. The directions say that alcohol in the air can cause the strips to darken so perhaps my household (alcohol soaked as it is) influenced the initial test results. Or perhaps I was just boozier than I thought, and it was good that I waited. But the fact that both tests turned black made me question how sensitive they are.

I have two tests left. I haven’t yet decided whether to test them on the same night like I did with the first test, or if I should try testing two separate times. Stay tuned for more adventures in alcohol soaked breastmilk and a giveaway.

By now I think just about everyone has weighed in on the latest breastfeeding controversy. But if you have not been following I’ll gladly offer my opinion on Hanna Rosin’s piece in The Atlantic, “The Case Against Breastfeeding.”

Rosin describes the societal pressure to breastfeed and attempts to explain that the evidence that shows breastfeeding is superior to formula is either flawed or non-existent. While she’s right about societal pressure, elsewhere she fails. She admits that breast is best and still tries to convince the reader otherwise.

I don’t believe that formula feeding is bad. It is food. But it is food that has been engineered in a laboratory to be as close to breastmilk as possible. It is not the real thing. It is an imitation. Earlier today I read a response to the article that said formula is a luxury. That we are lucky to have the option of formula. I agree. It is a luxury to have the choice whether or not to breastfeed. My instinct is that the article was written as an excuse for women who don’t *want* to breastfeed and want to feel better about themselves about their choice.

The point that I found most irritating, and the piece more than anything else just irritated me, was the part where she responded to the notion that breastfeeding is free. She writes, “It’s only free if a woman’s time is worth nothing.” How is feeding a baby worth nothing? Whether feeding a baby by bottle or breast, feeding time is bonding time. It’s the time when mother (or father) and baby are closest. How is that worthless? And how is feeding a baby by bottle any less time consuming than breastfeeding? If you don’t want to take the time to feed your baby don’t have one.

Others have said it better than I have and have backed it up with research.

The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

Mama Knows Breast

Adventures in [Crunchy] Parenthood

I may be in the minority here, but I hated my Boppy pillow. As a nursing aid I found it completely useless. Although it was more time consuming, I was better off and more comfortable with a few couch cushions and bed pillows propped in various configurations. The only thing I really liked the Boppy for was sitting on. It helped relieve some post-childbirth pressure on my delicate nether-regions.

I’ve heard that the My Brest Friend pillow, stupid name aside, is far superior to the Boppy, but I never had the opportunity to try one.

Now there is another nursing pillow on the market. I saw this, the Belly-Fish, a nursing pillow and cover all in one in my web travels today. The Belly-Fish wraps around like the other nursing pillows, but it features two adjustable nursing covers on each side. You can unsnap them for privacy or leave them down and just use the pillow. There’s an adjustable neck strap for added support for positioning the pillow. The pillow folds in half so it’s not as bulky to travel with, and according to the testimonials on the website it fits in a diaper bag or in the bottom of a stroller. It looks pretty big to me, and I don’t know that I’d actually travel with it, but I know plenty of women who might.

Since I haven’t actually seen the pillow in person or had a chance to test it out I don’t know how well the pillow works for support, but the prints are beautiful. The fabrics alone would make this a great shower gift for a new mother to be. I also appreciate that the cover is machine washable.

The Belly Fish was created by two mothers in California. Check out their website for more information or watch a video about the Belly Fish.

This story is so bizarre I have to repost it here. It’s so bizarre that I don’t even know what to say about it. I don’t know if it’s just a poorly written article, if the writer wasn’t working with much, or if it’s just a crazy story, but I am at a loss for commentary here. So take it for what it’s worth.

Police: Breastfeeding mom bit policewoman

Last update: 3:56 p.m. EDT March 9, 2009
MONTREAL, Mar 9, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) — A Canadian immigrant woman is charged with biting a policewoman after allegedly refusing to stop breastfeeding her baby during a Montreal traffic stop.

The incident happened Friday morning when police pulled over Rainford Jackson, as it appeared the tinting on the car’s windows was too dark under Quebec law. His wife, Lafleur Sprin was breastfeeding their child, and a 5-year-old daughter was in the back seat, The Gazette newspaper reported.

Police claim Spring refused to get out of the car, and that’s when they pulled her from the vehicle.

Spring alleges she was told to shut up and she refused, and was then slapped.

“Then she tried to pull me out,” Spring said. “She slapped me in the face, so I bit her … I know I’m from the Caribbean but I never thought I would be arrested for breastfeeding my kid.”

The family of four was left in a police cruiser for five hours before being told they could go home, the report said.

As well as the assault charge, each parent face charges for obstructing justice and must appear in court May 22, the report said.

www.upi.com

Copyright 2009 by United Press International End of Story

Ordinarily I try to put myself in another woman’s shoes. I ask myself about what kind of day she might having when I hear a woman berating her child at the grocery. I think about the way her child must have pushed her to the absolute limits or endangered himself when I see a mom smack her kid in public. When I see babies without car seats or walking twins in forward facing infant seats I wonder if the parents simply can’t afford proper car seats or if they are uneducated. I have strong feelings about these things, but I try not to assume or judge harshly.

But then I read this. What kind of woman risks the life of her child, her own life and the lives of others by breastfeeding while driving? A moron. A reckless, oblivous, moron. This woman is an idiot.

Here is the story:


Mom ticketed for breast-feeding baby while driving
An Ohio mother says she was ticketed for breast-feeding her child while driving.

Compton will be in court next week. She is facing a child endangerment charge and a child restraint ticket. She could receive jail time and a fine.

Your baby wants to eat? Pull over. Nurse your baby in the car while it is safely parked. Feed your baby some dissolving puffs while she’s safely secured in her car seat. Wait until you get home. There is no reason to put your lives in danger because your toddler is hungry.

The photo comes from WOAI.com. A brief news video accompanies the story.

I have been breastfeeding Ben for close to ten months now and either he’s a much easier baby than his brother was (this is proven, but I’ll pretend to speculate just for fun) or second babies are just easier than the first.

At this point with Sam, he had no interest in solid foods. Sure, he ate them on occasion, but when it came to hunger all he wanted was me. All day, every day. The kid nursed about a zillion times a day and every hour through the night. Ben also likes to nurse but he loves to eat. He will eat anything and everything you put in front of him. He’ll eat if you spoon feed him, he’ll eat with his fingers. He doesn’t care. He eats fruits and vegetables and chicken and tofu and bread and cereal and crumbs off of the floor. He is easy.

We went to a wedding this weekend. I left the boys home with my in-laws with vague instructions about food and breastmilk thawing on the counter. I mentioned that Ben hasn’t really taken a bottle in months so he may not want it. But he drank the whole thing. And ate two jars of baby food, a bowl of yogurt and about a million cheerios. I got home and nursed him at midnight and he slept until after 8 the next morning.

It is nice to know that I can leave my child for more than a few hours without feeling panicked that he’ll be starving and hysterical when I get home. I am thrilled to have a baby who nurses well, but also eats.

Salma Hayek has proven to be quite the breastfeeding advocate. From the rumors of her pumping day and night to lose the baby weight, to her “addiction” to nursing, she has not shied away from discussing breastfeeding with the press. I appreciate her openness.

Hayek is currently working with Pampers and UNICEF to eliminate tetanus and was featured on an episode of Nightline. As a spokesman for the campaign she traveled to Sierra Leone to help educate people about the importance of vaccines. In the United States tetanus isn’t a big deal. But in Sierra Leone one in five children die from the disease. One of the effects of the disease is stiffness in the jaw which leads to difficulty swallowing. Babies with tetanus are unable to eat. ABC.com has an article about the campaign that’s worth reading, but the video posted on their website is riveting.

The clip of Salma Hayek on Nightline is tough to watch as a baby dies from tetanus early in the video but later in the segment Hayek nurses another woman’s baby. The camera does not hesitate to zoom in on the scene, and you can actually see the baby swallow. It’s sad and beautiful. Salma Hayek continues to surprise me with her breastfeeding advocacy.

It’s strange to consider cross nursing, though I have, on occasion thought about whether I’d be comfortable either nursing another woman’s child or allowing another woman to nurse my own. But there was a time when wet nurses were the norm if women were unable to (or too rich to) feed their own babies.

The segment discusses the importance of breastfeeding, especially in countries like Sierra Leone where malnutrition is rampant.

It’s true. Breastfeeding is cheaper than formula. It’s free, for most women it’s plentiful, and the accessories are optional, not necessary. So if the health benefits aren’t enough for you, if the fear of melamine, BPA and other toxins in formula aren’t enough to scare you off, remember that breastfeeding is as budget friendly as you can get.

Kellymom has an interesting cost benefits analysis of breastfeeding versus formula feeding. This article quotes some of the savings.

Moms: Breastfeeding Budget Benefits

Imperial, California - New mothers are considering a relatively new factor in the bottle versus breast debate - the economy. In fact, 88 percent of new moms are weighing the budget benefits of breastfeeding right alongside the health benefits, a recent survey shows.

“My husband figures we have saved around $1,200 in the past year using breast milk rather than formula,” says Cristin Diekmann, a new mother from California. “Plus, the health benefits of breast milk so outweigh formula that for me it seemed wrong to not give my child the best start possible.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that babies be breastfed exclusively for the first six months, and then continue to be nursed at least for the first year. While many moms are aware of the health benefits, they may not realize breastfeeding can cut a significant amount of money from their monthly budget.

With the recession making it necessary for most families to cut expenses, breastfeeding can be a healthful way to keep feeding costs down for the newest member of the family.

Depending on the cost of formula, a newborn baby can consume from $43.86 to $194.22 in formula just in the first month, according to Kelly Mom, a popular online breastfeeding resource. By six months, the cost for formula can add up to be $375.34 to $1,662.22. Over one year, a family with one infant could save between $714.42 to $3,163.86 by feeding breast milk rather than incurring the cost of formula. And, in the long run, breastfeeding also helps save on health care costs, as breastfed infants typically need fewer health care visits, prescriptions and hospitalizations.

And while breastfeeding may pose some challenges for working moms, those surveyed agreed that even with the investment in a high-tech, high-quality breast pump, the health and cost benefits of breastfeeding far outweigh any challenges.

“When doing the math regarding formula cost I realized that I could buy a pump for less than the cost of four months worth of formula,” says Nebraska mom Cassidy Peterson. “I have nursed two boys for a total of 30 months with just the same Medela pump. It was very economical for my family. I work full time and suffer from low milk supply. With pumping, my children never had to have formula and we were able to get by with the same pump for both boys. I hope to have another baby and plan to use the pump again.”

“Breastfeeding truly does pay off for moms and babies both in health benefits and cost savings,” says Irene Zoppi, a registered nurse, licensed lactation consultant and clinical education specialist with Medela, Inc. “For moms purchasing a breast pump to aid in providing breast milk to their child, the initial investment may cause a bit of sticker shock. However, when compared to the annual expense of formula, the cost is justified. In addition, there are also rental options through the Breastfeeding National Network for those who do not wish to incur that initial investment.”

When Sam was a baby I was a wreck about starting solids. I wanted to make sure I did everything right so that he’d end up being a good eater, not a picky kid who will only eat foods that are white.

All of my anxiety was for naught. He preferred breastmilk to solid foods until he was a year old and (due to circumstances beyond my control) discovered french fries. After that he pretty much ate anything and everything, from spicy Thai curries to beet and beet greens risotto (though never very much at a time). Then he got picky. Now he doesn’t like (insert random food of the day here) but he likes it sometimes but not now and he’d prefer noodles with butter and cheese.

Anyway, I pretty much learned my lesson that kids are who they are and they’ll eat what they want to eat when they want to eat it. So when at six months Ben wasn’t into eating solids I didn’t think much of it. At seven months I started to get a little worried and wondered if I should try harder. I didn’t. At eight months he got interested, and he LOVES eating food.

He eats anything you put in front of him now including, broccoli, green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, meatloaf, chicken, carrots, pears, applesauce, bread, pasta, waffles, cereal and soup. He cries for more if the bowl is empty and can keep himself occupied in a high chair with finger foods for half an hour or more. The other night he easily ate half of my mashed potatoes after eating pasta, broccoli, green beans, and pears with oatmeal while I got dinner ready. It’s amazing how different he is from his brother.

The moral of the story is don’t stress over starting solids. Your kid will eat when he’s good and ready. And if he doesn’t eat a lot, it’s probably because he’s not that hungry. You can’t make a kid eat, all you can do is provide a variety of healthy foods.