Nursing Your Kids

Great news, mamas! Breastfeeding does not, in fact, create sagging boobs so tell everyone who tells you otherwise they’re wrong and you’ve got plastic surgeons, the group that most stands to benefit from the myth, to back you up.

A study presented at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons 2007 conference shows that breastfeeding has no effect on the shape of a woman’s breast.

“Many women who come in for breast surgery tell us their breasts are sagging, drooping or are less full because they breastfed,” said Brian Rinker, MD, ASPS Member Surgeon and study author. “Although the amount of sagging in the breasts appears to increase with each pregnancy, we’ve found that breastfeeding does not worsen the effect.”

As the first study to examine what impacts breast shape in connection to pregnancy, plastic surgeons found that a history of breastfeeding, the number of children breastfed, the duration of each child’s breastfeeding, or the amount of weight gained during pregnancy were not significant predictors for losing breast shape. However, body mass index (BMI), the number of pregnancies, a larger pre-pregnancy bra size, smoking history, and age were significant risk factors for an increased degree of breast sagging.

Interesting that smoking has an effect on the buoyancy of breasts. I can think of no better way to scare vain teenage girls into not smoking than by telling them it will make their boobs saggy. Kids don’t seem to be scared of cancer these days, but sagging is terrifying.

USDA ANNOUNCES NEW MYPYRAMID FOR PREGNANT AND NURSING MOMS

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2007 — Acting Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner today announced the launch of a new MyPyramid web site designed specifically for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. The new interactive guidance, found at MyPyramid.gov, provides unique, individualized nutrition guidance to meet the needs of expectant and new moms.

The website looks pretty straightforward. You plug in your age, whether you’re breastfeeding or pregnant (there doesn’t seem to be an option for both), height, weight, and activity level and the site tells you how many servings of grains, vegetables, fruits, milk and meat and beans you should be eating each day. While this tool isn’t necessary for everyone, many women are unsure of what and how much they should be eating. Generic calorie requirements don’t apply to everyone, so it’s nice to see the USDA is taking a mother’s nutritional needs into consideration.

Also, if you’re breastfeeding and eligible for WIC you may want to look into the WIC farmer’s market programs for access to locally grown (usually with organic methods) produce.

I’m sorry for the lack of updates but things have been rough here over the past week. Sleep regressions are rearing their ugly heads leaving me exhausted and depressed. I haven’t been this depressed since the last nasty sleep regression in July. Four molars breaking through at once caused that particular regression. I don’t what’s causing this one. I just know that it shouldn’t take three hours to get a baby to sleep.

There is news outside of me though. In yet another breastfeeding case, Nebraska parents declined genetic testing for their newborn because of their religious beliefs. This is their tenth child, and they’ve managed to avoid the standard heel prick test for most of their previous children. This time the judge isn’t being so lenient. The judge ordered that the six-week old be administered the test and put into foster care until the test results are received. The Omaha World- Herald reports that:

Earlier in the hearing, Mary Anaya, who has been visiting her son several times a day in foster care to breastfeed, cringed when she heard him crying from outside the courtroom.

She later added, “I don’t approve of Mom popping in (to the foster home) nine times a day to nurse.”

The mother, of course, is distraught.

“This is inhumane — to deny my right to feed my baby.”

I’m not a religious person so I don’t understand why the Anayas would fight so adamantly against the genetic screening. Personally I’d want to know if my child had diseases that could lead to mental retardation or death, especially if the diseases could be treated. However, I can’t understand why a judge would remove the infant from his parents’ care and refuse to allow his mother to continue feeding him. If it’s the child’s best interests we’re looking at, isn’t it in the child’s best interests to allow his mother to breastfeed him?

Here’s some great news via The Lactivist. Evenflo is buying Ameda, a well respected brand that primarily make hospital grade pumps, and becoming WHO code compliant.

Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. The WHO Code was created in 1981 as a guide for marketing practices of infant formula, bottle and nipple manufacturers to ensure that breast milk substitutes, feeding bottles and nipples are not marketed inappropriately.

“The WHO code is designed to promote and protect breastfeeding around the world, and Evenflo’s decision to help support this important objective by becoming Code compliant is to be congratulated,” said Marsha Walker, Executive Director of the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy. “I believe Evenflo’s actions will help encourage moms and remove barriers to breastfeeding in the U.S. I’m gratified to see Evenflo and Ameda delivering on their promise to develop and market products in a manner that will not interfere with or impede breastfeeding,” she said.

This is fantastic news. I’m pleased to see that such a well-known company is willing to take a risk and stop marketing bottles and nipples to new moms.

While sniffing my own sweat doesn’t seem to have much effect on my libido, a new study conducted in my home town found that sniffing the sweat of breastfeeding mothers can boost sex drive. This puzzles me. I’d feel pretty strange taking sweat sniffing pills to get in the mood, but if any of my friends are feeling like they need some action, I suppose I could invite them to sniff my sports bra after a go on the stairmaster. Anyway, here’s the article in all of it’s weirdness.

Mothers put scientists on scent of an aphrodisiac

The sex drive of women could be boosted by drugs based on chemicals that are found in the sweat of breast-feeding mothers, a scientist predicted yesterday.

The findings of the research group have been published in the journal Hormones and Behaviour.

And in totally unrelated weird news, Britney’s visitation rights have been suspended.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that she’s not big on breastfeeding.

I saw this clip at ConnieTalk and couldn’t resist posting it. It’s a vintage 1977 Sesame Street clip that totally warms the heart. Big Bird watches and asks questions as Buffy nurses Cody.

I love this for so many reasons.

He’s old enough to eat solids, but Buffy still nurses him.
Buffy gets to hug him while he nurses.
He likes the milk because it’s warm and sweet and natural.

I wish television showed more images like this. The only television show I can remember showing breastfeeding was a surprisingly pro-nursing episode of Family Guy. In the episode Lois tries to wean baby Stewie and he’s outraged. At the beginning of the episode he walks up to her and says, “Open your shirt woman, I’m hungry.” He sneaks into her bed at night, hooks her up to a breast pump, accidentally spills the milk and laps it up off of the floor he needs it so badly. In the end she misses the bonding and can’t wean him. I’m sure her breasts expanding two sizes didn’t help much either!

Speaking of weaning, Sam is clearly ambivalent about it. He continues to nurse daily for a few days at a time then go as long as a week without showing any interest. Some nights he wants to nurse before bed. Other nights he just wants to rock. I guess I’m ambivalent too. When he’s nursing for no reason at 10 in the morning I just want him to stop. When he’s nursing sweetly and quietly drifting off to sleep I think I could nurse him forever.

And if you missed it the first time around, here’s another sweet breastfeeding clip from Sesame Street.

I had a bit of trouble falling asleep last night. I was in bed at 11 and at 11.40 I looked at the clock for the last time. Less than half an hour later I woke up to the sound of Sam crying “dada.” Since he wasn’t calling me I tried to go back to sleep, but the cries got louder and he started to throw in a few “mamas” so I dragged my sorry, sleepy self out of bed and went to his room to get him.

He was standing in his crib waiting and cried “mama” when I walked in. I told him it was bed time and asked if he wanted me to rub his back. He shook his head no, so I asked if he wanted me to pick him up. He vehemently shook his head yes so I picked him up and he pointed to the CD player and said music. I held him over the box and he turned on his bedtime music, Rockabye Baby: Lullaby Renditions of the Cure. We sat in the glider and he snuggled his head into my neck and wrapped his legs around my waist. It was hard for him to get comfortable so he shifted around for a bit but settled in by the time the second song began to play.

By the third song he was asleep so I tried to put him back into his crib. He stood up and cried mama as soon as he hit the mattress. I picked him up again and reminded him that it was bedtime and he needed to sleep in his own bed so mommy could sleep in hers. I rocked him, standing for the rest of the song then put him back down in his crib. This time I wasn’t taking any chances so I kept my hands on his back for a minute.

Sam rolled over on his side, moved my hand and said, “Mama go.” He’d never said the word go before, at least not so that I knew what he was saying so I didn’t move. He pushed himself up on his hand and repeated, “Go, mama. Go.” Bewildered I said “night night. I love you.” and left the room.

This is one of the few times he’s ever woken up in the night and not needed to nurse back to sleep. (I am so glad it didn’t end up like this!) This is also the first time he’s ever told me to leave. He’s getting so big.

Honestly, I’m not that great at any kinds of posting challenges. I once signed up for and successfully completed Holidailies, but that was before I had a child demanding constant attention. (Come on, enough with the diapers already, mommy’s trying to blog over here.) So I don’t know about NaBloPoMo this November. I may not make it and actually post every day, but I suppose I could give it a shot. Angela at Breastfeeding 123 created a networking group for breastfeeding and mothering bloggers to join.

It is time to start gearing up for National Blog Posting Month: NaBloPoMo! For NaBloPoMo, bloggers around the blogosphere commit to the challenge of posting at least one blog post per day for the month of November. I had a lot of fun with it last November. This time around NaBloPoMo allows participants to create their own networking groups, and I have set up one for Breastfeeding and Mothering bloggers to join! Please join the group if you are a breastfeeding mother and blogger who is up to the challenge of writing a post a day for the month of November! You certainly do not have to write about breastfeeding — the point is for breastfeeding mothers to discover the blogs of other like-minded mothers. Want to play along?

Planning to join? Post a comment here to let me know!

In honor of the Great Virtual Breastfest I was looking for some pictures of Sam nursing. Considering he was attached to my breast every two hours for half an hour for the first month of his life, then every two to three hours for half an hour for the next month or two you’d think there’d be more.

Seriously, the boy loved breastmilk. Now (well the past week or two anyway) he’s pretty disinterested, but he really had no interest in eating pretty much anything else for the first 11 months of his life. Sure he’d humor me and eat some cheerios when I was driving, but even when he was 10 months old I’d occasionally have to pull over to nurse him in some parking lot, so desperate was he for my milk.

Even after he’d starting eating in solids for real, a bout of stomach flu stopped that for a while and he went back to full time nursing for at least three weeks. My mother-in-law was beside herself with worry.

So it’s odd that there are so few pictures of me nursing sweet little baby Sam. There were a couple of computer crashes so I haven’t gone through all of the backup discs of digital photos, but even on my Flickr account I was only able to come up a couple. Here they are in all of their glory.

Here we are nursing on the street.

And in the house at seven months old, rudely interrupted by cats.

And my favorite, though he’s not actually nursing he’s just finished, and the dribble of milk gets me every time.

Don’t forget to watch the video. It’s a bit fuzzy, but it’s beautiful.

The Great Virtual Breastfest montage is up!

And from the League of Maternal Justice, here’s a man’s point of view about nursing in public

I’m married to an incredible woman who’s an expert in women’s health research. She’s taught me about all of the benefits that kids - and moms - get when moms breastfeed their kids. I also worked in a pediatrics department for three years, so I saw a LOT of public breastfeeding going on. And I NEVER saw a mom breastfeed to be provocative. I did, however, see women who were embarrassed or afraid of what people might say. Embarrassed to feed their babies.

I guess that’s why I was upset when I learned a woman was recently kicked out of a restaurant because she refused to put a blanket on top of her and her baby as she breastfed. In my town of Lexington, Kentucky. In June. In a state where the law prohibits anyone from interfering with a breastfeeding mom. This woman wasn’t parading around the restaurant flashing people. She was sitting in the back, just trying to feed her kid. So I know this: it’s the opponents of public breastfeeding that are sexualizing the practice, not the moms. And like you, I don’t think someone’s sexual hangups should dictate where and when a baby gets to eat.

Back when I had a TiVo I had the pleasure of watching a lot more television than I do now. Every so often I’d have the double pleasure of watching back to back episodes of Wife Swap and Supernanny. Well I think it was Wife Swap, but it could have been Trading Spouses. I can’t tell those two apart. I can tell Nanny 911 and Supernanny apart though, just because one of the shows has more nannys. Good times.

Anyway, my point is that I found one episode of Supernanny especially alarming. In the episode, a woman with several kids and a home day care spent a large portion of her day nursing her toddler. The Supernanny came in and demanded that the 17 month old girl be weaned immediately. I was surprised that an “expert” would recommend quitting cold turkey, a practice that’s traumatic for both mother and child, especially when neither party has expressed a desire to stop. When I saw the episode Sam wasn’t quite a year old. I’d planned on weaning him at a year, but watching that episode helped me realize that I’d stop when he was ready, not when some know-it-all British broad told me to.

Now Superanny Jo Frost, a woman with no children of her own, has the potential of alarming a much larger audience. Her new book about infant care ignores all recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics and World Health Organization and suggests introducing infants to formula feeding between six weeks and three months because it will help them sleep better. Right. This advice goes hand in hand with my mother’s ill-informed advice of slipping some rice cereal in my two week old son’s bottle to help him sleep through night.*

The “expert” also says that co-sleeping, a practice that has helped countless families around the world sleep better, is a “no-no” and suggests giving infants pacifiers to help them sleep, but only if you’re prepared to take them away the minute your child turns one. I can’t wait to read the rest of her great advice.

*Please note that there is absolutely no evidence that any types of formula or cereal actually help babies sleep longer. Some babies sleep well and others don’t whether they’re formula or breastfed, and solid foods like cereal before the age of four months at the absolute earliest can do more harm than good to an infants immature digestive system. I wrote more about starting solids at Kids Dish.

Look, I’m generally all for breastfeeding no matter what the circumstances. While smoking is an unhealthy habit with ill effects for both mother and child, I’d still say a mother who smokes should breastfeed. The benefits of breastmilk will counteract at least some of the negative effects of nicotine and possible second-hand smoke exposure. As for alcohol, I don’t really see moderate alcohol use as a problem. An occasional drink while nursing, especially after the first three months of an infant’s life, won’t have major effects on a baby. Less than 2% of the alcohol absorbed into the bloodstream makes its way into breastmilk, so if you time your drinks correctly there’s no need to completely abstain.

But cocaine? I draw the line at cocaine. A New York prostitute and mother was arrested during an undercover sting operation. Not only did she perform oral sex on two men in a car with her awake five-year-old and eight-week-old in the backseat, she used her baby as a drug prop. A drug prop you ask? What do you mean by that? She snorted cocaine off her son’s stomach while nursing him between tricks.

In case you missed it the first time, she snorted cocaine off of her eight-week-old son while breastfeeding him in between tricks.

Breastfeeding is amazing. The health benefits are incomparable. The bonding experience between mother and child can be positively blissful. But snorting drugs off your baby? Doesn’t that negate everything? I’m disgusted.

In addition to the prostitution charges the woman was booked for five counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of first degree reckless endangerment, a felony.

Read the full story at ABC.com.

terrible mother, prostitute snorts cocaine off of her son, breastfeeding, don’t do drugs while breastfeeding

The Great Virtual Breast Fest

Activate your wonder powers by pulling out your boobs on October 10, 2007 at 10:00am (mark your calendars!) and showing the world that you’re a boobtastic superhero mom and damn proud of it.

We’re asking women around the world to speak out - and squirt out! - against the banning of breastfeeding pictures on Facebook, as well as against the constant onslaught of negative attention toward breastfeeding mothers in public spaces and in the media.

That’s right. We’re staging a virtual nurse-in!

On October 10 at 10am, women around the US and Canada and - we hope - the world will breastfeed for justice. We’ll nurse our babies or bottle-feed our babies or reminisce about doing either of those things and we’ll post pictures and video, all together, and let the world know that there is no shame, only power, in caring for our children.

Spread the word by placing a button on your blog, and then set up your web cam to live broadcast on your blog on October 10 at 10am (your time). If you don’t have a web cam, but have a video recorder, post some breastfeeding video! Load it up on YouTube and tag it “The Great Virtual Breast Fest” on October 10!

If you don’t have a web cam/video camera or you are not currently nursing, send us your breastfeeding pictures (leagueofmaternaljustice at gmail dot com), along with your blog url (if you have one — non-bloggers are WELCOME and strongly encouraged to participate!). We’ll be creating a video montage of pictures that you can embed onto your blog. (If you’ve already written a post with pictures, please still send us a photo!)

So not to exclude our non-breastfeeding friends, you can participate by writing a post - even a blurb will do - about why you support women’s right to nourish their children whenever and whatever and in whatever manner they wish.

We love your boobs too!

Whatever you’re planning on doing as part of the Breast Fest, make sure to let us know how you’re participating by emailing The Boob Squad. Want to breastfeed live but need a webcam? Plan on putting video up? Sending us some pics?

We want to know! Are you with us?!

And finally, please SPREAD THE WORD. Leave a note on your message boards, tell the moms at your playgroup, or heck, send an email to Oprah! And will someone please load this up over at the Facebook protest group?

This is not a Breast Fest without breasts and lots of them! Swipe a button code, write a post, and let people know we’re not hiding under blankets any longer. We’ll be adding the links to our sidebar and keeping tabs on our Brest Fest participants!

For more on our Facebook Sucks mission, click here. We’re still encouraging people to throw a stone at the big man and deactivate accounts!

And if you know of any potential sponsors - we’d love to get web cams to women who want to join in, but any kind of sponsorship will do! - Please send them our way! Or donate a few bucks in our sidebar. All the proceeds will go towards getting us one step closer to Maternal Justice!

First the good news. When I first heard about dental caries and looked at the terrifying pictures (check out the pictures on this website to scare yourself silly) I made an immediate decision to cut out night nursing all together. Of course Sam was not fond of my decision and rebelled, dragging me down with him. We didn’t actually cut out night nursing until Sam started sleeping through the night, and even now on, the nights when he wakes up, I still nurse him back to sleep if he asks for it.

But now I can breathe easier, because a new study has found no link between nursing and tooth decay in young children. Researchers studied the infant feeding habits and other family characteristics of 1576 children between the ages of 2 and 5. Though they found no relation between nursing, no matter how long the duration and tooth decay, the study showed that poor children and Mexican-American children were at severe risk for tooth decay and children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy and after were at an increased risk.

To protect your child from tooth decay brush their teeth and schedule their first dental appointment six months after the first tooth emerges. Ask Moxie has a great post about dental hygiene with great product advice. Parenting Children also has a video post about baby bottle tooth decay.

And now for the bad news. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia found that exclusively nursing babies with a history of family allergies such as food allergies, asthma, and excema can increase the chances of the child developing allergies later in life. Though children were protected up to the age of seven, they have a greater chance of becoming allergic in adolescence or adulthood. The study also found that breastfeeding doesn’t protect children from non-allergic families from developing allergies.

Dr Matheson said further investigation was needed to determine why there was an increased risk of developing asthma after seven years of age.

“It could be that mothers are passing antibodies on to their babies or because of increased hygiene and reduced exposure to infections early in life,’’ she said.

“The breastfed children in our study had fewer bacterial and viral infections, were more likely to be first born and in a higher social class – these all factors related to increased hygiene.”

Dr Matheson said the study’s authors acknowledged there were many benefits of breastfeeding and were not suggesting that women with allergies should not breastfeed.

“However, if you are concerned about preventing allergy in your children, it may be more effective to implement other strategies such as not having carpet in your home,’’ she said.

image by all in green at flickr

The New York Times reports that the FDA plans to ban over the counter multi-symptom cough and cold medicines marketed to kids. The drug hasn’t been tested children under the age of six yet it’s marketed to kids as young as two. This ban could effect 800 different medications including Toddler’s Dimetapp, Triaminic Infant and Little Colds.

In their 356- page report reviewers wrote that there’s very little evidence that these medicines are effective in young children and they may even be dangerous. Adverse reactions to the drugs, including deaths from both antihistamines and decongestants are reported voluntarily, so numbers may even be underreported.

They also recommend standardizing the droppers, syringes and cups that come with infant and toddler medicines, which would be fantastic, since I was once guilty of overloading my poor son with motrin when I used the wrong dropper. Luckily I caught my mistake after the first (large) dose.

Aside from Motrin (used after my poor little guy broke his leg) and Tylenol (for teething) we’ve never used any over-the-counter medications. I know that this isn’t true for everyone and that not all children (and parents) are so lucky, but I truly believe that breastfeeding has kept Sam healthy. He’s had one bad cold, one stomach virus, and a few runny noses in his 18 months. The cold only lasted a few days, my stomach flu lasted twice as long as his, and I got another one that he somehow managed to avoid. I know that breastmilk can’t be totally responsible for his good health, but considering how much time we spent in germ-infested play areas used by thousands of Philadelphia residents we made out quite well.

I am almost positive that the reason his stomach virus at 11 months was so short-lived is because he was able to nurse throughout. In fact, he stopped eating solid foods entirely for almost a month after the virus, so it was both a blessing (for him) and a curse (for my poor, aching boobs) that he was still breastfeeding. The fact that I got several illnesses that he didn’t seemed like tangible proof that the antibodies were flowing freely along with the milk. I think I got sick so much because I was giving all of my immunities to him. To be honest, I’m pretty sure that he basically sucked my immune system out of me- I spent more time sick since his birth than I was in the five years before it.

My health aside, I feel like Sam is walking proof that breast is best. Kelli’s post about her son’s immunity in April shows her son had similar luck. Now we just have to see how this winter goes, since it seems that Sam’s slowly, slowly (maybe? hopefully?) weaning.