Nursing Your Kids

The ideal is that breastfeeding becomes the norm, not something that requires legislation. My hope is that some day breastfeeding is something that women just do, not something they feel embarrassed about, debate about on message boards, call others nazis over, or think is gross. Breastfeeding is how babies should be fed. Other food sources should be used if breastfeeding isn’t possible, but breastfeeding should be the universally accepted way to feed a child.

Halton, a Canadian city, is helping to make that happen.

Halton opens arms to breastfeeding moms

Hamilton has no immediate plans to launch a similar program.

I came across this odd story out of Tennessee. My comments after the article, but make sure you watch the video.

Breastfeeding Controversy at Rutherford County Courthouse-Erika Lathon

Breastfeeding in public isn’t against the law but a Murfreesboro woman says it nearly got her arrested.

In this case, they point out that despite being disruptive, Rankins was allowed to leave on her own without being arrested.

Ordinarily I feel it’s my job to side with the mother, but after watching this video I can’t help but think Rankins was out to make a scene. I don’t know what precipitated the complaints that caused the deputy to ask her to move, but I’m sure that once she was asked to cover up she did get loud and she did disrupt court, even from outside of the courtroom. Breastfeeding in public is protected in Tennessee, a point that could have been made without yelling. A simple reminder of the law should suffice when confronted.

My friend called the other day to tell me about the front page news of the study that shows breastfeeding may boost IQ and I pretty much ignored him, saying, “duh,” like the 10-year-old I am. (I mean really, doesn’t everyone already know that breastfeeding is the best thing you can do for your baby, the IQ points, which have been hotly contested in the past, are just gravy.) After my mature reaction he explained that he was just telling me so I could write about it on my blog and I felt like a jerk for blowing him off. So I feel like I should at least mention the recent MSNBC front-page article with the headline, Breast-feeding may boost children’s IQ and the tagline, Study provides new evidence that nursing makes kids smarter.

The study follows up other studies that have pretty much shown the same thing. The question was whether the IQ differences were based on nature or nurture, since breastfeeding mothers in the US and Canada tend to be more well-off financially than mothers who formula feed. This time, researchers followed babies born to mothers in Belarus, randomly assigning babies to a group where breastfeeding was encouraged.

Previous studies had indicated brain development and intelligence benefits for breast-fed children.

The design of the study — randomly assigning babies to two groups regardless of the mothers’ characteristics — was intended to eliminate the confusion.

A BBC article about the study explains,

They found that those who breastfed exclusively for the first three months - with many also continuing to 12 months - scored an average of 5.9 points higher on IQ tests in childhood.

Lead researcher Professor Michael Kramer said: “Long-term, exclusive breastfeeding appears to improve children’s cognitive development.”

I think Micky at Mocha Milk said it best when in response to the latest “news”:

And by the way, breastfed babies don’t have increased intelligence. They have NORMAL intelligence. Formula fed babies, unfortunately are at increased risk of lowered intelligence. Think of it as an investment in your child’s ability to get college scholarships!

Canada is expected to classify BPA (the chemical found in some hard, clear plastics and some cans) as a dangerous substance. Recent studies have linked BPA to breast cancer, obesity, and infertility.

And a Yahoo article reports that the The National Toxicology Program found that

“experiments on rats found precancerous tumors, urinary tract problems and early puberty when the animals were fed or injected with low doses of the plastics chemical bisphenol A.

While such animal studies only provide “limited evidence” of bisphenol’s developmental risks, the group’s draft report stresses the possible effects on humans “cannot be dismissed.” The group is made up of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration and the Institutes of Health.”

This is a controversial topic for mothers these days. Most women, whether they breastfeed or formula feed, use baby bottles. Many of the most popular bottles are made from plastics containing BPA. Mothers who formula feed are also exposing their children to BPA through the formula containers- many brands of powdered and liquid baby formulas contain BPA.

Some mothers, especially those with older children, feel that the risks of BPA are just hype, and that their kids turned out just fine so why panic now. Plenty of women on my pregnancy board used X brand of bottle or X brand of formula with their last child and have no interest in switching. Other mothers understand that toxins are everywhere but would rather limit their children’s exposure to those they can control. These mothers are actively researching bottles that don’t contain BPA and the brands of formula that either don’t contain traces of BPA or have the lowest levels.

I fall into the latter category. I know that my children will be exposed to many chemicals throughout their lifetimes. I know my children will eat unhealthy foods and play with toys I don’t approve of. I know there will be lead, phthalates, and BPA in my kids’ environment no matter what I do. Even so, I plan on controlling their environment to the best of my ability for as long as I can. I sold my Avent breast pump and bottles and plan on buying glass or BPA-free bottles for the new baby. Sam’s sippy cups are aluminum or safe plastics. Whether it’s hype or not, if a chemical might be dangerous I want to keep it away from my kid for as long as I can. I can’t control things forever, but I sure would like to try to keep my babies safe while I still have the ability.

It’s tough to know what to do, especially when such a huge portion of the population has a, “I grew up on chemicals and I turned out fine approach,” but taking small steps and making minor changes is a good way to start. Safe Mama has a great post on how to avoid panic and confusion.

Elizabeth Jett, mother to an exclusively breastfed infant and a five-year-old, failed to show up for jury duty in Maryland this October. She initially attempted to get out of service until the summer, but court officials denied her request offering her dates in January instead. Rather than agree to a date in January, she just didn’t show up to court and called in the morning of her service to say she wasn’t going. In January she was asked to come in to talk with the judge about her situation and found she was actually being held in contempt of court.

Breastfeeding a young infant is incredibly time consuming. Even if Jett were able to find appropriate child care she’d still need to be excused from court proceedings several times a day in order to express milk. Postponing her jury duty for a few extra months makes it more likely that she’d be able to serve well, rather than being distracted by her rock-hard boobs and the fear of squirting breastmilk all over her fellow jurors. I don’t think that it was right of her to just skip out on jury duty and I don’t think that it was wrong of the judge to hold her in contempt of court under the circumstances, but mothers of infants should be given some leeway in regards to rescheduling jury duty.

Lawmakers have proposed legislation that would allow breastfeeding mothers with young children to be excused from jury duty. This hasn’t gone over well.

Brian Frosh, Chair for the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, said the law would cause more people to try to postpone their duties, “If you start saying, we’re gonna excuse people for breastfeeding, you’ve gotta say ok to kidney dialysis, chemotherapy and all the other maladies that afflict the human condition.”

Frosh was also quoted as saying, “I really hope we don’t have to get in the business of passing laws for every excuse you may have for jury duty,” because obviously chemo is a lousy excuse for skipping out on one’s civic duties. Did my sarcasm come across clearly enough there? Because clearly Frosh is a dick. I mean seriously, chemo isn’t a good enough excuse to be excused from jury duty? Has he ever met anyone going through chemotherapy?

Frosh’s dickheadery aside, I think that Jett screwed up big time by failing to report. The law is law. Had she responded to letters and agreed to reschedule she wouldn’t be in this position.

A Utah couple recently lost their second child. Their first child died in 2003 after accidental asphyxiation while sleeping in her parent’s bed. The second child, whose cause of death was undetermined, died in the night sleeping between his parents. The couple is being charged with child-abuse homicide. According to court documents, the couple was warned against co-sleeping by their pediatrician the day before their child’s death. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Prosecutors and health officials say the case should serve as a reminder to parents to put their kids to bed in a crib, in part because studies have found connections between bedsharing and SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome.

“If you do it safely, the risks are so low. The fear is really taken out of it,” said Melissa Knighton, a Salt Lake City mother who sleeps with her 19-month-old daughter, Abigail, and uses a crib to store toys. “By just saying, ‘The child died of co-sleeping,’ that doesn’t tell us anything at all. There’s dangerous ways to crib sleep, too.”

I don’t know what to make of this. First of all, I can’t imagine the grief this family must be feeling. But I’m not sure about whether it’s right to prosecute them for parenting. I don’t know the circumstances of how they slept. I don’t know if the parents are drug or alcohol users/abusers, if they sleep in a fluffy bed full of pillows, down comforters and feather beds, if they’re obese or if they’ve just been the victims of misfortune. Without knowing more details about the sleeping arrangements it’s difficult to determine whether this was a form of child-abuse homicide.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller - who said she nursed her children and occasionally fell asleep, only to startle awake - said her office is not out to prosecute co-sleeping parents when deaths occur.

The couple were reportedly heavy sleepers, and advocates advise against co-sleeping in such cases.

We co-slept off and on for the first year of Sam’s life. I didn’t want to at first because I was terrified of SIDS, but nighttime nursing sessions inevitably ended up with both of us falling asleep. I’d startle awake and transfer him to the pack n play beside our bed six or seven times a night. But then I found myself startling awake to check to make sure he was breathing. If I couldn’t hear him or couldn’t feel his little chest rise and fall I’d panic and hover above him looking for signs of movement. As sleep deprivation took its toll it became easier to just adjust his swaddle and put him on his back beside me. Then I read some arguments in favor of co-sleeping.

Here are the preliminary findings based on mother-infant pairs studied in the sleep-sharing arrangement versus the solitary-sleeping arrangement (Elias 1986, McKenna 1993, Fleming 1994; Mosko 1994):

Even though these studies are being conducted in sleep laboratories instead of the natural home environment, it’s likely that within a few years enough mother-infant pairs will be studied to scientifically validate what insightful mothers have long known: something good and healthful occurs when mothers and babies share sleep. (read the full article at Dr. Sears’ website)

Dr. Sears and other co-sleeping advocates made me feel better about my choice to keep Sam in bed beside me. We took all precautions, making sure that no pillows or blankets were close to Sam and always placed him on his back. Nighttime wakings were frequent, but rolling over to nurse became second nature and I no longer had to fully awaken. When he started sleeping for longer, six-hour stretches when he was about four or five months old we moved him to a crib in his own room, next door to ours. Each night when he’d wake up to nurse I’d bring him into bed with me where he’d stay until morning. We kept this arrangement up until he was close to a year old and no longer slept well in bed beside me.

I truly believe that co-sleeping is beneficial for mothers and babies when done safely.

The research on bedsharing and infant death is mixed. A 2005 study of SIDS deaths in Scotland found the largest risk occurred when parents slept with infants on a couch and when the baby was less than 11 weeks old. Other studies have found a higher risk of SIDS with infants of low birth weights, among mothers who smoked, among parents have consumed alcohol or are overtired.

Supporters of co-sleeping often cite James McKenna, director of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame. He says a blanket admonishment is simplistic and confuses “normal, healthy human behavior” with pathology.

I’m sure that co-sleeping is dangerous if you’re drunk or stoned or on a soft, fluffy couch. But for the parents who aren’t reckless, for parents who sleep together with their child mindfully and safely, co-sleeping allows for a good night’s sleep and provides bonding time for working parents who don’t always have the luxury of spending time with their baby during the day.

To sleep safely with your child:

For more information on co-sleeping safely, the benefits of co-sleeping and the risks, Sleeping with Your Baby is an excellent resource.

First up a video from Fox News Boston. If you don’t feel like clicking over, the story is that a woman brought her five kids to Old Country Buffet for lunch. She wanted to nurse her youngest privately in the banquet room. The lights were on in the room and the doors were open, but the woman was told by a waitress that the room was closed. She and her family were seated in the center of the restaurant. She asked the waitress and the manager if she could just nurse her son in the room, but according to her story she was told no by both employees and that she had to nurse her son at her table. She wants an apology. The manager claims she never said she wanted to breastfeed in the banquet room. The waitress claims she told the woman she could breastfeed in the room but they couldn’t eat their meals in the room. An apology is unlikely since Massachusetts has no public breastfeeding laws.

My take is that the woman doesn’t deserve an apology. She wasn’t asked to leave the restaurant she was just told she couldn’t use a private section to do so. The restaurant was perfectly comfortable with her nursing her child. She wasn’t. I can understand why the restaurant employees wouldn’t allow her entire family to eat in a closed section. The section wasn’t staffed and opening it to her family would encourage others to eat there as well. It sounds to me like the woman just wanted a private section where all of her children could eat undisturbed. What do you think?

The next story out of Albany is about a woman, Kristin Kelly, who was asked to leave the New York State Museum by an employee. She stopped to nurse her child on a bench, covered up with three blankets, and a woman wearing a name tag who looked like a museum employee told Kelly she was offended and that she should nurse her child in the bathroom. Kelly kept breastfeeding her son, but she was upset and embarrassed by the incident.

The museum’s response was that based on Kelly’s description the woman who asked her to move was probably not a museum employee. They also want to stress that they are family friendly and women are welcome to breastfeed wherever they want. New York state laws protect a woman’s right to breastfeed wherever they want.

It sounds to me like the woman who asked Kelly to move was probably not a museum staff member, but if she was I think the museum’s response was appropriate. It sucks to feel nervous and embarrassed when you’re trying to feed your child in public, but it’s good to know the museum was on Kelly’s side. But three blankets! She really wanted to make sure she was adequately covered. I’ve always found that the more you try and hide what you’re doing the more attention it seems to draw. I’d like to recommend a Hooter Hider. They’re lightweight, stylish, and you only need one to cover up completely.

When I first saw the title of the article, ‘Breast is best’ message flawed, I was a bit concerned that I’d be reading something about how formula is just as good as breast milk, and that breastfeeding is somehow causing women to feel inadequate. There’s so much backlash against breastfeeding advocates these days that I’m prone to worry when I see such a curiously titled article. But a scientist out of the University of Wollongong says that the use of the phrase “Breast is best” to promote breastfeeding is misleading and fails to communicate the importance of breastfeeding, an opinion I can get behind.

“In fact, these messages may have obscured the importance of breastfeeding to infant and maternal health and the well-established risks associated with early weaning from breastfeeding,” Ms Berry said. “To say that ‘breast is best’ is to suggest that what breastfeeding offers is a handful of optional bonuses and that formula-fed infants are the normal standard for comparison. In fact, human babies were designed to be fed human milk.”

The point about using breastfed babies as the control group, not the exception, when conducting research is especially important. Many of my friends who breastfed had children who were smaller than average according to the percentile charts. Some of these babies had to go to the doctor on a weekly basis for weight checks, causing their mothers to worry needlessly. The percentile charts used are based on formula fed babies, babies who are generally heavier than their breastfed counterparts. Using the WHO breastfed baby charts as a rule could eliminate some of this needless worry.

The Mother’s Milk Bank of New England won the contest at Ideablob!

Tanya at the Motherwear breastfeeding blog writes:

The Mothers Milk Bank of New England won $10,000 in the Ideablob contest! The official announcement was made today at an event in Boston.

Thank you many times over to everyone who voted, who encouraged friends and family to vote, who blogged about it, and who wished us luck! You made a big difference for the milk bank and for families in our region.

The milk bank plans to open this May. Here’s some info from their site about the donation process.

Mothers who have more milk than they need and want to donate have to pass the health requirements, including a written medical history, notes from the mothers’ and babies’ doctors, and a blood test to ensure neither are carrying a communicable disease. Things that could disqualify a mom from being eligible to donate include women who drink more than 2 ounces of alcohol a day regularly and those who use tobacco products. A mom must be willing to donate at least 100 ounces of milk and her baby needs to be less than a year old. Mothers who choose to donate pump their milk at home and store it in the freezer. When they are ready to give the milk, they put it in a special cooler and ship it frozen overnight to the milk bank so it doesn’t spoil. Bar-Yam said at the bank the milk is thawed, tested, pasteurized, refrozen and shipped to the babies who need it, mostly premature and hospitalized.

I think I’m now officially the last breastfeeding blogger to post this, but just in case you haven’t seen it, I’m posting it again.

Breast milk contains stem cells

“The point is that many mothers see milks as identical – formula milk and breast milk look the same so they must be the same. But we know now that they are quite different and a lot of the effects of breast milk versus formula don’t become apparent for decades. Formula companies have focussed on matching breast milk’s nutritional qualities but formula can never provide the developmental guidance.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Stonyfield yogurt, makers of the popular Yo Baby line, is releasing a new kind of yogurt for pregnant and breastfeeding mommies called, you guessed it, Yo Mommy. Their baby yogurt, in all of its full fat, sugary, organic glory is delicious. One can only hope that their new “mommy” yogurt is just as good.

Here’s their press release:

(PRLog.Org) – Jan 18, 2008 – Londonderry, NH – Stonyfield Farm, the world’s leading organic yogurt-maker, announces YoMommy, the first yogurt created to address the specific nutritional needs of pregnant, nursing and new moms, and their growing babies.

YoMommy comes in 4-ounce four-packs at a suggested retail price of $2.99. Flavors include Strawberry and Peach, and Blueberry and Raspberry. YoMommy is now available nationwide in natural food stores and in select grocery stores.

While I don’t necessarily agree that, “Enjoying Stonyfield Farm’s YoMommy, a healthy and delicious yogurt from a brand name that you trust, is the simplest way to nourish yourself, which will go a long way to taking care of your baby as well.” really is the “simplest” way to eat well, I know that a few extra vitamins, minerals, DHA and probriotic cultures won’t hurt, especially if you, like me, spent the first trimester eating mostly crackers and french fries.

The Lactivist posted about an online contest going on at Ideablob that allows anyone to post a business or non-profit idea and compete for $10,000, given away each month. The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog is also encouraging people to vote.

One of the contestants is The Mothers’ Milk Bank of New England, a newly formed non-profit milk bank serving babies, hospitals, and families throughout New England.

The Milk Bank will provide screened and pasteurized breastmilk to premature and critically ill babies, primarily in neonatal intensive care units. This milk will be donated by volunteer mothers in our region. For sick and premature babies, breastmilk can mean the difference between life and death, and a short or long hospital stay. Studies have shown that premature babies who receive banked milk are far less likely to suffer life-threatening complications and have much faster recovery rates.

The Milk Bank needs money for:

1) Processing and storage equipment. $5,000 for the purchase of equipment; freezers, pasteurizers, refrigerator, etc.

2) Milk Money Fund. Insurance doesn’t always cover the cost of donor milk. $3,000 would be for our Milk Money Fund, to provide donor milk to families who cannot afford the processing and shipping fees.

3) Start-up marketing costs. $2,000 for publicizing the Milk Bank in our region, particularly to recruit potential milk donors i.e. radio public service announcements, web and print materials to educate the parents and medical providers about milk donation and use.

So, here’s our chance to make a big difference today. Here’s what to do:

·Go to the Milk Bank page on IdeaBlob, and vote for this project! You have to register first and confirm by email, which doesn’t take long.

·Blog or post about this wherever you can to help bring in more votes.

Thank you for your time today! And cross your fingers…

Of course breast is best, but if you feed your baby formula you may want to consider the risks of Bisphenol-A which has been found in mosts brands of baby formula. In December CNN reported that

The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit research organization focused on public health and the environment. It does not take money from special interest groups. The group previously raised concerns about the presence of BPA in plastic baby bottles and is pushing for regulation of the compound.

“BPA is a chemical that is harmful at very low doses,” says Jane Houlihan, the organization’s vice president for research. “We’re talking about millions of babies exposed every year to this toxic chemical that’s found in infant formula.”

The Environmental Working Group surveyed the top five manufacturers of baby formula to determine whether they used BPA in their packaging. Here’s a summary of their findings:

* The makers of Nestlé, Similac, Enfamil and PBM (who make store-brand formulas sold at WalMart, Target, Kroger and dozens of other retailers) all said that they use BPA in the linings of metal cans holding liquid formula.

* Powdered formulas are a better choice. Our calculations indicate that babies fed reconstituted powdered formula likely receive 8 to 20 times less BPA than those fed liquid formula from a metal can.

To avoid exposing your child, breastfeeding is the best choice. Powdered formula is the next safest choice, especially Similac and Enfamil whose packaging only contains BPA on the tops and bottoms, not the cardboard sides. If you must feed your baby liquid formula, concentrated formulas in plastic containers are a better choice than ready to serve formula since the concentrate requires dilution.

I can’t even imagine being in this woman’s situation. Her baby was in coach with her partner while she was flying business class from Australia to San Francisco. Her baby was not allowed to enter business class to be breastfed. An international flight is hard enough when traveling with an infant without the added stress of not being able to feed your hungry baby.

Breast-feeding mum wins Qantas case

Mr Butcher ordered the airline to refund Ms Costello 50,500 frequent flyer points she had used to book a business class seat instead of one in economy.

This is in no way groundbreaking research but yet another study, this time published in Pediatrics, says that the way to raise children who like fruits and vegetables is to eat them yourself while pregnant and nursing to pass on the preference.

Repeated exposure to fruits and vegetables in infancy is key, said study senior author Julie Mennella, a biopsychologist and member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “They need to taste them to learn to like them.”

Mennella’s advice: “Eat the fruits and vegetables you enjoy while you are pregnant and lactating, because your baby is going to be learning about those foods. Whether you are breast-feeding or formula-feeding, once you start introducing a food, make sure you offer your baby opportunities to eat fruits and vegetables. They need to taste them to learn to like them.”

From my limited personal experience I have to say this is true. Sam loves fruits and veggies and won’t touch cows milk, a beverage I won’t drink either unless it’s disguised by espresso and sugar. Yesterday the freak picked all of the broccoli off of his pizza, ate it, and left the pizza itself untouched. He did ignore all of the tomatoes and I’m not a fan of tomatoes either. He’s a chip off of the old block. I worry about my second child. One of the unfortunate effects of this pregnancy is that I’m suffering a serious aversion to fruits and veggies. I hope my taste for them comes back soon. A prenatal vitamin probably won’t help much for a future of picky eating.

(I’m double posting this at Kids Dish.)