Organically Inclined » breastfeeding

No Container Babies- 5 Reasons to Wear Your Baby!

Mish — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:00:16 +0000

There is nothing I hate worse than to see a mom or dad lugging their baby around in the car seat in a store. I can’t believe a mother would rather lug 12 pounds of baby plus 15 pounds of car seat in an uncomfortable position, like a bucket of water down to the barn. It breaks my heart – the baby is usually bundled in the seat, head rocking and bouncing as the seat bangs into the leg of the person carrying it.

Why wouldn’t you want to hold your baby? Babies smell good. They’re cute and funny. And when I have one, all I want to do is hold it – and when I can’t, I bundle her into a sling and carry her around. And when I can’t do that (like when taking a shower), I make sure that someone else who loves her is holding her. My God, they are only this little once – and it goes by so fast. Once it’s gone , it’s gone – so don’t waste it strapping them into car seats (unless they are actually in the car) or swings! Hold your baby! When they’re teenagers, they won’t let you near them ( and really, they’re not as cuddly as teens, I have two teens and a “tween” and I can verify this fact)!

1. Baby wearing is convenient. I’m wearing and breastfeeding my baby right now – even as I write this! Really? Yes. Really. I can do almost anything I need to do while wearing my 3.5 month old baby…except the dishes, but I find other reasons not to do them too!

2.Babies who are worn in slings or carried cry less. There is a lot of anthropological and scientific evidence of this fact, but I’ve had six babies, so far, and of the six the only colicky, constantly crying baby I had was the one I was encouraged to put down all of the time! That was my first baby. Since then, I have either held or worn all of my babies. Kiara – the latest – gets complimented all the time on being such a good baby. I think they mean quiet. And she is. During basketball games or other outings, she just sits in my lap and looks around. She rarely fusses. In fact, when she does scream, it’s usually because I’ve put her in the car seat for a trip.

3. Babies who are worn, learn more. Yes, another scientific fact! Babies who are worn spend more of their time in quiet alertness. Because your baby’s needs are being met, she doesn’t need to spend so much time looking for attention and therefore can sort out the puzzle around her – learning to adapt to the environment, seeking things to look at, etc. Researchers have also reported that carried babies show enhanced visual and auditory alertness.

4. Worn babies are smarter. OK, this might just sound like I’m bragging, but this has been proven true outside my own household! Because the mother or father of a worn baby acts like a filter, the baby is guarded from unwanted stimuli that can bombard their wee nervous systems. They also develop their ability to listen very early and therefore their language and development abilities are cultivated earlier. For example, if there is a loud clanging in the house (the toddler knocks the pots off the dish rack), a baby alone in a swing or seat will likely respond by startling and then crying. A baby in a sling, next to her mother, will still startle, but because mother is nearby, will see it’s just a noise and that she is still fine – quickly soothed by mom. The startle then becomes a learning experience that the baby is not so afraid of the next time….rather than being “rattled” every time a loud noise occurs.

5. Worn babies sleep more! Especially in the beginning. I’ve rarely felt sleep deprived, even as a new mother…and when I have it’s usually because I spend the night excitedly gazing at my new love. Wearing a baby keeps them close – think of yourself like a Kangaroo. There is a great saying – nine months in and nine months out. Thinking of the gestational period of the baby as being 18 months makes it easier to reconcile.

Technorati Tags: attachment parenting, baby, babywearing, breastfeeding, family, mothering

Breastfeeding, Pumping, the Mommy Wars continue…

Mish — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:46:16 +0000

Recently, a fairly well-known author, Judith Warner, wrote on her New York Times blog commending Hanna Rosin for speaking out about how much, according to them, breast pumps suck (pun intended).

Warner’s article: http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/why-i-dumped-the-pump/ and Rosin’s: The Case Against Breastfeeding published in The Atlantic (a publication I used to like a lot).

Rosin’s article is a bit more blatantly anti-breastfeeding than Werner’s, but the effect of both is still the same. They are both not just encouraging women to ban the breast pump – but heralding women who say “screw it, I don’t care if breasts were made for feeding babies – my husband wants to use them!”

Very strange.

I think what is the most upsetting about these two articles (if you can call them that, Rosin’s in particular is very poorly researched), is that they seem to confirm the belief that breastfeeding isn’t better for children. In fact, Rosin goes to great lengths to try and get us to believe that formula might actually be equal to breastmilk.

The convenience of bottle feeding argument is also getting a little old. How many times do we nursing moms have to explain that it is NOT easier to bottle feed. Bottle feeding requires doing more dishes, sterilizing bottles, mixing formula – not to mention the purchasing of formula, which is expensive.

Breastfeeding is simple: lift shirt, baby eats. It’s sterile, portable and always at the right temperature.

Basically, what Rosin says is that she got sick of breastfeeding. To paraphrase, in her sleep-deprived state, she found something online that said the results of breastfeeding’s benefits were “inconsistent.” “The seed was planted,” Rosin says. And then goes on to read the results of studies that assure her that breastfeeding is only a “little” better than formula feeding. Rosin then goes on to say that the benefits to babies from breastmilk are often overstated – a claim that inspired the American Academy of Pediatrics to write to The Atlantic and rebuke Rosin’s claims.

I am also highly offended of Rosin’s claims that because I attach breastfeeding to my frugal nature, that means, that my time is worth nothing:

Breast-feeding exclusively is not like taking a prenatal vitamin. It is a serious time commitment that pretty much guarantees that you will not work in any meaningful way. Letâ€™s say a baby feeds seven times a day and then a couple more times at night. Thatâ€™s nine times for about a half hour each, which adds up to more than half of a working day, every day, for at least six months. This is why, when people say that breast-feeding is â€œfree,â€ I want to hit them with a two-by-four. Itâ€™s only free if a womanâ€™s time is worth nothing.

My time breastfeeding, staying home and schooling my children, even cleaning or doing laundry isn’t worth nothing. Just because that is how I choose to spend my time, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth something to my family. I believe it is worth a lot – as does my husband who is happy not to have to spend the money he earns on a second car, a cell phone, child care, formula – or any of the other gazillion items that children will require when both parents can’t be home – not to mention the take-out because I’d be too tired to cook.

While the breastfeeding part of this issue really upsets me, because I believe children are entitled to breastmilk the same way they are entitled to clothes and a place to live, I am really offended that Rosin continues to perpetuate the “Mommy Wars,” by saying that somehow I matter less because I choose to stay home and do these things.

Further, the idea that she doesn’t breastfeed her son “slavishly,” is even more offensive. Being a mother is nurturing, loving, supporting and while sometimes it does feel like we get left behind, if we remember that most women take on those roles of support – even in the workplace – we can rest assured that even a paycheck doesn’t determine our maternal nature.

Technorati Tags: bottlefeeding, breastfeeding, family, hannah rosin, judith warner, kids, mothering, parenting

The Family Bed: Sleep with your baby – and sleep better.

mishakennedy — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:00:34 +0000

By Michelle Kennedy Hogan
“If you don’t let that baby sleep somewhere on his own,” the prickly nurse said, “he’ll have attachment issues later on.”

“Really?” I said. “Like he might actually like me in 10 years?” This was after the birth of my fifth baby – so I was a bit more confident in my parenting skills. However, I was not so confident 16 years ago when I had my first, and then quickly after, my second baby. Both of whom slept with me. Often at the same time.

My two oldest children are now 16 and 15 and let me tell you – neither has any desire at all to spend anytime in my room – let alone my bed.

So, we can put this to rest right now. If you let your baby sleep with you he or she will not go to college with a pillow for you. I promise. It will not happen.

I started co-sleeping with my first child about two days after we got home from the hospital. After a fairly traumatic first “natural” birth experience both Matt and I were pretty exhausted. After my first two sleepless nights as a frazzled parent, I brought the poor sobbing baby I was already in love with into bed with me so I could lay down while I nursed him (which also wasn’t going so great). I promptly fell asleep. So did he. When he woke up an hour or so later, I awoke with a start – only to realize how simple that had been. I laid him on my chest and burped him (I soon learned to keep a spit-up rag on my chest!). And then we rolled over and he nursed on the other side. I fell asleep again. And so did he. Until about 7 a.m. the next morning. A full five hours of blissful sleep.

Why had no one told me this before? Why was this handy little tip not in all of the baby books? After a few more days of getting an almost adequate amount of sleep, I decided to look into this method of sleeping. Without Google to go to (way back when), I headed to the local library and learned that my new method of getting sleep was not an approved form of parenting.

Most of the books cited rolling over as one of the main reasons for not co-sleeping with your baby. I thought about it for a while. I woke up, each time, with Matt, in the same position as I was in when I fell asleep. He was always nestled in my arms – in “nursing” position when I fell asleep and when I woke up. I didn’t buy that as an argument.

Other arguments against it cited smoking and drinking as reasons not to co-sleep. I’m assuming that smoking in your bed with your sleeping infant is a bad idea, as is stumbling into bed drunk with him. Well, I didn’t smoke and I was, when I had Matt, under the drinking age – so I didn’t drink either (no, really, I didn’t).

The benefits of co-sleeping have been well documented.
According to an article by Dr. William Sears, a renowned pediatrician and the father of eight, these studies have all been done on mothers and infants ranging from two to five months in age. 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):

1. Sleep-sharing pairs showed more synchronous arousals than when sleeping separately. When one member of the pair stirred, coughed, or changed sleeping stages, the other member also changed, often without awakening.

2. Each member of the pair tended to often, but not always, be in the same stage of sleep for longer periods if they slept together.

3. Sleep-sharing babies spent less time in each cycle of deep sleep. Lest mothers worry they will get less deep sleep; preliminary studies showed that sleep-sharing mothers didn’t get less total deep sleep.

4. Sleep-sharing infants aroused more often and spent more time breastfeeding than solitary sleepers, yet the sleep-sharing mothers did not report awakening more frequently.

5. Sleep-sharing infants tended to sleep more often on their backs or sides and less often on their tummies, a factor that could itself lower the SIDS risk.

6. A lot of mutual touch and interaction occurs between the sleep-sharers. What one does affects the nighttime behavior of the other.

I will not pretend to be an expert in sleep disorders or anything of the sort. Those who are concerned about SIDS and other issues should research the evidence for themselves. I personally believe that a baby is less likely to succumb to SIDS if a parent is next to her. Having had one baby who used to like to turn blue during sleep, I know it made me feel more comfortable to be right with her all of the time. For the first few weeks of her life, I had to “nudge” her back into breathing while she was asleep. I don’t know what would have happened if I did not have her right next to me. We spent some time in the hospital and she was hooked up to all sorts of machines and monitors. Even with all of the technology around her, it still took me walking over to her bed and giving her a nudge when she turned blue.

After that experience, there was no way I was letting her sleep alone. I also believe that a mother just knows how to sleep with her child (unhindered, of course, by a night of heavy drinking). Even asleep, I seemed to “know” where my child was at all times.

But, one does have to be safe when you choose to sleep with a child. You must get rid of excess pillows, mattress pads and huge comforters. Don’t leave anything to chance.

Further, I believe that allowing a child to sleep with you when they are very young prevents a lot of problems later on. I know several parents who, when I would sit on the deck with Jack (my most recent baby) napping on me, would tell me how they let their babies cry themselves to sleep because they couldn’t “take” sleeping with them – or holding them for so long. “It only takes a few days,” they tell me. “It’s painful to hear at first, but after a while they stop or you’ll get used to the crying.”

I never get used to the crying.

I would also like to mention that at least three of the parents who have given me these lectures have children who are now in the nine and above age range and they will not go to sleep-over camps, sleep over at friends’ houses for an evening, go to Grandma’s for the weekend and spend most evenings laying in bed with mom and dad.

I have a feeling, although I’ve never verbalized this to them, that my kids know – somewhere down deep – that I will always be there. That I will not abandon them. I wonder if their kids are missing that feeling. I’ll bet, that somewhere down deep, they have a fear that their parents are not going to come and get them if they sleep somewhere else. Just a thought.

My kids, on the other hand, are all too happy to go to camp for a week, go to a friend’s house and leave me behind with a quick hug and a wave. It bums me out a little – but I know it’s for the best.

Resources for co-sleeping:

Mothering Magazine – www.mothering.com

Attachment Parenting International – www.attachmentparenting.com

organics

Technorati Tags: attachment parenting, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, nursing, sleeping baby

Breast is Best…

Mish — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:55:32 +0000

After receiving a particularly vehement comment from a young mother who claims that formula feeding is the best choice for all infants, I felt it necessary to re-post this article from last year:

http://organicallyinclined.org/2008/02/04/breastfeeding-versus-pumping-versus-bottle-feeding/

To read the young woman’s comment and my reply, please visit here.

It is disheartening to see such a young woman so convinced that formula is the best option – and that just because she can afford it, it means that it’s the best choice. Please help me, fellow nursing moms. I want this young mom and many others like her to understand the benefits of breastfeeding – and why formula, while an adequate solution, is not the best one!

Oh, and I am well aware that I am opening myself up to attacks on this issue…but I am unwilling to yield. Breastfeeding is best. There, I said it…and I’m not willing to waiver in my belief!:-)

Technorati Tags: breastfeeding

Watered-Down Baby Formula Almost Kills Baby

Mish — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:22:50 +0000

I was watching the news the other day, and watched this story about a five-month-old who was nearly killed by watered-down baby formula.

The mother told the story of how, in order to save money, she waters down her baby’s formula – never thinking that the extra water could hurt her baby!

This is quite possibly the saddest thing I have ever heard! This mother is struggling to buy expensive baby formula for her baby – thinking it is what is best for him…when she could have been feeding the child plentifully – and without watering down – if she had simply chosen to breastfeed him.

I don’t know why this mother chose formula. I have a feeling it has something to do with “not being able to breastfeed,” a common misconception among young mothers who are not informed of proper latching on procedures – and unable to afford expensive hospital lactation consultants.

At 19, I was a new mom who had no examples for breastfeeding and was also unable to afford an $80 per hour lactation consultant. I struggled for two weeks with my screaming newborn, rock hard watermelon boobs, raging hormones and the residual pain of a first natural childbirth not kindly done.

It was by sheer determination – and my baby’s willingness to eat out of whatever nipple was put in his mouth – that we were able to succeed at a full-year of nursing.

How frightening for this young mom to feel that she was helping her baby – and her pocketbook – and ended up nearly killing him.

I feel so helpless sometimes that we are determined to make formula and bottles the “norm” in American society. Encourage breastfeeding! You might save a baby’s life…

Technorati Tags: baby, baby formula, breastfeeding

The Family Bed, Revisited

mishakennedy — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:44:26 +0000

A Blast from the Past

Co-Sleeping is better, overall, for moms and babies. It allows moms and babies to sleep better and comforts babies in a way that is unparalleled by sleeping alone. If you have had questions about co-sleeping, check out this post from last year. And please, tell us your stories of co-sleeping – we’ll post them if you like.

Technorati Tags: baby, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, family, family bed, mothers, nursing

Chinese Policewoman Nursing Orphan Babies

mishakennedy — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:34:43 +0000

http://yesboleh.blogspot.com/2008/05/chinese-policewoman-helps-quake-effort.html

Just read this story about a remarkable Chinese policewoman who is nursing her own baby, the babies of mothers too traumatized by the earthquake to produce milk and several orphan babies! I wish I could send her food and water – talk about an heroic effort.

Technorati Tags: breastfeeding, China earthquake, earthquake relief, miscellaneous, mothering, nursing mothers

Frugal and Green Tip of the Day – Breastfeed Your Baby

mishakennedy — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:42:03 +0000

This is probably the most frugal and green tip I can give! There is nothing more natural – and cheaper – than breastfeeding. And any mother can do it.

But first things first. Breastfeeding is the cheapest way to feed your baby. Period. It is estimated that families will spend over $1000 a year on formula and related costs alone. Add in extra money for doctor visits because formula fed babies are more prone to ear infections and food allergies and the cost goes up even more!

Breastfeeding is easy and way more convenient than bottle feeding. One mother I know couldn’t believe that I would nurse my baby. “Isn’t it a pain?” she asked. “Why don’t you bottle-feed?”

I don’t bottle feed, I told her, because I’m too lazy.

It’s way too much work to clean all those bottles, sterilize them, remember to carry them around with me, make up extras, buy the formula, and so on. I would way rather just sit on the couch and pull out a boob.

“Aren’t you then, like, attached to your baby all the time?” another mother asked me once. “Yes,” I replied, “but that was kind of the point of having her.”

I like being “attached” to my baby. I love babies, that’s why I had them. If I didn’t want to hang out with them all of the time, then I wouldn’t choose to have children. If there is anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that babies soon grow up – too fast – and I need to cherish them, and cuddle them when they are small. Because when they are 15 they just look at me like I’m insane all of the time and talk about how they can’t wait to graduate and move out!

Breastfeeding also has a few other great benefits – like babies with higher IQs; lower cancer risks for both mom and baby; fewer food-related allergies; fewer ear infections; and leaner children longer in life.

Breastfeeding isn’t always easy. I nearly gave it up in the first week with my first born. The hospital gave him a bottle and a pacifier – and no one told me that my boobs would turn into rock-hard watermelons two days after I got home! It was so easy to nurse in the hospital without any milk in them yet. I had a full week of a crying baby and a frustrated postpartum me. It was awful. At one point I was pumping milk and giving it to him in a bottle because it was all he would take. Then, finally, my boobs settled down a bit and the baby figured it out and we happily nursed for the next 9 months or so.

And with each baby I have had some little issue – with my last baby (who is 6 months now), it was a crack so deep I thought they had relocated the Grand Canyon! But, from experience, I knew I had to just keep nursing…and we got through it. I wish I had had the Internet to refer to when I had my first. A site like breastfeeding.com or Mothering Magazine provide a wealth of information for the new or experienced mom.

Nursing, like anything else, can be frustrating at times. But the benefits far outweigh the downside. Babies should be nurtured and what better way to do that then to nurse them – and how great that it doesn’t cost a dime?

And – if you are – or you know of a new mom who needs a little help – email me, I’m happy to do what I can!

Technorati Tags: breastfeeding, family, health, mothering, mothers, nursing

Breastfeeding versus pumping versus bottle feeding

Mish — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:10:43 +0000

Looking over the news this morning, I wandered over to Mothering.com one of my favorite sites for all things parenting, and came across a blog post that someone wrote about this article on Babble.com.

The post was fairly typical, but the comments that followed it were what appalled me…not because I found them unusual, but because, frankly, they bored me. There were probably 14 comments all detailing why you should breastfeed, how you should only nurse, how bottlefeeding is bad, etc., etc. Now, I am completely in favor in breastfeeding. I encourage it to new moms whenever I can. I have written many articles detailing the benefits of nursing…and I fully support the Nestle boycott – as well as vilify the formula companies that try to make moms believe that formula is just as good as breastmilk.

But, for whatever reason, many women choose the bottle. That fact is a failure of our culture and we need sweeping changes to fix it. Women, in this society, believe that breastfeeding is gross, hard, time consuming or any of a number of things. And they use these reasons to not even try. It’s not OK, but it’s the truth.

We need to work hard to show women, especially young moms, that breastfeeding is natural and best. We need to show women that having a baby and then taking care of it by holding it and nurturing it through babywearing and breastfeeding are perfectly normal – and preferred.

We need this to happen in the hospitals and birthing centers and doctors offices. We need lactation consultants who will volunteer their time – and help women three days after leaving the hospital when the milk comes in.

I have nursed 6 children now. As I write this, number six is nursing in my lap. But I didn’t always have such an easy time of it. With my first, who is now 15, I had a horrific delivery and then was instructed in breastfeeding. My baby was a screamer in those first few days – probably because the delivery was so horrible and his poor mother was so unsure of herself! He was left to scream in the nursery and then given a bottle and pacifier without me even knowing. And no one – no one – told me how hard nursing would be once my milk came in. You try getting milk out of a rock hard canteloupe! It can’t be done – especially when you have no one around to tell you how. So, now I had a screaming baby who liked pacifiers and bottles, a chest full of huge – I mean huge, painful melons, and a mother who had bottlefed, so she couldn’t help. We called the hospital. They recommended a lactation consultant who charged $80 to come and help me out. Meanwhile, she said, feed your baby with a spoon or cup. “Are you f******* high?” I thought. I didn’t have $80. So no lactation consultant for me. Bitch.

Finally, I figured out, on my own, that if I pumped a bit of milk out, the baby could latch on. But it took almost a week and a lot of crying on both mine and Matthew’s part, before we finally settled in. And even though I now know how to breastfeed, I have still suffered my share of clogged ducts, cracked nipples and a host of other fun issues!

If I could have just heard from one other mother who survived these types of things and still nursed, I would have had a lot fewer tears.

I can understand why many mothers give it up. With the folks at LaLeche acting like you’re a freak if you can’t figure it out, who wants to keep trying?

We have to stop attacking each other as women. We have to stop judging each other for our parenting choices. I know many perfectly good mothers who used formula – my own mother included. I also know a few really questionable mothers who nursed their children. Judging individual mothers for their choices is not the way to promote breastfeeding. Breastfeeding advocates need to work to change societal expectations and at the heart of it is our dependence on corporate messages. The formula companies have worked hard to make moms believe that formula is just as good as breastmilk. Media companies have sexualized our boobs so much, we, as a society, have forgotten what they are for. And, for a culture that only recently accepted the idea of a woman going to work full time, it’s shocking to me how quickly it has become the norm. In my “circle,” I am only one of two stay-at-home (work at home) moms. Everyone else goes to work and puts their kids in daycare because they believe that they have to. But that issue is for another day.

Whether a mother chooses to breast feed, bottle feed with breast milk or bottle feed with formula, we must first learn to support each other – and then take on the rest of the world! While we are debating each other for the ways we feed our children – there are many children in this country, and around the world, who aren’t being fed – or loved – at all.

Technorati Tags: breastfeeding, family, health, kids, mothering

Author Refuses Nestlé Prize Check

Mish — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:19:05 +0000

Good for him!

From Mothering Magazine:

“British children’s author Sean Taylor, winner of the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize 2007, refused to accept a check as part of his recent award, presented in December. Taylor, who won the prize for his book When a Monster is Born, said that he could not accept the money because of his concerns over the marketing tactics used by Nestlé in their promotion of infant formula.

In an open letter explaining his decision, Taylor said that he was honored to have won the prize because it is awarded on the basis of children’s votes, but he could not accept Nestlé’s money because “their interpretation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes sets up the risk that profit is put before infant health.” After examining their baby formula marketing practices, Taylor said, “I do not feel that Nestlé are the most appropriate sponsors for this major children’s book prize.”

A global marketing report recently released by the International Baby Food Action Network found that Nestlé is the leading violator of the International Code for the Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes.

Taylor made his decision after consulting with representatives from Nestlé, anti- Nestlé group Baby Milk Action, and an unnamed third party with ‘experience in the field.’”

For more information visit http://www.babymilkaction.org/press/press12dec07.html

http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/12/book-prize-nestle.html

Technorati Tags: breastfeeding, family, health, miscellaneous