“He’s using you as a pacifier!” I thought I was the only one who regularly heard this when someone noticed that I breastfed my babies to sleep, until I read it in a list among the annoying things breastfeeding women commonly hear in La Leche League’s The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. When did a pacifier—a [...]
Read More →When I work with mothers who are breastfeeding or who intend to breastfeed, I cannot overemphasize the importance of nursing on demand. This means not scheduling feedings and not substituting pacifiers or bottles for the real thing. The breasts produce as much milk as is needed, no more and no less. And a baby nurses [...]
Read More →Just this month (August) the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released it’s 2012 Breastfeeding Report Card. The news was good. In areas of initiating breastfeeding, breastfeeding friendly hospitals, and breastfeeding at 6 and 12 months, the percentage is higher than last year. When looking at the data for each individual state, one can clearly see [...]
Read More →I believe in a concept called subsidiarity. In a nut shell, it’s the belief that political decisions should be made at the lowest, most local level possible. The government, therefore, should not step in and take over matters which individuals and groups can themselves govern. Mayor Bloomberg of New York recently developed a new program [...]
Read More →I’m sure that you’ve heard by now that Facebook temporarily banned Lauren Ferrari, a blogger and Facebook user, for uploading a picture of her oldest daughter pretending to breastfeed her youngest daughter. I think it’s the most crazy thing that I’ve heard. A child pretending to breastfed is sexual? It’s child pornography? Unfortunately I’m not [...]
Read More →Apparently the internet is all aflutter with the latest in breastfeeding. The news reports that a television show is going to feature a man who helps his erectile dysfunction through breastfeeding. There is also The New York Times editorial piece featuring a gentlemen complaining about his wife breastfeeding their five year old. I understand [...]
Read More →A babymoon is a period that is set aside after the birth of a new baby for you and your child to bond and become acquainted. During this time, you can focus closely on bonding with your baby and meeting all of his or her needs. You can also focus on spending time as a “new” family.
Read More →Last week I was in the supermarket waiting in line. The lady in front of me, clearly pregnant, had her groceries on the belt. The last group of items was infant formula, the kind with the orange ring. They were Similac sensitive formula. On top of the cans was a pink WIC (Women, Infants, Children) [...]
Read More →I have two breastfed boys, and both of them like to bite. My toddler especially hurts because he has a mouthful of teeth, and he’s purposefully doing it so he locks his jaws. Although blood has not been drawn, my poor nipples look beat up with all those teeth marks. I was thrilled, then, when [...]
Read More →I practice “extended” nursing. I don’t really consider it to be extended because historically and anthropologically, the average age for weaning is roughly three years of age. According to various studies, biologically, humans would normally wean at about three years of age if it is a societal norm. What I mean by weaning is that [...]
Read More →I have to admit, I was a little shocked when I first saw the cover of TIME magazine last week. My first thought was not that there is anything wrong with breastfeeding a three or four year old, because there isn’t, but given the climate in mainstream America, that brazen of a photo would turn [...]
Read More →Editor’s Note: This post is not meant to be a discussion about vaccinations. The focus of this post is about educating our health care professionals about nursing during painful procedures. My oldest son has nursed during vaccinations. Our first two pediatricians were perfectly fine with it. In fact they were encouraging of it. Several research [...]
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