The short answer: yes. The pump and dump is more for mom’s peace of mind and pumping and dumping that sweet liquid gold does not speed up the elimination of alcohol from the body. Does that mean that you favorite vino is a no-no while breastfeeding?
Don’t throw in the sober towel quite yet; reasonable intake of alcohol is A-okay. But the term “reasonable” is not relative to each individual. W
In “Myths About Breastfeeding” Dr. Hale states, “Reasonable alcohol intake should not be discouraged at all. As is the case with most drugs, very little alcohol comes out in the milk. The mother can take some alcohol and continue breastfeeding as she normally does. Prohibiting alcohol is another way we make life unnecessarily restrictive for nursing mothers.”
And let’s face it, some days we really need those two glasses of “mommy’s juice”.
For more answers on alcohol while breastfeeding, check out these guidelines by the International La Leche League.
If you’re like me you are producing just enough breastmilk to feed your baby and no extra. I also seem to not be responding to the pump very well. Such is life.
I have two lactation shake recipes that I use and they are the only thing that works.
Basically they are the same but altered slightly for breakfast and dinner times.
Here is my breakfast smoothie.
1cup milk, yogurt and oats
1/2cup frozen fruit (I pick strawberries because their the best fruit hands down and if you want to fight with me about it you’ll loose that battle 9 times out of 10)
1 banana
1tsp nutritional yeast, wheat germ and vanilla
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
3 tablets of Fenugreek (you can get them at Walmart) I pop them open and pour them into the cup. Be careful when you pop them open because if you aren’t paying attention like me almost daily you can make a big mess.
I mix everything together and then add the tsp items because otherwise my bullet blender does something stupid and can’t like reach the stuff I don’t know how to explain it but it’s annoying as hell.
I do one in the morning and one in the evening.
My evening one is basically the same minus the banana, cinnamon and the fenugreek. I add more frozen fruit to substitute the banana.
The fenugreek kind of had a maple syrup taste and I think it tastes better in the breakfast one it’s not too great in the evening one.
I also take 3 tablets of Fenugreek at lunch and dinner so 9 a day total.
The nutritional yeast is great I sprinkle it on my food during the day. I can say from experience it’s not a good addition to EVERYTHING because it has a cheesy taste. I add it to anything I would add cheese to and it tastes fine that way.
Finally, chug that shit. Because if you don’t drink it cold it starts to get kind of gelatinous and nasty.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
After college I went and worked as a nanny, I worked for a wonderful women named Ryan. When I started there she had just had her fourth child. Ryan was a huge advocate for nursing, she really made me understand all the health benefits to it and all the amazing things that is does for yourself and your baby. She also made it look incredibly easy! So I said well duh, I’m gonna breastfeed. It will be so easy! Adelyn and I will bond and it will be perfect! No. It was not perfect. Honestly it was the worst.
I knew even before I got pregnant that I wanted to nurse our children. Before knowing all the amazing benefits, my main reason was to get baby weight off and the second because it’s cheaper.
After Adelyn was born I knew that I wanted her to latch on and start feeding in the first hour, the lactation calls it the “golden hour” It’s basically this whole hour of amazingness where the baby is supposed to be skin to skin with you and will essentially “crawl” on you to get to your nipple to nurse. I was so worried she wouldn’t “crawl” that I just brought her right to me and we started nursing. Lactation came in what felt like minutes after I gave birth and started telling me all this stuff. I was NOT in the right mind-set. They asked how she was doing, if it hurt and I said yes but it wasnt unbearable. She said it was going to hurt for a little because your nipples have to get used to it. Fine, no worries, I just pushed a baby out.. I can do anything!
About 3 weeks went by and it still hurt to nurse, to the point where I HATED when she needed to eat. I despised her. Every time she latched I would curl my toes in pain. I cried so much over how much it hurt. I once told my husband it hurt more than labor! I was on the phone with my sister-in-law just talking about it and I told her how much it hurt and that they were so red and cracked. She told me I should call lactation. I did, they said it was normal. This was NOT normal. I finally went to see my midwife who also nursed her children and she took one look at my nipples and said “OMG why did you let it go this long?!” I ended up having a staph infection and yeast infection in both nipples.
WHY?! Our latch was great, our hold was great, everything was great except my daughter has a bubble palate and wasnt sucking right. The lactation saw me, only because my midwife had to call them and told them I was having a problem. They put me on nipple shields, antibiotics, creams, and even baby girl was on meds.
We are now 4 months in and it doesn’t hurt. THANK GOD FOR NIPPLE SHIELDS! I am on a year goal of breastfeeding, if we want to go longer great but a year is the minimum unless something happens.
It was honestly the hardest thing I ever did to push through, I wanted to quit so badly. I had people just say it’s not worth it and to just give her a bottle. This is something I am so passionate about now. Yes, there are times where I’m annoyed by nursing, and it’s getting harder as Adelyn gets older and is noticing things around her now. But I know that it will all be worth it in the end!
I have been busy these past months on my baking business, which slowly gathered steam and then kind of steamrolled all over me. Not that I’m complaining! I am loving the late nights or early mornings or the non-stop baking days. Coupled with the fact that my main products are lactation goodies, I am real pleased that more moms are seriously committed to breastfeeding their little ones (like me)!
Now, it took me a while to find the lactation cookie recipe that I like the most. I have tried several lactation cookies from different online sellers and I didn’t like them very much. I have found them to be too dry, crumbly and not delicious at all.
And that’s the real reason I started http://ift.tt/28ZEJ6H
Fast forward to almost a year later and my lactation cookies and brownies steadily get sent out my door.
These are some of the vital ingredients I have in every lactation treat: rolled oats, Fenugreek, Flaxseed meal and Brewer’s Yeast Powder.
It’s very difficult to find Brewer’s Yeast Powder in the Philippines. I couldn’t find any! Eventually, I asked one of my best friends to buy it for me since she frequently travels to the US and back to Manila. The flaxseed meal and Fenugreek I would usually buy at Healthy Options, but I’ve also bought them at a nearby Organic deli store. Whole Grain Rolled Oats are easy to spot in the supermarkets and since I use whole wheat flour for my brownies, I buy those there too.
Next post, I will share with you the recipe I use for my lactation cookies. Trust me, they’re soon good you can’t resist reaching for more!
Thanks for checking in!
Since starting my mom-targeted business, I have had several people ask my if my cookies are made from breastmilk! While I have no doubt that someone, somewhere has tried this, my cookies are not those. One Bad Motherbaker’s Lactation Cookies are made to encourage lactation in nursing mothers. They will not defy the laws of nature and cause men or children or non-nursing mothers to start lactating; trust me when I say my husband has tested this theory time and time again. These cookies are great, however, for a vitamin boost in anyone’s diet.
These cookies have three magic ingredients that encourage milk production in nursing women.
Making these ingredients part of your diet is essential, nursing or not. I am no longer nursing, but I still make these cookies for my kids so that these vitamins, minerals and good fats can still be a part of their diet.
If you are nursing, and do not need the aid of a galactagogue, it is still important to get the proper amount of vitamins and minerals into your diet. These cookies, combined with your prenatals and drinking plenty of H2O can help you maintain your milk supply and the nutrients that are being passed along to your baby.
The ingredients above can also be blended into a smoothie if you are looking for a less sugary, healthier option. You can find some great mixing recipes on my blog!
