The Breastfeeding Babies Blog
I'm really passionate about supporting mothers and their families through their breastfeeding journey and aside from giving you all the information you need to empower you to have the best experience possible, it's nice sometimes to have a rant about some of these issues!
To get all the latest opinion pieces and any new pages I add to the site you can follow me on Twitter Follow @BfeedingBabies
and check out my Facebook page at BreastfeedingBabies or you can subscirbe to the RSS feed (to your left).
Also, If you'd like to see some of the old blog posts There's a back catalogue of some of the better, less time sensitive posts.
Enjoy!
May 15, 2013
Breastfeeding lowers ADHD risk - now here's some interesting new research!
Somehow when I read research about babies being healthier when breastfed I'm always thinking to myself "but of course, that makes sense". For instance that they are less likely to enterocolitis and other diseases - breast milk has antibodies in it so that just makes sense, why study it in my opinion?
This is really interesting though - ADHD is such a big thing at the moment, with rates of diagnosis on the rise (though is that just because the scope for diagnosis has broadened? Or that there is a label for "difficult children" now? Many questions about that remain to be answered in the longer term!)
But how good do you feel knowing that every extra month of feeding you're helping your baby's brain develop (I know we had the IQ thing about babies being breastfed having higher IQ, but the amount of gain was slim compared to this!).
Continue reading "Breastfeeding lowers ADHD risk - now here's some interesting new research!"
May 10, 2013
Newborn Cloth Nappy Fold
Here's my video tutorial on how to fold a terry square for a newborn cloth nappy. This is my favourite way to fold terry squares
May 07, 2013
Egg and Avocado Sushi Hand Rolls - The Ultimate in Toddler Dinners!
This is my 2.5 year old's favourite dinner - he loves helping me make them
Continue reading "Egg and Avocado Sushi Hand Rolls - The Ultimate in Toddler Dinners!"
May 06, 2013
Bacon Wrapped, Stuffed Chicken Thigh
These are one of my favourite slow cooker easy meals for winter or summer - bacon wrapped stuffed chicken thigh
May 01, 2013
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
I've been asked so many times for my chocolate zucchini muffins recipe that I thought I'd just put it up online!
May 01, 2013
How embarrassing, my cooking misadventure.....
So I'm going to blame this on pregnancy because thankfully I can, but I'm not so sure that pregnancy is the reason.......!
I baked a lovely cake this afternoon, a coconut orange yoghurt cake, sounds impressive huh? I've made this one before and was a bit annoyed at how dry it was so I made it a bit more yoghurty today...... Thankfully not too much because......
When I put it in my springform tin I rather stupidly had the side on the base upside down....... S of course as I went to pick it up off it came and out poured the mixture.....!
I was pretty lucky and managed to salvage most of it but I mean really, who does that,!!!!!
Apr 29, 2013
Symptoms of Mastitis
Week 3 into my breastfeeding relationship and I'm getting symptoms of mastitis. Self massage and sleep help ward off a severe bout of mastitis.
Apr 21, 2013
Attachment Parenting and Breastfeeding - It Doesn't Have To Burn You Out
I subscribe to a few parenting forums to get a good idea of what other parents are having trouble with and I frequently see some poor "attachment parent" struggling with no sleep, or no time to themselves at all (yes I know parenting is a bit like that, but this is with particularly high needs babies at 8, 10, 12 months plus).
I think that there are a few issues that come up fairly consistently and one of them is the baby only attaching to the mother, or if they're particularly lucky the father as well, but no one else.
Now this opinion I'm about to offer won't be right for everyone and every baby but sometimes I think it can occur because parents choosing to use an attachment parenting method use breastfeeding to calm every single cry rather than taking into account that their baby may just be overstimulated, cold, tired, have a dirty nappy or pains in their tummy.
I think breastfeeding can become something that is used before thought has been given to how else a baby could be soothed such as a cuddle, a walk, some calm singing etc.
The other problem that occurs in our society is that we are not a community that is raising children as a village any more. It takes so much time and support to raise a child and being an attachment parent is no different - you need your community around you and the mothers who aren't coping are the ones who are cut off from people who choose to interact with their child in a way that feel comfortable with.
So, my big three hints about attachment parenting in a way that doesn't burn you out are:
- Find ways other than breastfeeding to soothe your child when they're not hungry (this won't be appropriate all the time, but it's worth trying)
- Allow other people to soothe your child - the father, the grandparent, the interested neighbour etc (after all, what would happen if your baby didn't have access to you because you got sick and needed to go to hospital? Again this won't be right in every case but it's worth starting so your baby gets used to their little community of care givers)
- Remember that attachment parenting doesn't mean no crying, it means responding in a caring and appropriate way to your baby and making them feel noticed, loved and cared for
Apr 16, 2013
Considering Milk Banking
I'm considering donating some of my beast milk (providing this baby is easy and pumping isn't too much a of a pain in the bum with two to look after).
After watching a present at about donor breast milk I realised that my milk can help premature babies far more than it can help other babies in the community and for this reason I'm not likely to end up sharing the early milk with other random mothers but instead would like it to go to my local hospital.
Apparently the use of donor breast milk can decrease the incidence of necrotising enterocolitis massively in premature infants and this is something that can be life threatening.
Pumping was never something I really enjoyed, but I believe that it's supposed to be easier in the early months than it is in those later months when your supply has regulated more
Want to know all the latest breastfeeding advice and news?
Sign up for the Breastfeeding-Babies newsletter below
New! Comments
What do you think? Any good ideas, suggestions or questions?