What breastfeeding moms should be eating

Since giving birth I've been so busy trying to bath my baby, do his laundry, do little chores around the house, breastfeeding, changing nappies, rocking him to sleep and eventually seeing if I could squeeze in a quick shower. I sometimes completely forget to eat, never mind eat with my baby's nutrition in mind.

While I was pregnant, I worked extra hard to eat correctly and avoid foods like unpasteurized cheeses and fruit juices, uncooked meat, raw eggs, pre-stuffed chicken, fish containing high levels of mercury, perishable meats, smoked fish, raw shellfish and alcohol. I frantically read food labels and steered clear at all costs. I made sure I took my DS24, Mum Omega supplement and had a teaspoon of Calsuba daily. 

While making sure you eat healthy when pregnant, it is equally important to continue doing so if you breastfeed. Not only to benefit your child, but also to boost your own immune system. Being sick with a crying infant is no joke. Trust me.

I just checked out this website (see below) and this is what I found to be a healthy diet:

At least two main servings of salmon per week for DHA.

Three cups of low-fat dairy products per day for calcium.

Lean beef for protein and vitamin A.

 

Legumes for protein.

 



Blueberries for carbohydrates.

Brown rice for carbohydrates.

 

Oranges for vitamin C.

One to two eggs per day for protein.

Whole-wheat bread for fibre, iron and folic acid.

Leafy greens for vitamin A, calcium, vitamin C, iron and antioxidants.

Whole grain cereal to boost energy.

Water to keep energy levels and milk production up.

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/breastfeeding-9/breast-feeding-diet

Voila! And he succeeds.

They say third time lucky hey?

On Sunday 14 July 2013 my son drinks from his bottle.

After his first feed, I express 30 ml of milk so that when he awakes, his milk snack is prepared. In anticipation I watch while he is held in Ma's arms in the drinking position. He feels the teat, recognizing the familiarity from the previous attempts (or perhaps sheer hunger sets in) and drinks till the last drop.

I am on my way to Mamma freedom.

The Big Day

It is said that the Tommee Tippee bottle is the closest you'll get to breastfeeding.

 

I was all set for The Big Day. I had researched extensively about how to express, expressing

options, storing breast milk and sterilizing bottles. I was more than prepared, or so I thought.

I had been postponing this day for a while because I'd hoped that a bottle teat would never touch MY baby's lips. In my idealistic pre-mum world, I planned to exclusively breastfeed my Elijah until the age of 6 months, and then move on to solids and breastfeed until he was a year old. If the need arose for me to express, he would drink it from a cup and not a bottle. I had read about bottles being associated to 'nipple confusion'. All I wanted was the most natural rearing methods. It couldn't be that difficult, could it?

Well yes, it's more of a challenge than I had imagined. 

The Big Day, Friday 12 July 2013
I fed Elijah as usual at around 10:00.
Bathed him at 10:30.
Continued feeding at 11:00 until he was asleep.
At around midday I started manually pumping for 30-45 minutes and expressed a measly 30ml of milk.
Stored milk in fridge.
Waited patiently for baby to awake.
Shortly after I'd expressed, I heard his cry.
My sister, who was also looking forward to The Big Day, held him in her arms and fed him his milk.
He sucked, he felt, he bit, he spat out and he cried, and cried, and cried.
She pacified him a bit and tried again and again. He would just not budge. He refused point blank to accept a teat rather than a nipple, even if the contents was exactly the same.
When my mum arrived home at 18:00 and saw the bottle, she couldn't wait to hear how he responded to a teat.
Disappointment hit when she heard it was unsuccessful. In all efforts to persevere, she filled the bottle with some warm water, and successfully fed him about 10 millilitres of it.

My Elijah may not be a fool, but his mother is determined. With my convenient new electric pump, my baby will be sucking his bottle in no time, and mommy will be able to attend her adults only Baby Shower on 04 August 2013.

The CONS about being a breastfeeding mom

Even before I became a mother, I never doubted that I would one day be a breastfeeding mom. Call me old-fashioned but it has always boggled my mind why anyone would choose to allow their child to suck a bottle, when we all know the health benefits and convenience of the God created breast.

It was only until I had my little one that I understood the numerous CONS. Yes, I heard stories about cracked and bleeding nipples, but I was prepared to bear all that for the love for my child. The truth is, what is so obvious about breastfeeding had never crossed my mind until now. It started in hospital, when I didn't have a clue how to breastfeed. I thought I'd just pop out my boob and my baby would latch like the little professional he is. Not that way at all, between the two of us, I'm not sure who was more clueless. That was day one of drama - hard rock boobs, a sleeping baby and several nurses squeezing my, once private boobs, trying to express the milk my Elijah was too lazy to suck.

With guidance, a breast pump and some pain, I conquered that and was heading towards being a professional breastfeeding mum. When I had that all figured out I ventured to go shopping with three week old Elijah. Fed him beforehand and ready to paint the town red. Only to realize that a breast baby, and a demand feed at that, is exactly that. Demanding. Anywhere, and at any time, be prepared. Did I mention I have a screamer? Needless to say my first experience in a mall made me look like a cruel, amateur mom who chose shopping above her baby's needs.

The list of CONS are endless. I have never left his side since the day he was born 67 days ago, yes I am counting the days. He demands my boobs while I'm eating, sleeping, using the toilet, in the shower, on the phone or even now while trying to blog. Not only are you forced to drop whatever you are doing, people are hardly keen to hold your little bundle of joy for fear that he'll start screaming for something only you can supply him with.

So there it is, all the CONS about breastfeeding. Will I stop you may wonder? Absolutely not. I have 9 months and 28 days to go. The look in his eyes as he devours his meal is priceless.

Expert advice, from the experts

It's Father's Day tea at my grandparents house. A norm for all special occasions in our family. We'd have lunch at our individual homes and then gather around 16:00 at the 'head quarters' for some chit chat, and more often than not, controversial topics around the delightful table of treats.

How did I think the new addition to the great grandchild list would be excluded from the heated debates? Of course little blocked-nose Elijah needed to be nursed back to health, I was just waiting for him to awake and start screaming for everyone to hear his snore. Low and behold, he entered the lions den in the arms of my aunt. Lying quite peacefully, no one had yet noticed, until seconds later it began, the familiar sound of his snoring cry. The chatting stopped and all the attention had shifted focus to little Elijah.

'Oh no! He has a cold', was the obvious concern. 'Yes a BLOCKED NOSE, not really a cold', I replied. In no time at all was I bombarded with remedies, from pure Vaseline on the bridge of his nose, to heated castor oil on his forehead, or perhaps one part Vicks to two parts Vaseline rubbed on his chest. Did I mention his only 7 weeks old, and that in the past two weeks of my son having a blocked nose I've heard more advice about blocked noses than in my 27 years of existence. As a matter of fact, I've been getting advice from just about everyone. What do I take and what do I toss?

As I sat holding Elijah while my one aunt, mother of two, adamantly picked boogers out of his tiny nostrils, my other aunt, older and qualified nurse, explained how she only ever heard of drinking castor oil if you were constipated and that it would only make everything sticky. There goes that idea I thought, especially since I had just been to the pharmacy to get it and had put it on his forehead before we arrived. So yes, I sat there and nodded and returned home with my little booger boy. And I did take my 81 year old grandmother's advice this time around about castor oil. I'll try it, and if I don't succeed, I'll move on and try something new. As if I have a choice.