Category Archives: Breastfeeding

Sleep Training Part 1: Weaning from Night Feedings

“Awww, how cute. Is she sleeping through the night?” Seems like I got this question 1 out of every 3 strangers we met. For me, I didn’t mind it too much. That’s because when she was little, she wasn’t expected to (not yet) and when she was older, she slept for about 5 hours at a time so I wasn’t complaining. However, it doesn’t help me from feeling like I’m jinxing ourselves for that night. If you’re a new parent, I’m sure you have gotten this question a fair number of times.

This post is mostly for new parents who have heard about “sleep training,” but don’t know the details, parents who are having restless nights, those sleeping in few-hour increments, those who have babies who cry a lot when put to bed, and those who are anticipating the need to sleep train to get those delicious-sounding 12-hour stretches with baby sleeping soundly.

If you’ve already weaned from night feedings and need to know the next step, or have already read this post, read Part 2: Sleeping Through the Night.

So what’s “Sleep Training”? Continue reading “Sleep Training Part 1: Weaning from Night Feedings” »

The Gift of Milk Giving

Fa La La La La!! ‘Tis the season for giving, so I thought, hey this would be an appropriate topic to cover!

I very recently ran into a new mom (Hi, Christa!) at Buy Buy Baby who isn’t able to feed her newborn breastmilk due to a protein intolerance. She expressed her disappointment that her frozen milk is going unused. So, I suggested milk banking. After voicing her interest in the topic, I mentioned Little Sproutings (of course) and the post I’d written earlier that mentioned milk banking (“Boobienomics: Nature’s Supply & Demand). One of my loyal Sprout readers also suggested the topic, so how could I not dedicate a post to something I feel so proud to have been a part of?

A quick bit about my experience: I donated almost 600 ounces of milk to The King’s Daughters Milk Bank, in Norfolk VA after we realized we couldn’t feed any of my pumped milk to Jia. If you recall, we went through a process of eliminating dairy and soy from my diet (see: My Little Soy-Free Dairy-Free Sprout) so the milk I’d pumped couldn’t be given to her. I had a freezer almost entirely filled with frozen bags of milk (and no room left for food)! The milk bank I contacted made the process quick and painless!

So for those of you who have been lucky to have a supply like I was/am, your little one is past the point of breastfeeding and you’ve got a stash, or if your baby isn’t able to drink the milk you have saved up, here’s some info about a wonderful thing you can do with your liquid gold! Continue reading “The Gift of Milk Giving” »

The Skinny on Postpartum Belly Binding

So, remember when I wrote my first post “Why Little Sproutings was Planted,” and I mentioned that I wanted to bring to light things that I wish I’d known sooner, products I wish I’d had from the get-go, or things I did wrong from the start? Well here’s one of them…

I recall watching an interview of Jessica Alba on a late night show, probably something like Jay Leno. She’d mentioned that she wore two corsets postpartum to get back her pre-pregnancy body, that it’s not for the faint of heart, and that it was sweaty but worth it. I think I thought to myself, “geez, well that’s why it sucks to be in Hollywood…” (couldn’t find the video, here’s a published interview where she mentions it at the end)

I shrugged off this business of postpartum corset-wearing like I cleaned off another heaping plate of pad thai and went about my happy and pregnant day. I mean, I didn’t want to have the pressure to drop the weight super fast. I’m a real person and it’s not my job to look good, haha.

Jump ahead 9-12 months later, and I am (still) tipping the scales 10 pounds off from my pre-pregnancy weight. Truth be told, I lost the first 30 pounds of pregnancy weight in the first 2 weeks. I thought “Wow, breastfeeding seriously is the best and easiest diet EVER!” No, I didn’t think this rate of weight loss would continue, but I at least thought I would be achieving pre-pregnancy weight by the end of Jia’s second (third? fourth?) month birthday.

Boy, do I regret not looking into this earlier. Like almost a year earlier.

(Yes, I still believe breastfeeding is the fantastic, and I attribute most of my initial weight loss to hormones – oxytocin – released by BFing causing the pooch to go back into place)

Continue reading “The Skinny on Postpartum Belly Binding” »

Does Vitamin D3 do a Sprout Good?

I had all intentions on posting about Sleep Training this week. But, as I was feeding Jia her pumpkin puree and held her vitamin D dropper over her spoon to deliver her daily dose of D3 (400 International Units), I remembered a few months ago when one of my friends Natasha asked Facebook for opinions on Vitamin D supplementation for an exclusively breastfed baby. Her holdup was that her first child (non-supplemented) is perfectly healthy and that her breastmilk should be nutritionally complete. I commented back, citing the AAP (here and here) and CDC‘s recommendations supporting vitamin D supplementation. On the other hand, one of my old coworkers Katie made a very good point: her breastmilk should be complete in providing all the vitamins and minerals baby needs, without supplementation.

I continued to give Jia her daily drop of Carlson’s Baby D 400 IU of Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) plainly because it’s what our pediatrician instructed us to do, and if the CDC and AAP recommended it, that’s what I would continue to do. I guess you could say I was being a lazy nurse-mom and didn’t do my own thorough research to hear the arguments on both sides.

However, yesterday (pumpkin day) a different feeling overcame me. As we are in the start of flu season (September through March), I started to consider the following: treating a sick baby really only consists of humidified air, fluids, rest, and sometimes Tylenol or Motrin (if baby’s fever is significant enough). Excess medications can unnecessarily do more harm than good on an underdeveloped baby’s system, causing more problems than there were to begin with. Continue reading “Does Vitamin D3 do a Sprout Good?” »

My Little Non-Soy Non-Dairy Sprout

September 11, 2014 marked the day I was able to finally eat and drink dairy products again. It felt like a long time coming and I was craving a multitude of dairy-filled treats, from cheesecake, lobster rolls, Popeye’s, to Thai Tea.

Whoa, Whoa – Back up! Why Dairy?

Jia, like many infants, was unable to tolerate the dairy and soy that I ingested, that passed to her through breastmilk. In reality my non-soy and non-dairy diet hasn’t been ALL THAT long, but for the past 4 months, I had to restrict my diet of anything containing soy or milk ingredients. For Jia, her intolerance manifested in blood-streaked diapers resulting from the inflammation in her gut when I ate these foods. For other babies, it can mean a lot of spitting up, gut pain and discomfort, wretching/vomiting, and even baby developing a fear of breastfeeding.

When she was about 1 month old (in March), Jia was a heavy spitter and even threw up (think: projectile) a couple days in a row either in the day time or even at that 3 AM feeding. I decided on my own to start cutting out dairy, advice that I found through a quick google search on reflux in new babies, and at the advice of one of my close friends Berry (who is a NICU nurse). Her baby was so scared to nurse because it was causing her so much belly pain, and poor Berry even had to cut out gluten, tree nuts, eggs, shellfish, fish, corn, and other nuts. (MAD props to Berry for going that distance for her adorable little baby!!!). She said that a (+) hemoccult (lab test) was confirmation for her baby, who didn’t have any visible blood in her stools, and that testing this sooner rather than later was beneficial to baby – they hadn’t realized Maddie’s allergy until she was 3 months old. Continue reading “My Little Non-Soy Non-Dairy Sprout” »

The Diaper Bag: Your Season’s Fashion Must

A parent’s diaper bag is a vital accessory once baby arrives. When Jia was pretty new to us, I would get a little bit anxious leaving the house because I really didn’t know what I needed to stuff inside of it and if there was enough of it all. Sometimes I’d go out and realize I left my nursing cover at home, or I would have an abundance of burp cloths but forgot to replenish the stock of bibs in the diaper bag. While preparing to leave the house by changing a diaper, feeding, or getting Jia strapped into her carseat, I needed my husband to make sure the diaper bag was ready.

We cloth diaper at home with Cloth-eez pre fold diapers with Thirsties Duo Wraps (with snaps) or Bummis Simply Lite diaper covers, and use The Honest Company‘s eco-friendly/baby-friendly disposables when we’re “on-the-go” for an extended period of time or for overnight. But, if we are going on a short afternoon trip, we tend to keep Jia in cloth. That being said, our diaper bag is usually pretty stuffed to the brim.

Here’s what we always have in our bag: Continue reading “The Diaper Bag: Your Season’s Fashion Must” »

Boobie-nomics: Nature’s Supply & Demand

I was just recently asked to write a post about building a milk supply, not because of difficulties in latch or getting the milk let-down going, but how to amplify a breastmilk stockpile and what to do to make sure your supply is maintained. So here goes:

So my passion for breastfeeding first started back in my days spent as a summer intern at The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, & Children (WIC) in Lafayette, Indiana. In the weeks leading up to our World Breastfeeding Week Celebrations August 1-7 (World Breastfeeding Week), the other interns and I worked tirelessly to artfully craft displays, flyers, educational games for kids to learn about breastfeeding, and other materials to promote breastfeeding. During the celebrations, we sat in breastfeeding workshops to help mothers learn about baby latching and baby holding techniques, helped educate WIC clients, and played games to create a positive atmosphere surrounding “Breast is Best.” I remember that even at the young age of 20 I was really looking forward to breastfeeding my future baby. My most impassioned presentations in my undergraduate studies, particularly in my Nutrition Communications class (F&N 424 taught by Barbara Mayfield), surrounded the physiological/immunological benefits of breastmilk to the infant. I even flirted with the possibility of becoming IBCLC Certified to be a Lactation Consultant (I decided not to because it would be way too expensive and take way too long to complete while working full time as an ICU nurse). Continue reading “Boobie-nomics: Nature’s Supply & Demand” »