The Best Lactation Cookies You’ll Ever Eat

So I was inspired to post this cookie recipe that I deemed on the Little Sproutings Facebook Page as “the best cookies I’ve ever had – even better than DoubleTree Hotel cookies!” after my friend asked for the recipe for her friend who delivered her babies 2.5 months early. I’m not even exaggerating, not even a little bit. They are THE BEST cookies I’ve ever had. They’re the kind that are a little crisp on the outside but soft and gooey on the inside.

If you are a nursing mom, you more than likely have some intense cravings for goodies in almost all forms – burgers, croissants, huge sandwiches, and let’s be honest – cakes, brownies, cookies, chocolate… So why not make those goodies count toward your milk supply?

Filled with milk supply-supportive brewer’s yeast, flaxseed, and rolled oats, these cookies pack a good punch of lactation power. There are other supplements you can take to increase your supply, but those (like fenugreek) aren’t evaluated by the FDA and the effects on babies – especially fragile NICU babies – are unknown. However, brewer’s yeast, flaxseed, and rolled oats are safe and I’d been given the OK in the past to donate my pumped milk while having consumed these ingredients.

(A little on low supply: A lot of new moms think they have a low milk supply, but usually they don’t. If your baby is gaining weight appropriately and on breastmilk alone, you don’t have an issue with supply. For more on that, read KellyMom’s post here. It is not common for moms to have issues with milk supply – nature intended on moms to breastfeed. There is a lot of propaganda and false information out there about moms having issues with supply – this is purely a money-making tactics of formula companies. Most often it is a latch or supplementation problem, where moms supplement breastfeeding with formula, which tells the body it doesn’t have to make more milk since baby isn’t taking it.

I have never had an issue with my supply and was patient from the get-go knowing what to expect (only teaspoons amounts of colostrum to start, milk kicking in around 3-4 days postpartum), but I do like my sweets. Why not make them count? Continue reading “The Best Lactation Cookies You’ll Ever Eat” »

What’s She Doing Wednesday: Jogging Buddy

So this is what Jia’s been up to:

Very very talkative, blabbers every chance she can get! She’s communicating really well, pointing to what she wants, happy-vocalizing about 90% of the time.
Climbs as much as she can on as many things as possible.
Still doesn’t want to walk yet, but doesn’t mind walking one-handed with us.
She’s been sleeping in until about 8:30 AM clocking in about 12.75-13 hours of sleep per night. Usually goes down at 7:30 PM. That nap is still somewhat unreliable. (Now I’m going to jinx myself)
Task mimicry: putting clothes in her drawers, trying to help put dishes away from the dishwasher, wiping the kitchen table with a paper towel or baby wipes after her meals, putting toys away into the diaper bag.
Deli turkey is back on the table! She’ll eat it again, not as eagerly as she did before, but she’ll eat it. Thankfully.
It feels like she’s becoming a pickier eater. I don’t know why I say it “feels like,” because she definitely is.
She’s not scared of the slide anymore. Not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but when I took her to MyGym back in January (?) she started crying when I put her on the slide (while holding her). Tuesday we took the jogging stroller to the outlets (up a precarious hill) and Jia and I played at the playground. There were two kids already climbing around (an 18 month old and a 3 year old). After watching the two of them happily go down the slide, I put her in my lap and we went down a few times and she was smiling once we got to the bottom. After that, I put her on the slide (while I was on the ground) and held her torso as I slid her down and she had the biggest smile! Wish Jeff were with us so we could get some good pictures!
Easily gets thrown into tantrums, especially if she wants my phone and I don’t give it to her. She yells at me (as other toddlers do) hah
Swept off her feet. Most of the time she wants me to still carry her everywhere. I’ll take this as a cherished moment that is soon to end once she learns to walk.
Peekaboo Pro. During bath time Tuesday 3/17, she was standing in the tub and grabbed the shower curtain and hid behind it. I said “Where’s Jia?!!!” and she yanked it open laughing! She went on to keep doing this over and over and over! So so funny!

My Thoughts: Continue reading “What’s She Doing Wednesday: Jogging Buddy” »

Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Children (5 Years+)

Child Nutrition (5 Years and Up)

So back in my public health days, I worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s department of Child and Adolescent Health. Much of my work was dedicated to creating an educational program that supported healthy diets and physical activity of pre-school and school-aged children. I spent hundreds of hours designing a program and performing bill analyses that were written to improve overweight and obesity in the LA Unified School District. So, for a portion of my early adulthood, this topic was my jam.

The diet of a 5-year old (and up) is very similar to what our diets, as adults, should resemble: healthy and lean meats, half of the plate consisting of a variety of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, whole grains (not refined white flour that has been stripped of its healthy fiber), etc. It’s hard enough for us to follow, but it is of paramount importance for us to get our kids off on the right foot in these early years.

If you missed previous Nutrition in a Nutshell posts, click the links below

Nutrition in a Nutshell For Your Sprout: Infancy

Nutrition in a Nutshell For Your Sprout: Toddler & Pre-schooler

So, what should be the focus for these (still) growing sprouts? Here’s a summary:^1-9 Continue reading “Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Children (5 Years+)” »

What’s She Doing Wednesday: Earning Her Keep

Here’s what she’s up to!

I asked her to get in her infant car seat and she did! Too bad it’s just in time to make the switch to the new big convertible seat. We did end up going for the Graco Milestone for $200 after a 20% off coupon from Buy Buy Baby. It’ll go rear facing til 40 lbs and then forward harnessed and as a high back belt positioning booster. I really like it, it’s sturdy, seems much more comfortable, and it was really easy to install.
She climbs into our laps for mid-afternoon story time. If she’s playing with toys and she sees a book, she’ll take the book and hand it to us and then climb into our laps.
She’s getting unbelievably difficult at mealtimes! She’s very defiant and really won’t eat much of anything now! Man, I thought it was hard before, whew, this new phase I’m eager to pass on!
Understands how to fill up cups with water and drinking from it. Especially if this is in the bath tub. Ew.
Loves her new big girl car seat! So far. I mean, she hasn’t complained and pulled at the straps or hit it or anything. She seems content in it, I think the strap cushions at the shoulders help the comfort, and I imagine it’s much more padded and structured more comfortably than the curve of that infant car seat.
Daylight Savings Time wasn’t a breeze. Her whole Sunday was thrown off, starting from Saturday night only sleeping 10.5 hours after tirelessly rolling around for an hour, and then on Sunday night crying for a half an hour and rolling around restless for 2 hours after being put down by Grandma (Jeff and I were out celebrating my 31st birthday).
She understands what diapers are and how we put her wet (cloth) diapers in a diaper pail next to her changing table. When I was unloading her Honest order (we use their disposables overnight) and Jia was “helping.” I was mixing up patterns of diapers into our storage basket and she took a disposable diaper and put it in the cloth diaper pail.
Tries to put her shoes on my feet.
She pretends to wash dishes and her high chair. She grabbed a napkin off the living room table and brought it into the kitchen and started “scrubbing” the dog dishes (video below). Later she crawled over to her booster seat at the dining table and started wiping it down, haha. I think she’s sending a message that all mommy does is chores ha!

Continue reading “What’s She Doing Wednesday: Earning Her Keep” »

Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Toddler & Preschooler

This Week’s Sproutings Saturday is featuring nutrition pointers and guidelines for Toddlers and Preschoolers. If you missed “Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Infancy,” be sure to check it out!

Quick Clicks:

1 Year Old

2 Year Old

3 Year Old

General Pre-School/Toddler Nutrition Guidelines (2-5 Years) Includes calorie requirements for each age

Iron-Deficiency Anemia in Toddlers

Toddler Nutrition (1 Year Old) Continue reading “Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Toddler & Preschooler” »

What’s She Doing Wednesday: Home Sweet Home

So as usual, this is what our Little Toddles has been up to!

She’s perfecting her fake-cackle laugh haha… it’s so funny! Jeff does this obviously fake witchy laugh and Jia tries to mimic him. It’s a very deliberate fake-laugh, that goes sort of like “eh-heheh-eh”
She’s learning how to speak use her tongue, by saying things like “dibba-dibba-dibba”
Pushes herself along in her princess car, pushing off with her feet while seated
Getting better eating with a spoon! Gran helped her learn to do this while I was in Philly. She is now scooping food onto her spoon (some of the time) and moving it toward her mouth at the correct angle!
knows the color yellow and can pick out the yellow block out of pink, purple, and green ones
Is very eager to turn lights on and off with the wall switch, she’s really good at it too. When we walk past a light switch, she points it out (“shaaaast?!”) so she can turn it the other way. When she switches the light on, she points at the light above to show me that she knows they’re connected. She’s very proud of herself for being able to turn the light switches. We’re pretty proud of her too 🙂
Can stack 2 blocks together
Is getting very defiant when she’s holding something in her hand and we remove it – she gets visibly pissed off if you take it from her (specifically the iPhone)
Definitely getting to that stage where she can’t stand to sit still
Getting the hang of walking one-handed, practice practice practice!
When I yell at the dogs for doing something they shouldn’t be doing, Jia says “bad boy!” and smiles at me, because she knows this is the response they’ll get from me, haha. This comes after a string of events of Kona pooping in the house because he refuses to poop out in the snow, or eating my kleenexes from the trash can.
This isn’t new, but since it’s cold, dry, and wintry, we (like lots of babies) have frequent cases of the boogers and I thought I’d share. I got a Nose Frida Snot Sucker as a registry gift way back when and bought some Boogie Mist saline spray for when the time arose. Time has arisen. But the funny and cute thing, is that Jia really likes the saline spray and likes it when I suck those boogers out! I have no clue why, but she lowers and positions her nose on to the saline spray nozzle and to the Snot Sucker tube for me to use on her. Same goes with Q-tips, she knows I’m going to clean her ears, so she stays really still and angles her ears to me. Girl likes hygiene, can’t argue.
While I was gone in Philly: Jia did really great and so did Gran (Jeff’s mom). Of course Jeff was home while I was gone, but he had to go to work obviously, so Jeff’s mom stayed at our house and watched Jia from Tuesday evening (I left Wednesday afternoon) until Saturday afternoon. Jia went down for naps and bedtime without any crying and zonked out! She learned a lot with Gran (the spoon, yellow blocks) in the short span they were isolated together and I rested easy knowing she was happy. The evening before I came home she had a tough time after Gran showed her some photos of Jia and me together, but she was back to her perky self when dinner time came around.

Continue reading “What’s She Doing Wednesday: Home Sweet Home” »

“Mom’s out of Town” Dad’s Post: The Measles Vaccine Debate

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate… is that really the question?

There have been many articles written on this debate. Both sides entrenched on the side of doing what they believe is right, and launch scathing comments about the extreme views of the other side. But what is this debate really about? Is it simply a case of the facts vs. beliefs or can we find a common ground with which to discuss. As a religion enthusiast, I feel this argument has some dangerous conclusions on both sides, and, in many cases of discussing beliefs in right and wrong, I think we missed the point. Continue reading ““Mom’s out of Town” Dad’s Post: The Measles Vaccine Debate” »