Today my husband took my older girls to a major league baseball game while I stayed home with my 11-month-old. The minute her sisters (i.e., the entertainment) left she started fussing! Who wants to stay home with boring old mom anyway?! Now I say this in the most loving way possible: this child is like a dog, if only in the sense that she goes to the door, bangs on it with her hands and yells until I say we’re going out! She wants to be where the action is, there’s no mistaking that.

So we headed out the door for a nice long walk. I put her in the Baby Jogger, and of course then she was all smiles! Part way through the walk she fell asleep and I stopped to read a book on a park bench underneath a pepper tree. When my daughter woke up flushed from sleep and the heat, I pulled her into my lap and she nursed contentedly until she popped off and beamed another big smile at me! We set out again, and she stayed happily in the stroller for another fifteen minutes or so. Then it was back to my arms for the rest of the way home. We must have looked quite the sight — me holding the baby in one arm and pulling the Jogger with the other (it was too hot for the sling I’d brought) because a kind woman pulled her car over to ask if I wanted a ride. I was quite happy and near home anyway, so I politely declined. The baby and I continued, with one more pit stop to play on the grass in the shade of the trees. All in all we were out for over an hour and a half. I had brought water for me, my cell phone and keys, a book, and some diapers, but that was enough to see us through for a grand adventure!

Sometimes being a mother means being a detective. My 10-month-old had a restless night last Saturday. On Sunday she was fussy and not much interested in eating solid food, which was unusual for her. I chalked it up to teething because I could see two new teeth poking their way through the top gums.

Teething was ruled out later that night when she spiked a fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit. The next morning I started to get really worried — what would cause a fever and disinterest in food, but no runny nose, vomiting, or diarrhea? Had she managed to swallow something she shouldn’t? I started researching by reading the fever information at AskDrSears.com. Roseola sounded like a possibility but it didn’t explain why my little one didn’t want solids. Then I came to the information on Mouth Sores, Coxsackie Virus (Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease). I gently pulled down my baby’s bottom lip to get a look inside — as best as she would let me — and saw what I suspected were mouth sores. Mystery solved! After three nights of fever, and four very fussy days (what do you do with a baby who doesn’t want to be put down but doesn’t want to be held either?! Answer: Distract her! Entertain her! Put on a three-ring circus!), she’s back to her happy self. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am so happy to be nursing. Breastfeeding saved us during the four days that my 23-pound 10-month-old had zero interest in solid food. She nursed happily, no problem there, and nursing also helped settle her to sleep. My milk supply increased to handle the extra demand, and she did not lose any weight or become dehydrated. If anything I think she weighs more now (or that could just be how I feel after carrying her around these past few days!)

This rather shocking quote affirms everything I have always felt about breastfeeding. You can’t replace breastfeeding with formula, or even breast milk with formula; they simply aren’t equivalent. That doesn’t make formula “bad” nor should it make formula-feeding mothers feel guilty. It acknowledges that breastfeeding is part of an intimate relationship between mother and child.

To reduce breastfeeding to milk is like reducing sex to semen.

– Rachel Myr, Lactnet list facilitator, named “Midwife of the Year 2008″ in Norway, as quoted in Lactnet

This latest installment in the Mom-to-Mom question and answer series deals with advice for families planning a car trip with a baby. After reading The Value of Traveling with Your Baby, reader Christina asked the following question:

I am actually taking my first trip with my 4 month old this weekend to a wedding. It will be a 7 hour car drive - any advice for the car trip? And on a tangent - any advice for breastfeeding in a dress or am I doomed for separates?

Great question! When my first daughter was four months old we drove from Boston to Detroit and the trip went really well. Car trips with a baby take just a little advance planning. Hopefully other readers will chime in with their advice, after I get started with these tips: Read more

While it’s not always easy to travel with a young baby, the rewards of doing so are great! I recently traveled to Newport Beach, California, for a La Leche League conference and I took my 10-month-old with me. It was a grand adventure being away for the weekend and my daughter made a developmental leap — something I have noticed happening with each of my three children when we travel!

Some of the benefits of traveling with a baby:

~ The extra stimulation from new places and new faces when we travel has led to new words or first steps for my children at all different ages. This time my daughter went from taking a few wobbly steps here and there to becoming an official “walker”!
~ When you see new places, things and people, you naturally speak different words than you would during your regular day. Exposing your child to that expanded vocabulary contributes to language development.
~ It’s great to travel with a baby because the alternative — separation of baby and mother — can be very stressful for both! Certainly many mothers travel for work and express their milk while they are away, but others make arrangements to bring along a partner, other family member, or a babysitter who can care for the baby during the day.
~ It’s helpful for a baby who eats solid food to practice eating at a restaurant. If you want your child to behave at restaurants as a toddler, preschooler and older child, make an effort to expose him or her to restaurant dining early on! Practice your skills nursing in public and you might just find your baby does very well in the restaurant environment.
~ Nursing mothers especially have the luxury of bringing a food and comfort source with them that helps a baby cope with the excitement of new experiences. In particular it is wonderful that the breastfed baby will nurse to sleep in a new bed, and potentially sleep as well in a hotel or other strange room as at home (especially if you are a co-sleeping family!)
~ Traveling with a baby may not be a “vacation” in the usual reading-a-book-on-the-beach sense, but as my friend reminded me, “A change is as good as a rest.”

Do you have to travel far for a baby to benefit? Absolutely not! “Travel” does not have to mean an expensive trip away. It can be a day trip to the beach, a zoo, or a new park. Get out and about with your baby and you both will benefit!

Have you traveled with your baby? Where is the most exotic or far-flung place you’ve gone?

Last fall my family purchased a share in a Community Supported Agriculture farm (CSA). It’s been a wonderful thing. The kids like to have a “feast” from the organic fruits and vegetables we get in the basket delivered from the farm to our pick-up site. They enjoy old favorites like apples and pears, and make new favorites like kohlrabi (in lemon, olive oil, and salt).

Today we got the opportunity to visit the farm to pick strawberries out in the field. The field trip (forgive the pun) showed the kids exactly where their food grows. The experience was educational and tons of fun! There’s nothing quite like setting loose a 10-month-old in a row of strawberries and watching her pick her own berry and pop it in her mouth! When she tired of that activity and needed to reconnect with me, I didn’t have to head back to the car, I just sat right down in the field and nursed her. It felt great to be cuddling my baby in the sunshine. As far as I know, no one paid us any mind, they were all so busy picking strawberries.

We came home with over 10 pounds of organic strawberries for $10.75! I nursed my little one to sleep for her nap and had a chance to process all the strawberries. The perfect ones went into the refrigerator, the ones that got a little bruised in transit got frozen whole, and the ones on their last legs got pureed and frozen.

Our u-pick adventure was unique and memorable, and I credit nursing for making it easy and enjoyable too!

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) have issued strong guidance on the importance of breastfeeding for protection against the H1N1 swine flu. The CDC states, “Infants who are not breastfeeding are particularly vulnerable to infection and hospitalization for severe respiratory illness.”

Thus, the CDC urges new mothers to initiate breastfeeding early and to feed frequently. Mothers already breastfeeding should continue to do so, even if they become ill. Formula feeding should be avoided or minimized and breastfeeding maximized. In the Health News Digest, USBC Chair Joan Younger Meek, MD, MS, RD, FAAP, FABM, IBCLC, recommends breastfeedng in emergency situations such as a swine flu outbreak:

Research clearly shows that breastfeeding provides a safe, reliable food source, full of disease-fighting cells and antibodies that help protect infants from germs and illnesses. Mothers exposed to influenza produce specific protection for their infants and transmit this through their breast milk. Infant formula does not provide these specific infection fighting properties. Unnecessary formula supplementation should be eliminated so the infant can receive as much benefit as possible from maternal protective antibodies and other immune protective factors.

Key points from the CDC swine flu guidance include:

1. If a mother is ill with swine flu, she should continue breastfeeding and feed the baby more often. If she is too ill to feed at the breast but can pump, expressed breast milk should be fed to the baby. The risk of transmission of the H1N1 virus through breast milk is unknown, but reports of transmission of the regular, seasonal flu through breast milk are rare.

2. If the baby becomes too ill to feed at the breast, he should receive the mother’s expressed breast milk or donated human milk from a non-profit milk bank.

3. Antiviral medication treatment and prophylaxis are compatible with breastfeeding.

4. All usual precautions against virus transmission should be taken, including hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes.

Researchers have long known that breastfeeding mothers benefit from less incidence of breast and ovarian cancer and type II diabetes than formula-feeding mothers. A new study shows yet more strong correlation between breastfeeding and lower rates of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Nearly 140,000 post-menopausal women were studied in the Women’s Health Initiative. According to the Vancouver Sun (via One Small Step for Breastfeeding…), the study revealed breastfeeding’s heart health benefits on three levels:

1. Risk Factors. Women who breastfed their babies had lower incidence of the following three risk factors for heart disease: diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

2. Cardiovascular Disease. Women who had never breastfed were significantly more likely to develop heart disease than women who breastfed for seven months or more.

3. Heart Attack and Stroke. Women who breastfed for a cumulative 12 months or more in their lifetimes had a 10% lower incidence of heart attack, stroke, or heart disease later in life.

Researcher Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, MD told WebMD:

The longer women nursed babies, the less likely they were to develop diabetes, heart disease, or stroke. Any breastfeeding was good, but more was better.

The complete study appears in the May 2009 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

What’s the free postpartum contraceptive option for women? It’s called the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM). I have written about the pros and cons of LAM before, so this time I want to highlight a comprehensive article on LAM (PDF) offered for free by USAID Global Health eLearning Center and the ACCESS Family Planning Initiative.

The informative four-page brief is designed to help health care professionals offer LAM guidance in their maternal, child, and family health care practices, but it would be helpful for any woman who wishes to practice LAM. I like how the article uses LAM as a springboard to discuss exclusive breastfeeding, family planning, child spacing, a return to fertility, and transitioning to other appropriate contraceptive options.

A groundbreaking program at UC San Diego Medical Center encourages mothers of premature infants to initiate lactation and express breast milk to provide for their preemies who cannot suckle at the breast full-time or even part-time. The CBS interview linked to below reveals fascinating information about the life-saving benefits of breast milk for pre-term babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. What’s even more interesting is that the expressed breast milk provides a benefit not only for the babies but for their mothers as well! Cathy Robinson, the mother of premature twins Naomi and Caldwell, explained:

You can’t be there [physically in the NICU] all the time. So it was my way to be able to be there for them all the time. I’m providing for them.

This sentiment echoes exactly what Australian researcher Linda Sweet found when she interviewed parents for her study “Expressed breast milk as ‘connection’ and its influence on the construction of ‘motherhood’ for mothers of preterm infants: a qualitative study,” published in the International Breastfeeding Journal last December. Sweet concluded:

Providing expressed breast milk offered one way the mothers could be physiologically and emotionally connected to their preterm infant while they were in the constant care of hospital staff. Indeed, breast milk was considered the only way the new mother could connect her body (or part there of) to her preterm baby in hospital.

International Breastfeeding Journal 2008, 3:30.

You can see Cathy Robinson’s story and learn invaluable information from the UC San Diego Medical Center staff on the importance of breast milk for premature infants in this CBS interview. Thanks to Mama Knows Breast for highlighting this video!