I had no idea how the latest poll would turn out. When I asked “Have you ever tasted breast milk as an adult?” the answers consistently ran 2-to-1 in favor of having tasted breast milk at some point. The final results after 211 votes:

Please vote in the new poll in the side bar!

Photo credit: ar.go.naut

Many of us tasted breast milk as infants of course, but have you ever tasted it as an adult? Maybe you were curious like Friends on television, illustrating a point like this professor, using it to treat cancer, or you have a breast milk fetish.

It’s the easiest poll ever!

To see all past poll results, click here.

Feel free to leave a comment! Have you tried breast milk, why, and what did you think (keep it clean or I won’t approve your comment)?

My six-year-old walked up to me, paused, and said, “You smell like milk!” I wasn’t sure whether or not to take that as a compliment. Later in the day, my three-year-old snuggled up in my arms for storytime, and when she leaned her head against my chest, she said, “Your mum-mums smell like fruit!” Compliment, I guess! Still, I made sure to take a shower before heading out to Back to School Night!

It was bound to happen eventually. We made it all the way to the third week of school before my first grader and preschooler brought home the first colds of the season. I reminded my preschooler not to kiss or touch the baby (if anything she gives her a little too much love) but I knew we were history when she accidentally sneezed on Nicole.

At 10 weeks, Nicole is weathering the cold just fine. She’s generally as happy as ever, and she quite enjoys the sneezes! *sneeze* *coo*! The only time she gets upset is when she wants to nurse but she can’t breathe through her nose. The situation got quite desperate when I’d pulled over the car and stopped in a parking lot to nurse. It was 99 degrees Fahrenheit (so much for fall!) on the blacktop and I was alternately trying to nurse her and soothe her by walking around. It was an exercise in frustration for both of us, until I remembered the tip Sinead mentioned on this post about breast milk curing pink eye. She said breast milk can help clear a stuffy nose, much like saline nose drops. I tried it and it worked like a charm! Nicole nursed herself to sleep, I popped her back in her car seat, and we drove on our merry way!

When a breastfeeding mother expressed discomfort with nursing in public but a desire to try to do so, several other mothers on an email group jumped in with their helpful advice. That inspired me to come up with this list.

Tips for Gaining Confidence at NIP

1. Keep in mind that you only need to be as “discreet” as makes you feel comfortable. While no one ever intends to offend others, breastfeeding simply shouldn’t be offensive. It’s the most natural way to feed babies.

2. Practice in front of a mirror before you go out in public. You might be surprised with how little skin is visible.

3. Attend a La Leche League meeting. It’s a supportive environment that’s the best place to practice nursing in public. You can also ask for advice and even see how other mothers confidently latch their babies on in front of others.

4. Learn the law about breastfeeding in public in your area.

5. Find a combination of clothing that makes you most comfortable.

For more, see Tips for Nursing a Newborn in Public.

Your Experience

Do you have tips for nursing in public? Share your ideas by leaving a comment!

Remember when I interviewed Dr. Jane Morton about breastfeeding education for medical professionals? Remember when I mentioned her free online video on hand expression of breast milk? Well today I learned from About.com Breastfeeding that Dr. Morton has another fascinating free video online, this time about increasing breast milk supply when it is necessary to pump for a baby in the NICU or any baby not nursing well at the breast. It is called “Maximizing Milk Production” and in 9 minutes 35 seconds, it explains how to increase milk supply without medication. Dr. Morton recommends and demonstrates such techniques as skin-to-skin contact, breast massage, “hands-on pumping,” breast compressions, and hand expression after pumping. What was really amazing to me was to see how much milk mothers were able to hand express after a pumping session!

The controversy over the California Milk Processor Board’s objections to the “got breastmilk?” parody of the “got milk?” campaign got me thinking about human consumption of cow’s milk. Then I read an email on Lactnet that referred to cow’s milk as “bovine infant milk” and that really got me thinking.

~ Is it cruel and unethical to separate calves prematurely from their mothers in order for cows’ milk to be collected for human consumption? Do you have a moral objection to it? Do you also object to eating meat or wearing leather, or are those entirely different issues?

~ Are humans not meant to consume milk specifically designed with particular proteins and antibodies for baby cows?

I am just raising the questions; I don’t know how I feel about the answers personally. I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you consume bovine infant milk? Do you think dairy is healthful for humans? Have you eliminated dairy from your diet for one reason or another? Leave a comment!

My newborn and I had our first “official” outing (other than to the offices of the pediatrician or midwife) on the day she turned three weeks old. We attended the community talent show at the local library, which I was pleased to see had a huge display of breastfeeding information (see above) in honor of World Breastfeeding Week! The talent show was so great. There is nothing cuter than: a 3-year-old belting out How Great Is Our God, a 4-year-old barely whispering the ABCs, another 4-year-old humming the Indiana Jones theme song, and a darling girl tap dancing on industrial carpeting in the library rec room! My own 6-year-old did an abridged reading of the book Chrysanthemum. I could not have been prouder and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything! It did take a lot of coordination for me to get there with a newborn though, and it made me think of some tips for nursing a newborn in public.

1. Watch your baby’s cues (rooting, fist in mouth, any fussing) and feed her before she starts to cry. It’s a lot harder to nurse inconspicuously when you’re trying to latch on a wailing newborn!

2. Consider whether you will be more comfortable using nursing clothing or regular clothing. Sometimes for me it’s easier to hike up a regular shirt than it is to fiddle with a nursing shirt. However, at a formal event (like the wedding ceremony I attended briefly yesterday) it is lovely to have a nursing dress rather than having to wear a two-piece outfit or excuse oneself to a private location to hike up a dress!

3. Along the same lines, consider whether using a nursing cover of some sort makes it more difficult or easier to nurse. If you are uncomfortable nursing in public without a cover, then by all means use one, but personally I find it very hard to maneuver a cover over me and the baby and still be able to see to latch the baby on. Plus it’s just too darn hot in the summer in California to use a cover. My motto: do what works for you!

4. Ignore everyone around you! The more you fret over who might be watching and what people might be thinking, the harder it will be to give your baby the attention she needs.

5. It does not bother me to see any level of exposure of a mother’s breast or nipple during a nursing session. I don’t even like to bring up the word “discreet.” What I will say is that the vast majority of nursing mothers do want to be considerate of others around them, and do wish to maintain as much modesty as possible when nursing in public. Having said all that, remember that you are likely much more covered than you think you are when you are nursing in public. I cannot count the number of times people have thought my baby was sleeping in my arms rather than nursing. Granted it’s not easy to get a newborn latched on, but it gets easier and easier (until you’ve got a wiggly toddler and that’s a whole other issue!)

A few months ago my kindergartner took a field trip to a farm. She came home excited to tell me all about how the baby cows are separated from the mama cows so the farmer can collect the cows’ milk for humans to drink. When I expressed my horror at little calf nurslings being separated from their mothers, my daughter insisted, “But it’s okay, Mom! They get powdered milk and they love it! I got to feed a baby cow a bottle and she sucked it right down!” I tried to wrap my head around the irony of baby cows getting formula, and I tried to explain to my daughter that the calves would prefer to drink their mamas’ milk, and that that milk is specially designed for them, and has all the antibodies and nutrients that they need. “No really Mom! They love the formula!”

As if that wasn’t enough to make me think twice about my own cows’ milk consumption, now there’s even more reason to question it. The Lactivist just posted about how the California Milk Processor Board is threatening legal action against a breastfeeding advocate who printed up 10 onesies with the slogan “got breastmilk?” The Board claims that “got breastmilk?” infringes on the trademark “got milk?” Because we all know how easy it is to confuse milk from a breast and milk from a carton at the grocery store (two vastly different kinds of milk “jugs” folks!) And because we all know how difficult (for the Board at least) it is to understand the concept of a parody. Apparently the Board did not benefit from the National Pork Board’s run-in with The Lactivist over “The Other White Milk”.

Read the original news story here. Then if you are so inclined, get in touch with the California Milk Processor Board to share your views on the matter. The board’s phone number is (949) 481-6620. The fax number is (949) 481-6680.