“Put pepper on your nipples. Once she tastes it, she will stop breastfeeding.”
Please don’t do this.
Pepper or an unknown bitter substance can irritate your child’s mouth, skin or eyes. It turns breastfeeding, a familiar source of food and comfort—into a frightening experience.
If you are ready to stop, you do not need to shock your child into it. Drop one breastfeed at a time and allow both your child and your breasts time to adjust.
“One breast is now much bigger because that is the only side my baby will suck. My mother says it could cause breast cancer.”
No, it will not.
When your baby feeds more frequently from one breast, that breast receives a stronger signal to produce milk. It may therefore become fuller and noticeably larger than the other.
But why would a baby suddenly choose one breast and should you try to change it? Read!
Q: Doc, good evening ma’am. Please, I have some questions for you. I am a 1st time mom and my baby is 2months old. She sucks from one breast and this has made 1 breast to be bigger than the other and my mom said it will make me have breast cancer when I stop breastfeeding. Please, ma’am, how true is this? Thanks and God bless you ma’am
A: Congratulations on your new baby 😀
Is there any particular reason why you are breastfeeding from one breast only? Or is it that you breastfeed more from one side? This could actually lay you open to developing blocked milk ducts. You should be breast feeding with both breasts.
When baby has fed on breast A, during the next feed, switch to breast B to ensure that both are being ‘emptied’ and ‘filled’ up equally.
Some people switch from one breast to the other during one feed, but the problem with that is that the baby may fill up on the watery fore milk and this means he will get hungry pretty soon as he didn’t get any hind milk.
Will one have breast cancer if one is not breast feeding with one breast? Studies suggest that breastfeeding may help protect against breast cancer.
This means that not breastfeeding is a risk factor for breast cancer. Now, you have to remember that having a risk factor does not necessarily mean that one will come down with the disease. It just means that, all things being equal, the person with a high risk factor, has a higher chance of getting the disease in question.
I would not focus on this…really. Instead, let’s get you to start breastfeeding with the other breast so that your baby eats sufficient amounts of food. Remember that your baby should spend about 20-45 minutes on the breast during each feed.
Have you experienced this in your own breastfeeding journey?
“Don’t do family planning while breastfeeding. It will dry up your milk.”
How many mothers have avoided contraception because someone gave them this warning?
The truth is that breastfeeding mothers have several family-planning options. But safe for breastfeeding does not automatically mean the best method for every mother.
Where in doubt, always check with your healthcare provider.
Your period returns and someone tells you to stop breastfeeding until the bleeding ends because the milk is now “dirty.”
Please don’t.
Menstrual blood does not mix with breast milk, and having your period does not make your milk harmful to your baby.
The return-to-work date is already on the calendar.
Does that date also have to mark the end of breastfeeding?
No but continuing successfully is much easier when the plan begins before your first morning back at work.
The pregnancy test is positive but your older baby is still breastfeeding.
Must you stop immediately?
For most mothers with an uncomplicated pregnancy, the answer is no. Breastfeeding does not automatically end because another baby is on the way.
That breast milk in your fridge may look and smell perfectly fine.
But can you remember exactly when you expressed it?
Before you feed it to your baby, ‘check the clock, not just the smell.’
Here is the breast-milk storage rule every breastfeeding mother should save: ‘4 hours, 4 days, 6 months.’
Pap? Oats? Lactation tea? Supplements?
The moment a mother worries about her milk supply, somebody recommends a “milk booster.”
Were you told to take lots of pap with evaporated milk? 😃 I was!
But before you spend money or begin swallowing herbs and pills, there is something more important to check: Is milk being removed from the breasts frequently and effectively? How to do that? Put your baby to the breast! 😊
Beans? Pepper? Milk? Fruit?
Many breastfeeding mothers begin removing foods from their diet because someone says, “That is what is disturbing the baby.”
But most mothers do not need a bland or severely restricted diet to breastfeed. Read!
Q: Evening Ma, please I need help. My baby is 2weeks and her stool is watery. I am practicing exclusive breast feeding. What type of food should I eat or what do I do?
A: Congratulations on your new baby! May she be a blessing to her generation!
Okay to your question, exclusively breast fed babies may pass stool a couple of times during the day to lots of time (it might even be after every meal :D).
You’re still getting to know your baby and so you should look out for the normal consistency of his stools and the frequency. Diarrhea is usually rare in exclusively breast fed children because you’ve cut off all the middle men like bottles and teats etc that could have been reservoirs of infection.
Having said that, watch out for signs like blood or mucous in stool, explosive green stools and foul smelling stools. How can this occur in exclusively breast fed babies?
It may be due to an infection (viral and bacterial), food allergy to something the mother ate, it may be due to food poisoning in the mum or perhaps the mother had taken antibiotics.
If in doubt as to whether the stools appear normal or as they have been since birth, please see your baby’s doctor.
If your baby has diarrhea, he/she should be rehydrated as quickly as possible.
The first way is to continue breastfeeding even before going to the hospital. This also provides valuable antibodies that help the baby fight diseases.
So, it is clear now that diet affects our breast milk and by extension, baby. These are foods to avoid or limit their consumption while breast feeding:
Caffeine in coffee (try decaffeinated and stick with 2 small tea cups), energy drinks, some soft drinks etc This makes the baby irritable and by extension, makes sleep difficult for the baby. Now, you don’t want that, do you?
Alcohol: This should be avoided at all costs.
Cigarette (yeah, yeah, I know it’s not food) should also be avoided as it reduces the production of breast milk.
If baby reacts to what the mother ate, efforts should be made to pinpoint what the mother ate before the incident started and then eliminating that from the diet to see if the diarrhea or allergy stops.
Make sure that you eat well: lots of fruits and vegetables and complex carbohydrates. Cut out the junk which will not help you achieve your weight loss goals and in addition have empty calories. And drink sufficient fluids daily.
Be careful before taking any drug as most find their way into your baby.
Hope this helps.
Goodnight y’all 😀
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