Recently, I recommended the book Real Food for Mothers and Babies by Nina Planck.  Now I’d like to borrow some information from her chapter on nursing.  It really confirms why I believe babies shouldn’t just be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life, but why you should also consider nursing past one year.  I nursed my first son until 15 months, my second until 21, and plan to nurse my third until as close to 2 years as I can.  In addition to being the best possible nutrition for baby, there are many benefits to extended nursing for ME:  I don’t have to worry as much about what he eats (one or two nursing sessions a day are my form of insurance against lazy mothering), I stay skinny, I reduce my chances of having breast cancer, and I get extra bonding time with my child.  Here are some other amazing facts about nursing:

• Even a small amount of formula, or other food, in baby’s digestive tract causes bacteria to set up camp.  These bacteria resemble the kind found in an adult stomach, not infant, and leave baby more vulnerable to infection.
• Oligosaccharides, or milk sugars, in human milk are indigestible to baby but they are great for the good bacteria in her intestines.  There are at least 130 known oligosaccharides in human milk and none in formula.  In addition to encouraging the development of good bacteria in her gut, they also head to the respiratory tract, where they fight pathogenic microbes.
• “The immunity breast milk provides is tailored, reflecting the unique ecology you and your baby share.  Within hours of encountering a pathogen, you produce antibodies which you pass to your baby through your milk.  That’s why it’s natural for mothers to nuzzle, rub, kiss, and even lick their babies.  You gather her germs with your mouth and skin, so that your breasts can make the antibodies she needs.”  I find this so amazing!!
• Breast milk has immunity agents that promote the normal growth of the thymus gland, which is part of the immune system.  Formula fed babies have abnormally small thymus glands, which may explain why they typically have more immune disorders than babies that were breast fed.
• Breast milk’s antibodies coat the lining of the nose, lungs, and intestines, so most germs that get inhaled or swallowed are killed.
• Breast fed babies also have extra protection against arthritis, asthma, eczema, immune system cancers such as lymphoma, Crohn’s disease, colitis, Hodgkin’s disease, breast cancer, obesity, diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
• Breast milk deposits calcium and phosphorus onto baby’s teeth while he nurses, protecting them from decay.
• When a nursing mother laughs, melatonin levels in her milk rise.  People with eczema tend to have less melatonin.
• Breast milk can contain persistant organic pollutants (POPs), like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).  A study in Michigan found that while PCBs in cord blood resulted in lower IQ scores in children, above-average levels of PCBs in breast milk did not.  Perhaps breast milk offers some protection against POPs?
• Trans fats in mom’s diet enter her milk, where they disrupst fat metabolism, disable prostaglandins, and cause atherogenesis, all of which contribute to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  Studies have found that trans fats make up anywhere from 2 to 18% of human milk.  Don’t let trans fats replace good fats in your breast milk.  Avoid them while pregnant and nursing.
• The pesticides and trans fats you eat while pregnant get stored in your body fat.  The faster you loose this fat while nursing, the more pesticides and trans fats baby drinks.  The longer you nurse, the cleaner your milk becomes.  Subsequent children drink less contaminated milk than first borns.
• Your baby’s brain is only 25% of its full grown size when he is born.  Basically, delaying brain growth in utero is the only way baby can get out alive.  The human fetus holds brain growth to the size of your pelvis, and then depends on breast milk to grow like crazy in the first year of life.
• The more DHA (one of the most important omega-3 fats) in your breast milk, the better your baby’s intellectual, visual, and motor skills.  When mothers take cod liver oil during pregnancy and the first 3 months of baby’s life (aka the 4th trimester), breastfed babies score higher on intelligence tests at four years than the babies of mothers who consume corn oil.
• A nursing mother who eats fish has 10 times more DHA in her milk than one who doesn’t.
• Baby prefers to take DHA, 60-80% of it, from mother’s fat rather than from her diet, which can very wildly.  Mothers keep EPA and DHA fats in gluteofemoral depots, basically in your butt and thighs.  During nursing, this hard to burn fat is selectively mobilized (nice!)  Interestingly, the male preference for women with small waists and bigger hips is widespread and consistent (and even takes precedence over thinness).  In 2008, a study found that curvier women have smarter babies.  It has been hypothesized that men instinctually know this and that is why they want curvy women to bear their children.  In support of this theory, studies have found that curvy women are smarter, even after accounting for family income, race, and ethnicity.

Nina believes that we should be eating “real food,” stuff your great grandparents ate, and not any new age concoction made from corn and soy products.  She promotes a diet full of meat and dairy from pastured animals, fruits and veggies, and no imitation products (i.e. soy milk).  Readers of my blog know that I don’t completely agree with her, but the book is still a very good read.  Unlike Nina, I think that meat should be used more sparingly, as suggested by the author of Blue Zones.  However, I do agree with her stance on breastfeeding, the importance of omega-3’s, and feeding baby real food from your plate rather than pureed baby food from a jar.  Women pregnant for the first time will especially benefit from hearing her birth story and experience with nursing–she’s honest, funny, and gives really good advice to first time moms.

Along these lines, see this video clip about Chipotle and what kind of pork founder Steve Ells likes to use.

Also, I’d like to recommend a nice way to discuss the treatment of factory farmed animals with your kids–reading the children’s book That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals.

Again though, I couldn’t put my child on a traditional mattress, full of petrochemicals and flame retardants, off-gassing formaldehyde all around him for 10+ hours a day.  So we did what we did before–we bought cheaper furniture and splurged on the mattress.  The full 6″ natural talalay latex mattress made by a local company without any chemicals cost $1400.  The organic wool mattress protector was $150.  My son already has a nice natural latex pillow.  We’re topping the bed with an organic cotton blanket, which will work for now until we need something warmer.  The best thing about splurging on a natural latex mattress is that it will last 20 years–and so does the warranty.  That means something to me when I have 3 kids that will likely use this mattress and when I’m already noticing that my personal 4 year old innerspring mattress is sagging.

And here comes the irony.  After spending all this time and money finding the cleanest mattress and bedding possibly, the furniture arrives.  While it’s solid wood (no particle board, glued together with chemicals that off-gas), the varnish on the wood is clearly not low-VOC.  In fact, it stinks!  I thought about returning it and buying something else.  But until you actually get wood furniture in your home, how would you know if the varnish used contains lots of VOCs?  And we can’t afford really expensive furniture.  I thought about buying used, but I really wanted a matching set, which is hard to find used. What would you do?

Those of you following my blog know that I exercised the entire 9 months of pregnancy in hopes of a quicker, easier delivery (and of course just to stay in shape).  Well, sadly, I have to say that it did not make the labor shorter (it was still 15 hours–for my third child!) nor easier (pushing was still very difficult and not as quick as I’d hoped), but here is where the water helped.  

I have delivered two children naturally out of water.  Laboring from 8-10cm with both of them took hours and was incredibly painful.  For my second son, I barely had a break between contractions for that last several hours and it made me panic and probably made the contractions even more painful.  But this time with a water birth, that didn’t happen at all.  I got into the inflatable jacuzzi style tub at 7cm and labored there for 3 hours before pushing.  The water made my contractions space out, which generally you don’t want, but it also made them stronger.  The additional spacing was key, especially at the very end.  It gave me time to fully relax and regain my composure before the next contraction came.  This was especially important given how long my labor was and how tired I was.  The other benefit of being in the water was the ability to move quickly and easily between positions.  And let’s face it, water is relaxing.  I think it helped me stay calm and in control, which is crucial when delivering without pain medication.

I don’t know that the water helped much with pushing nor with avoiding tearing.  I was hoping that being in the water would allow my tissues to absorb moisture and become more pliable, but I still tore.  However, one of the best things about delivering via water birth was what happened after baby was born.  He was given to me and we had probably a full 10 minutes bonding in the warm water before his umbilical cord was cut.  This was not the case when my other two children were born.  While they were placed on my chest, their cords were cut immediately and shortly after, baby was whisked away to be examined.  But when my third was born via water birth, the minutes after his delivery were calm and peaceful.  Not rushed and frantic.  I can honestly say that I feel more bonded to this baby than any other and I seriously think those minutes after birth contributed to that (no doubt the fact that he’s my last child also plays a role).

Thanks to the water, this is my favorite delivery of the three I’ve had.  If you’re wanting to try a natural delivery, definitely look into a water birth.

• Kids with higher-than-average levels of one pesticide marker were nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD as children who showed no traces of the poison.
• Diet is a major source of pesticide exposure in children, according to the National Academy of Sciences, and much of that exposure comes from favorite fruits and vegetables.
• Researchers found that kids with a 10-fold increase in the kind of metabolites left in the body after malathion (an insecticide often used on blueberries, strawberries, and celery) exposure were 55 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD.
• The most alarming finding was a near-doubling in odds of ADHD diagnoses among kids with higher-than-average levels of the most common of the six metabolites detected. Kids with high levels of dimethyl thiophosphate were 93 percent more likely to have the disorder than children with with undetectable levels of the marker.
• Children are at greater risk from pesticides because their young bodies are still developing and may not metabolize chemicals as well as adults’.
• Organophosphate pesticides, which account for as much as 70 percent of the pesticide use in the U.S., work by interfering with the nervous systems of insects, but have a similar effect in mammals, including humans. Most people in the U.S. have residues of the products in their urine.

Yet another reason to buy organic when you can!

When we do finish the meal with something sweet, I still want it to be healthy.  We often do dried fruit (prunes, mangos, figs), fresh fruit (pineapple is a big hit), or one square of dark chocolate.  Now that the weather is warming up, we also do smoothies.  This recipe below is my own creation and particularly tasty.  I’m hoping to try making it into popsicles sometime.  Amounts are approximate as who really measure ingredients for a smoothie?!

• 2-3 bananas
• 1 cup soymilk
• 1/2 – 1 cup plain yogurt
• cocoa powder (probably 1/4 cup)
• peanut butter (several big spoonfuls, depending on how peanut buttery you want it)
• honey to sweeten to your preference

Without much sugar, this smoothie makes a killer dessert!