Kelly Mom's Advice for Breastfeeding Mothers

I just love this website and have it stored to my favorites for easy reference. Many times your general physician really has no idea about whether or not a medication prescribed for you is safe for breastfeeding. He or she will tell you to ask your pediatrician or ob/gyn. Very often, they are just guessing as well. So I always double-check at this website. She references primary documentation that you can read for your edification.
http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/aap-approved-meds.html

The Longsuffering Love of Motherhood

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind. . .
Beareth all things,
believeth all things,
hopeth all things,
endureth all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4, 7

This scripture speaks to this wife of almost fifteen years and mother of four children. . .

Beareth all things.
I think of my fourth baby, who would not stop crying through the “witching hours”. She would finally fell asleep while nursing in my arms. My arms would fall asleep with her, but I bore it because I knew if I put her down she would wake up and start crying again. At times I was so tired that I felt all used up. Her daytime joyfulness was my reward for these nightly pains.

Believeth all things.
When my seven-year-old daughter started school, she had trouble reading, and was so quiet the teacher thought she had a speech disorder. I believed in her, worked with her, and within a few months both her reading and speaking had turned around so that she was above average for her grade level.

Hopeth all things.
When my six-year-old son was diagnosed with a visual disorder, we did vision therapy together every day after school for a year. I research and prayed and took him for a second opinion. The second doctor found his depth vision to be above normal! He continues his eye exercises nightly but is no longer under the threat of the need for surgery.

Endureth all things.
A recent episode comes to mind in which my almost-eleven-year daughter got angry with me, stomped up the stairs, and put a hole in her wall. She was so upset when she saw what she had done that she was not punished for it. The slightly discolored section of the now-repaired wall will serve as a constant reminder to not act rashly. This is what caused my heightened interest in the season of “Volcano Dwellers”, as described in “The Eight Seasons of Parenthood”.

As I go through the seasons that are ahead of me, I know I will be challenged to apply this scripture through many different situations. I pray for the grace to do so.

Painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoire, 1892, Mother and Child.

"Clean House" is Not So Clean!

Not that I am on a letter-writing campaign, my next letter will be to The Style Network regarding their show Clean House.

I used to watch Home and Garden Television’s “Mission: Organization” when my baby was a newborn and I was nursing approximately one-third of the day and night. Now I am no longer able to afford a half hour on the couch at 2:00 in the afternoon. One night while channel surfing, I discovered Clean House and found it extremely entertaining. Many of these homeowners have living rooms that look worse than my garage!

After watching several shows, however, I soon became disenchanted as I noticed off-color humor that was degrading to the people they were apparently trying to help. Frequently, a messy bedroom is shown, followed by the embarrassing question to the couple, “Is anything going on in this bedroom with all this clutter?” In one show, a filthy fraternity house was shown, attention being brought to an unsightly, unplumbed commode and stains of questionable origin. Was that really necessary? Another show highlighted the sale of a “vintage Playboy” magazine collection at a yard sale.

They apparently thought these were funny vignettes, and I dismissed them as one-time occurrences. But when a pregnant woman revealed that her Jacuzzi had been used for home birthing, the hosts feigned disgust. On another show, the final straw for me, the hosts said that the almost-two-year-old was still sleeping in the parental bed – and “more than must sleeping was going on” – she was still breastfeeding! Apparently this woman had a problem with “letting go” of more than just things, was the message they were trying to convey.

The practices of homebirthing and extended breastfeeding (which I am hoping to continue past the second year) are becoming increasing mainstream, and Style is going to lose a good portion of their audience if they keep up such antics.

40 Days for Life

89 cities in 33 states across the nation will unite in a fast called 40 Days for Life from September 26 - November 4. Check with your diocese to see its recommendations for upholding the fast.

In the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Bishop Murphy asks that during those days we not eat between meals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He also asks that we abstain from entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights and use that time to read scripture and pray for the restoration of respect for life.

There is also a beautiful prayer by Pope John Paul II that the Bishop asks us to recite during these 40 days after Holy Communion on Sundays and at all other Masses you attend during Respect Life Month:

O Mary,
bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life
Look Down, O Mother,
upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women
who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.

Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love
to the people of our time.

Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it
resolutely, in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.

Amen

*************************************************
A NOTE ON FASTING FOR PREGNANT OR NURSING MOTHERS
*************************************************
I will be following a modified fast because I am a nursing mother. Please read on for the Catholic rules of fasting. (Emphasis added by me.)

"Fasting The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday [Canon 97] to the 59th Birthday [i.e. the beginning of the 60th year, a year which will be completed on the 60th birthday] to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem to be contrary to the spirit of doing penance.

Those who are excused from fast or abstinence Besides those outside the age limits, those of unsound mind, the sick, the frail, pregnant or nursing women according to need for meat or nourishment, manual laborers according to need, guests at a meal who cannot excuse themselves without giving great offense or causing enmity and other situations of moral or physical impossibility to observe the penitential discipline.

Aside from these minimum penitential requirements Catholics are encouraged to impose some personal penance on themselves at other times. It could be modeled after abstinence and fasting. A person could, for example, multiply the number of days they abstain. Some people give up meat entirely for religious motives (as opposed to those who give it up for health or other motives). Some religious orders, as a penance, never eat meat. Similarly, one could multiply the number of days that one fasted. The early Church had a practice of a Wednesday and Saturday fast. This fast could be the same as the Church's law (one main meal and two smaller ones) or stricter, even bread and water. Such freely chosen fasting could also consist in giving up something one enjoys - candy, soft drinks, smoking, that cocktail before supper, and so on. This is left to the individual.

One final consideration. Before all else we are obliged to perform the duties of our state in life. Any deprivation that would seriously hinder us in carrying out our work, as students, employees or parents would be contrary to the will of God."

---- Colin B. Donovan, STL

Witnessing in the E.R.

I had an unpleasant yet interesting occurrence last night. I was nursing the baby to sleep, when she accidentally poked me in the eye. I immediately put her in her crib and checked out my eye. There was a half-inch long, bright red line in the white part – the sclera. I showed my husband and he said, “That’s not good, is it?” I called my mom, who is a Doctor of Nursing. She advised me to call the emergency room and speak to an ophthalmic specialist. I did, and they said to come on in. “We see this fairly often. It needs to be treated with an antibiotic right away.”

I went to my local Catholic hospital, where we have always had a wonderful experience. They took me immediately. “How old is your baby?” asked the triage nurse.

“One year.”

”We have an excellent pediatric unit – so if you ever need to bring her in you know where to go.”

Whenever people assume I just have the one baby, I am always quick to let them know otherwise. It would feel like a betrayal to the others not to do so!

“Thank you, I know. Two of my four children were born here.”

“Oh, wow!”

In person, I actually present as a rather quiet person - until you get to know me. Then I might never stop talking. I am a firm believer in teaching by example. There are no preachy bumper stickers on my car. I don’t go around quoting scriptures (although they may come through in my choice of words). As I discussed in my earlier posting, (“Are Those All Yours?”), I believe the way you present yourself has an indelible effect on how people perceive your “class” of people. In my case, people might be judging me as a Catholic, a mother with “lots” of kids, a breastfeeding mother, or a stay-at-home mom.

Whatever stereotype the staff of the emergency room might have had that night of a Catholic breastfeeding stay-at-home mother of four, their vision now must include the calm, polite, intelligent person who, after having her eye injured, put her child to bed, saw that the other children were in order, made the necessary inquisitory telephone calls, and proceeded to drive herself to the hospital.

The resident ophthalmologist first numbed my eye, then examined it with iridescent drops. The fluorescence showed a scratch to the sclera. Interestingly, the scratch was at 3:00 (imagining my eye as a clock), whereas the red spot was at 9:00. The red spot was a “bruise”, he said, caused by the scratch, which was invisible to the naked eye. If the scratch had been on the actual cornea, that would have been serious. He assure me that the sclera should repair itself within 24 hours. However, all scratches need to be treated with antibiotics to prevent infection to the eye.

He wanted to give me a tetanus shot. “Are there any contraindications with nursing?” I asked.

From his next question, it was apparent that he obviously had little or no knowledge of breastfeeding. “Do you nurse her every day?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“And how long do you intend to continue nursing?”

“Probably another year.”

”Oh. Well, I think maybe we’ll skip the tetanus shot just to be on the safe side.”

By my one little question, I accomplished two objectives.

(1) I escaped a rather unpleasant procedure (soreness, swelling, etc., following a deep shot to the shoulder region);

(2) I broadened the young doctor’s perception of nursing. (As I discussed in an earlier posting, many women neglect to let their doctors know they are breastfeeding, resulting in the profession’s stereotype that most women wean by one year.)

Incidentally, I left my library book in the room. I haven’t read enough of it to recommend it, but I absorbed the main points. The topic was the support and building of emotional bonds with your son. It might cost me a few dollars to replace it, but I hope the next person who picked it up was in need of reading on the subject.

Every day gives us countless opportunities to bear testimony to a Christian way of life. Even negative experiences can be turned to yield positives. The next time you are in a bad situation, ask yourself, “What can I do with this?”

Support your local Catholic hospital. Their very existence is essential to the ethics of health practice in American hospitals. My favorite Long Island hospital is St. Charles, Port Jefferson, New York.
http://stcharleshospital.chsli.org/aboutUs/index.html

Pictured above: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, English nurse and hospital reformer, 1820 to 1910

An Infant's Perception of the World

Slipping in and out of consciousness
The day just happens by.
Familiar faces come and go,
Happy voices chatter,
And sibling quarrels break out.
Strong arms gather me
To warm bodies;
Pleasant smells drift
As the dinner bell rings;
I nuzzle mother’s breast
And drink her warm milk.


"The World as I See it"
By Elizabeth Kathryn Miller

Natural Nutrition for Babies

At my daughter’s one-year checkup, my pediatrician asked me if I had started my daughter on whole milk yet. I answered no, that she seemed to be getting enough milk from me. He seemed pleasantly surprised that I was still nursing at 12 months.

It seems to be popular in America to wean by one year. However, in other nations women commonly nurse until ages 4 to 7. And in America, more and more mothers are secretly feeding their babies until two to three years of age. It is so difficult to obtain statistics on this, as they are reluctant to admit this practice.

I came across a lovely piece of research, which gives the actual statistics on weaning ages of those who practiced extended breastfeeding. You can see it at:
http://www.granitescientific.com/weaningages.pdf

La Leche League http://www.lalecheleague.org/ encourages mothers to nurse as long as their baby seems to want to continue, and to lovingly wean them, very gradually, if possible. We all know the benefits of nursing to both baby and mother. Doctors say these benefits are directly proportional to the number of months spent nursing.

You can download a twenty-page report from The Breast Cancer Prevention Institute http://bcpinstitute.org/ that states, among many other factors, that the incidence of breast cancer in women is lowered with each month spent nursing.

Kelly Mom Breastfeeding and Parenting http://www.kellymom.com/index.html is filled with great, well-researched information on such topics as tandem nursing and which herbal supplements are safe to use. She offers links to primary sources so you can see the actual research behind her recommendations.

If more mothers let others, including their doctors, know that they are practicing extended breastfeeding, new mothers would feel encouraged that it is a normal practice and not one to be ashamed of.

On a related topic, Gerber fell more than a notch in my estimation tonight. Normally I don’t even give a glance to the toddler foods. As soon as my babies have teeth, they are eating the same table food as the rest of the family. They compare the contents of the table to what is on their trays. If they notice something is missing, they holler and point to it. I do supplement with jarred food, to ensure the baby is getting a nice “rainbow” of foods. How easy is it to obtain such exotic foods as “apple mango kiwi” except in the baby food aisle? Well, tonight my eye was drawn to a “sale” sign in front of the Gerber Graduates for Toddlers. When I looked at the ingredients of the “popped corn chips” and other offerings, it was clear that they were creating junk food for babies! I was so revolted by this. With all the current research about the dangers of preservatives, added starches, and empty calories, what kind of introduction are they offering to our babies to the world of food?

“What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?”
Luke 11:11-12