Category: Uncategorized

Tandem breastfeeding

- Julie Matheney

Tandem breastfeeding is when two or more children breast/chestfeed or receive expressed milk at the same time.

It is possible to continue to breastfeed throughout pregnancy; however, there are some important things to know. Some may experience nipple sensitivity or a feeding aversion to the point that they want to stop feeding the older. About 1/2 report their milk supply drops, sometimes significantly. This is from hormonal changes and there is little that can be done to prevent this. If the first baby is less than one year old, supplementation may be required until after the birth of the baby. Milk can transition back to colostrum as early as the end of the first trimester. Colostrum is salty and some toddlers not drink it. Colostrum also acts as a laxative to help newborns poop meconium. It may have the same laxative effect on your toddler, so be warned!

Once the new baby comes, some will feed both children together at the same time, rotating which side they start on each time. Others may take turns to feed one child at a time. If the babies are of different ages, they’ll usually feed the newborn first to optimize milk supply. Many tandem feeders say that breastfeeding their toddler helps with the transition of having a newborn.

How long should my baby do tummy time for?

- Julie Matheney

Tummy Time is one of baby’s first exercises! It is a crucial exercise for baby’s motor, visual, and sensory development. Baby can begin Tummy Time as a newborn. This can start on your body while you lay down. This can be done in bed, on a couch or in the bathtub! Wearing your baby in an infant carrier or ring sling also counts as tummy time! We’re encouraging baby to use their core strength and rotate their head from side to side. Once baby gets a little bigger and stronger, tummy time can be done on a firm, flat surface. Start with small increments of a few minutes at a time, several times a day. Eventually, try to do longer Tummy Time sessions, eventually building up to a full hour.

  • Newborn-2 months old – spend a minimum of 30 minutes per day during awake periods, this can be broken up into multiple sessions instead of doing it all at once
  • 2-4 months old – spend a minimum of 45-90 minutes per day during awake periods
  • 4-6 months old – spend a minimum of 1-2 hours per day during awake periods
  • 6-8 months old – the majority of waking hours will be spent in tummy time or sitting/learning to sit. Babies should learn to sit before they learn to stand.

COVID antibodies in breast milk

- Julie Matheney

It’s important to note that babies are not 100% immune to any disease for which they get antibodies via breast milk. Antibodies in our milk to flus, colds and viruses that we’ve been exposed to help reduce the severity and length of time our babies may get sick. When we get sick or get vaccinated against certain diseases, antibodies pass through out milk to provide PASSIVE immunity to our babies. This does NOT mean that our babies won’t or can’t get sick. We still need to take precautions to minimize risk of and exposure to viruses and germs.

If you’ve had COVID or the vaccine, it doesn’t mean baby is automatically immune to getting it. Antibodies passed on via breast milk aren’t permanently circulating in baby’s system to forever protect them against a disease. The antibodies, which are found after a feed in the baby’s mouth, nasal cavity, and gut, are eventually washed away by baby’s saliva, mucus, or gastric juices. Within few hours after nursing, antibodies will have disappeared from the baby’s mouth and nasal cavity, while a small amount may stay in the gut. Antibodies are replenished in your breast milk every time baby feeds. The more often a baby breastfeeds, the more chances they have to get those antibodies and passive immunity. Meaning, a 2-year-old who only breastfeeds 1-2 times a day isn’t going to be as consistently protected as a 2-month-old feeding 10+ times a day. So if you’re thinking about adding in breast milk to your dinner casserole to give immunity to your preschooler, it doesn’t work like that. Partial protection is still better than no protection, so if it makes you feel better, so for it.

Breastfeeding Grief

- Julie Matheney

Many times things don’t go as expected during labor and delivery and/or with breastfeeding. The loss of our expectation of what we thought would happen become the root of our grief and depression. It’s so easy to blame ourselves when things go wrong, even though our society is not set up to support postpartum families in any capacity, especially related to breastfeeding. This happens more than you think and I see it every day in my practice helping families in their breastfeeding journeys.

Grief is a spectrum that is different for everyone. You may not have even realized that the emotions you’re experiencing related to your breastfeeding journey not going as expected are in fact grief. Rage, anger, sadness, depression, anxiety, shame and guilt could all actually be stemmed from grief.

Different people need different ways to approach and process their grief. How do you start the grieving process? Recognition that you’re grieving the loss of an expectation is the first step. Realizing that you’re not the only one who is grieving their birth or breastfeeding story at this very moment can also normalize what you’re feeling. Give yourself permission and time to grieve. You may have a healthy, thriving baby. You may have really supportive family. You may have every resource available to you. That doesn’t negate your experience or the emotions you’re feeling.

Other steps to working through your postpartum and breastfeeding grief:
⭐️Avoid self blame
⭐️Surround yourself with people who will support you or who have gone through a similar experience
⭐️Talk to someone safe about what you’re experiencing. This may need to be a trained therapist
⭐️Find an IBCLC to help you reach your feeding goals. Schedule your consultation with me at www.lalactation.com
⭐️Hire a postpartum doula to help with baby and self care
⭐️Honor your story and the journey you’re on
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📷 @dionnachambers
🖊 @lalactation

Rainbow Baby Day

- Julie Matheney

A rainbow baby is a child born after a miscarriage, stillbirth, or death in the first weeks of infancy. Although rainbow babies represent joy after a devastating storm, many people expecting a rainbow baby still struggle with mixed emotions including anxiety, excitement, fear, worry, and hope. August 22 is National Rainbow Baby Day and offers families a chance to share their experiences, grieve, reflect, and celebrate the joy for their rainbow babies.

Pregnancy loss is defined differently around the world, but in general a baby who dies before 28 weeks of pregnancy is referred to as a miscarriage, and babies who die at or after 28 weeks are stillbirths. Miscarriage is the most common reason for losing a baby during pregnancy. Estimates vary, although estimates are as high as 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage. Every year, nearly 2 million babies are stillborn. However, miscarriages and stillbirths are not systematically recorded, even in developed countries, suggesting that the numbers could be higher.

Peach is my rainbow baby. After two miscarriages within 4 months of each other in 2018, I found out I was pregnant with Peach the day before my mom was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Peach is the rainbow that kept me going through the hardest storm of my life.

Miscarriage and infant loss is something that is not talked about enough even though it occurs often. It can be healing to acknowledge the loss and know you’re not alone as you grieve your loss. Feel free to share your rainbow baby stories here.

Baby reflux

- Julie Matheney

My baby is spitting up a lot. Is that normal?

Reflux occurs when milk flows back up (refluxes) from the stomach, causing baby to spit up. In babies, the ring of muscle between the esophagus and the stomach, the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), is not fully mature, so stomach contents can flow backward. With time, the LES opens only when baby swallows, keeping stomach contents in the stomach. It is rarely serious and becomes less common as baby‘s system matures.

Baby spit up for lots of reasons:

  • Baby is not be able to swallow quickly enough when milk ejects forcefully during let down, resulting in swallowing extra air.
  • Mom has an oversupply of milk and baby takes too much too fast for the stomach to handle.
  • Tongue or lip tie causing baby to swallow more air
    Less common reasons:
  • Immature muscle control
  • Allergy to foods and/or dietary supplements mother may consume
  • Disease

Spitting up occurs in healthy babes multiple times a day. As long as baby is healthy, happy and growing well, spit up is not a concern.
See your baby’s doctor if your baby:

  • Isn’t gaining weight
  • Refuses to feed from breast or bottle
  • Consistent, forceful spitting up (projectile vomiting)
  • Green or yellow fluid spit up
  • Spitting up blood or material that looks like coffee grounds
  • Blood in baby’s poop
  • Difficulty breathing or a chronic cough

Help reduce reflux:
🍽Feeding positions: baby’s head higher than their tummy, such as a laid-back position or koala hold. Avoid positions that have baby bending at the waist, putting more pressure on their belly. The mama in this picture is practicing an upright, side lying to help reduce reflux.

  • Keep baby upright 15-20 minutes after feedings to aid digestion.
  • Shorter, more frequent feedings, to reduce the volume in their tummy at any given time and to keep your breasts filling with a higher water content milk
  • Try nursing with only one breast each feeding to avoid two strong milk ejections, reducing overfeeding and excess swallowing of air.
  • Burp frequently, after each breast and at the end of feeding.
  • If reflux is severe or painful see your pediatrician for medication, which should be the last resort.

Skin to skin for the win

- Julie Matheney

Skin to skin contact with baby is not just for bonding, it can help develop a healthy gut and immune system. Babies are born with essentially no microbiome and a very immature immune system. The gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem of millions of microbes and important for development of the immune system. The first microbes to colonize baby’s gut, skin, and mouth help teach the immune system what’s harmful and what’s not. Birth is an incredible process that starts this process. Passage through the birth canal allows baby’s gut to be colonized with healthy bacteria from the vagina. This good bacteria takes residence in baby’s gut to reduce the risk of immune-related diseases, asthma/allergies, inflammatory bowel diseases and obesity. A vaginal birth is not always possible, though. Another way that babies get exposed to this good bacteria, regardless of birth method, is through skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding. Bacteria present in breast milk and on the skin around the nipple have been shown to contribute to this process. Some of the complex sugars in human milk are indigestible in the newborn, but are the perfect food for a subspecies of bacteria that coat intestinal wall, boost digestive function, and provide protection from harmful bacteria. Even if you had a c-section and are not directly breastfeeding, placing your baby in just a diaper on your naked chest helps boost baby’s immune system by exposing them to your good bacteria.

Skin to skin for the win

- Julie Matheney

Skin to skin contact with baby is not just for bonding, it can help develop a healthy gut and immune system. Babies are born with essentially no microbiome and a very immature immune system. The gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem of millions of microbes and important for development of the immune system. The first microbes to colonize baby’s gut, skin, and mouth help teach the immune system what’s harmful and what’s not. Birth is an incredible process that starts this process. Passage through the birth canal allows baby’s gut to be colonized with healthy bacteria from the vagina. This good bacteria takes residence in baby’s gut to reduce the risk of immune-related diseases, asthma/allergies, inflammatory bowel diseases and obesity. A vaginal birth is not always possible, though. Another way that babies get exposed to this good bacteria, regardless of birth method, is through skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding. Bacteria present in breast milk and on the skin around the nipple have been shown to contribute to this process. Some of the complex sugars in human milk are indigestible in the newborn, but are the perfect food for a subspecies of bacteria that coat intestinal wall, boost digestive function, and provide protection from harmful bacteria. Even if you had a c-section and are not directly breastfeeding, placing your baby in just a diaper on your naked chest helps boost baby’s immune system by exposing them to your good bacteria.

Tandem breastfeeding

- Julie Matheney

Tandem breastfeeding is when two or more children breast/chestfeed or receive expressed milk at the same time.

It is possible to continue to breastfeed throughout pregnancy; however, there are some important things to know. Some may experience nipple sensitivity or a feeding aversion to the point that they want to stop feeding the older. About 1/2 report their milk supply drops, sometimes significantly. This is from hormonal changes and there is little that can be done to prevent this. If the first baby is less than one year old, supplementation may be required until after the birth of the baby. Milk can transition back to colostrum as early as the end of the first trimester. Colostrum is salty and some toddlers not drink it. Colostrum also acts as a laxative to help newborns poop meconium. It may have the same laxative effect on your toddler, so be warned!

Once the new baby comes, some will feed both children together at the same time, rotating which side they start on each time. Others may take turns to feed one child at a time. If the babies are of different ages, they’ll usually feed the newborn first to optimize milk supply. Many tandem feeders say that breastfeeding their toddler helps with the transition of having a newborn.

Do I need a breast milk stash?

- Julie Matheney

This is the first generation that has had the luxury of having a freezer milk stash. No other generation had the ease and technology to be able to go back to work and still maintain the breastfeeding relationship while parent and child are separated for 8+ hours a day. In our grandparents generation, you either stayed home and breastfed your baby or formula fed by bottle. There really weren’t other options and breast pumps were not readily available. It was only in 2010 that the Affordable Care Act laws were passed to require insurance companies to cover the cost of breast pumps as part of preventative medicine. With those laws, new breast pumps flooded the market. Before that, there were only a few choices for pumps and people had to buy them out of pocket. Because we have been raised around technology, we still take for granted what our not so ancient ancestors went through. Historically, if weren’t successful at breastfeeding, either some one else breastfed your baby or your baby died.

You don’t have to have a freezer stash to successfully breastfed your baby. If you need a freezer stash because of your circumstances, what an amazing time to be a parent!!! New and better technology is available every day to continue to make the process easier and more efficient. The freezer stash can mean reaching your personal goals as a family. If you have an abundant supply, consider milk donation to help other families reach their goals. What a gift to be able to give back to others.