Home Remedies For Breastfeeding

Hundreds of books and articles have been written about breast feeding over the last few years full of practical advice to which there is little to add other than the following observations.

The mother's diet: Maternal breast milk tastes like watered down milk fortified with teaspoonfuls of sugar. If this over-sweet liquid was the only taste experience for the newborn, one might expect them to get bored with it fairly quickly. But the flavor of breast milk varies markedly depending on the maternal diet. Many mothers report that their baby's behavior is strongly influenced by what they themselves have had to eat. Thus the flatus inducing properties of beans and lentils will result in both mother and child passing lots of wind. Similarly, maternal onion eating is said to cause infantile colic, spicy foods and acidic drinks lead to stomach upsets and chocolate notoriously results in diarrhoea.

Alcohol: Alcohol is held to be doubly beneficial. It increases milk production—malt beer is particularly recommended—while its appearance in breast milk is soothing and sleep inducing. There is no evidence that this is harmful in moderation though there is one account of a woman who took the alcohol is good for nursing mothers' rather too literally and whose consumption of fifty lagers a week produced signs of chronic alcoholism in her baby.

Cabbage leaves: Raw cabbage leaves applied directly to the surface of the breast are said to reduce the physical discomfort associated with excess milk production. Their shape is peculiarly suited to this function while their coolness is an effective anti¬dote to heat and soreness. This claim is validated by a study conducted by doctors in South Africa who found that women who regularly applied cabbage leaves were more likely to breast feed exclusively and to do so for longer.