Breastfeeding Remedies

What happened to all moms that breastfeeding their babies and then having a problem how to cure the aches of their breast, I do recommend the Dandelion Tea to drink it is such a relief and also a good source of milk supply! When my breast got engorge every time and don't know what to do, My Sister in law bought me a pack of dandelion tea and relate to me how it works and I was amazed that engorgement went away that fast!! I ordered dandelion tea in Amazon.com it's easy to buy from internet than searching in different supermarket. ;)

Thank you so much for your comment about ductal yeast. I also have the same recurring blocked ducts/infections with the shooting pains. I know I have a yeast/thrush problem that I'm just barely keeping under control since I had antibiotics (apparently absolutely necessary as I for once tested positive for Group B Strep) as did my baby (he aspirated a bit of meconium) at the birth.

This is baby #10 and I've been struggling this time around with breastfeeding. It is usually my favorite baby-bonding activity but with the pain and blocked ducts and infections can't say I'm enjoying it as much this time. Still love that little guy to pieces, though! I'm going to try your suggestion of calendula tincture (pretty sure my SIL makes that one) as he does not tolerate any other milk I've given him. He broke out in the most vicious burn-like rash (only around private parts, not bottom) when I gave him a few ounces of a 'closest to breastmilk' formula a few times which took 2 weeks to clear. Also goats milk a few ounces given once a day for 3 days made him constipated, so I want to feed him as long as I can. None of my other babies had this issue.

Want to thank EarthClinic for being there for me so many times and also thank you to all you generous contributors with your wisdom. I always look for Mama To Many's contributions:) Now if he'll just sleep through the night... yawn.

Regards, Joanne

Lucena: You can search raw food for breast feeding videos.

I came across Edgar Cayce and he recommends cold pressed castor oil applied to breasts externally. Also fenugreek tea. Om

Dear Lucena,

Eating oatmeal daily is very good for milk supply. You may be able to find "Mother's Milk Tea" which many find helpful. It has Blessed Thistle in it, which is good for milk supply.

Nursing a newborn every two hours, both breasts if baby is willing, is critical for the supply. Newborns should not sleep through the night for a while.

Alfalfa supplements are good, too. You can get tablets and take 4 of them three times a day.

If your daughter could see a La Leche League Leader (not sure if they are in your area, but they are international) they offer free breastfeeding support. Without their help, I would never have been able to nurse my first child. He was a poor nurser, but I ended up being able to nurse him for 2 years. Alternately, you may be able to find a Certified Lactation Consultant. While this would cost money, it is cheaper than formula in the long run.

When you say, "topup, " do you mean supplement with formula? I am surprised a midwife would suggest this. Supplementing with formula is the beginning of the end for many nursing relationships. While it may be necessary if baby is not getting enough, the formula (especially given in a bottle) is easier to take in and fills a baby up. Then baby isn't hungry as quickly and mother nurses less, so the breast makes less. A mother can use a breast pump to stimulate her milk supply and supplement breastfeeding with her own milk.

If baby is not getting enough, he will not have enough wet and poopy diapers. If that is the case, he must get formula also. (5-6 wet and 2-4 or more poopy diapers daily.)

In these situations, mom has to really want to breastfeed her baby because it is a lot of work and new moms are tired. If she doesn't want to, just let it go. Your daugther is blessed to have you helping her. Many breastfeeding moms do not have a mother's support.

Your daughter needs a lot of good nutrition at this time and her iron may be low if she bled much after birth. Blackstrap Molasses, 1 Tablespoon twice a day, would be a good idea if anemia is an issue.

I hope things work out for your daughter and grand-baby!

~Mama to Many~

Lucena: First of all, when you "top up" with other milks, the mother's milk production will diminish. You may think the baby isn't getting enough, but he probably is. Still, to "produce" more milk there are two tricks:

1. Drink plenty.

2. Feed often. Mother's milk works by "supply and demand". So if she will express a bit in between feedings (you can save and freeze it for a bottle when needed, or just throw it away) which will stimulate MORE milk production.

For more info on anything to do with nursing, I highly recommend getting hooked on to a La Leche League chapter in your area and reading their book on breastfeeding.

To produce more breast milk you can give your daughter fenugreek tea or fenugreek seeds. You can get it that from Indian store or online. Take 1 spoon of funugreek and make a tea you have to boil for 15min or you can give her seeds directly. Try to search on internet you are going to find more information on it.

An old remedy to increase milk production is a beer a day. The hops in the beer are supposed to increase hormone production in the breast feeding mom. The darker beers are supposed to be better.

Thank you very much for all your suggestions. Yes, the midwife recommended infant formula since the baby cries a lot after breastfeed, given in tiny cup.

I let mother and baby sleep together in bed at night which is soothing for both, an act against UK rules.

Started with fenugreek seeds, frequent feeds. Daughter was on Blackstrap Molasses for the whole term of pregnancy so she did not bleed much and her blood test came back good. Let's see after a couple of days. Again thanks a lot.

Dear Lucena,

Very good idea to be giving the formula in a cup instead of a bottle. That really helps a lot. Also, having mom and baby sleep together is very good for establishing breastfeeding. I didn't know if was against UK rules. That is dreadful. I had all of my babies next to me at night. It made nursing so much easier and babies did so well, too.

I hope it works out! Let us know!

~Mama to Many~

Lucena, in this part of the world, when babies cry a lot AFTER nursing, they tell the mothers to drink chamomile tea.

I have never used this treatment , BUT "dental issues" I seek answers for all the time. The teeth can remineralize themselves given the right nutrients and minerals.

I read in a childrens site in Earth Clinic .... --- Ted commented about a childs teeth that were deteriorating, HOW to treat them , to help restore them. Wish I were better at attaching things from the site to help you find it faster but saw it yesterday after MY Heart went out to your post..... Keep your hope alive!

My teeth also are responding well to brushing with organic, virgin coconut oil , removes the sensitivity, and fights bacteria, some books say add baking soda in the mix when brushing teeth with it. I also added a multi mineral complex to my diet recently.

I experienced thrush with my first daughter and now my second. Gentian Violet is the way to go. As previously stated it is VERY messy. If you rub the area around baby's mouth with oil (I use coconut oil) it keeps the skin clean. Also, soak any stained fabrics overnight in one of the oxy-type laundry cleaners.I use two scoops to a bathroom sink of HOT water. It has worked every time so far however, every so often I need to soak stubborn stains two days. Wash normally after soaking.

I had a clogged milk duct for two days, with a fever and all...since this is my fourth child, I am accustomed to soaking it in warm water for about 15 minutes, massaging it, then immediately feeding my child, and that has always worked for me. This time it didn't. I read about the pineapple remedy on this site, happened to have a pineapple on my counter, so I ate a fourth of it, thinking "It couldn't hurt."

Much to my surprise, the clog gradually got smaller and less painful throughout the day. By morning, it was completely gone. Thank you so much Earth Clinic! I was afraid I'd have to go on antibiotics and stop breastfeeding (although they may now have some that are "ok" to take while breastfeeding?).

I've been reading some of the recent posts [I only recently found Earth Clinic], came upon this one from a recent mom, and thought it might provide a good opportunity to address a few 'milk-related' issues I've noticed here,[as a recent reader] and elsewhere, where 'milk'/'dairy' have apparently had quite a wicked reputation for awhile now -

We have milking animals, -due in large part to one of those childhood 'fascinations'-that just never quit, I'm speaking of the one that comes when a toddler first asks, 'what's curds and whey?', and the answer received just doesn't 'pass muster', so that it's years -maybe years and years- before they ever even get to, 'what's a 'tuffet'?' I don't precisely recall how it went in our house, long ago, but I think it went something like this. 'curds and whey' means 'cheese'. [I LOVED cheese]. 'How do you make cheese??' to which, the busy young mother of the toddler replied: 'Oh, no one MAKES cheese.' which put it, for me, in the early years of Religion scholarship, in the same category as 'manna from Heaven', and/or 'grace' [another mystery]...as what Mary might be 'full of...' but let's leave this, or we'll never get to the clogged milk duct' or the 'milk is bad' posts, and it's vital that we do. 'vital' being the operative word here, because in fact, milk is VERY LINKED TO 'LIFE', 'TO 'HEALTH', -and it is a rather recent a 'modern' phenom that it now seems to be doing quite the opposite.

When you understand how cheesemaking works, you'll quickly see why and how this is happening in the world of our epoch, which is a very sick, very impaired bio-eco-system, biosphere, and why environmental problems are now so widespread, that life-giving milk ...is now being blamed! In fact, the problems are occurring because the human body is at the perfect temperature for cheesemaking, and acids both environmental acids, and dietary acids- quickly leach calcium from the bones, essentially creating a 'cheese-like' bloodstream. Many of the most prevalent toxins (sulphur dioxide -'sour gas'-, and many of the chemicals used in the oil industry --'ring compounds' -- like the benzenes - compound the problem, by almost acting like a 'salt','on top of AllThis' and then, on top of that, we've got the individual problems associated with 'fat', -in anything to do with 'milk' and 'cheese', we're talking about 'butter fat' which is the cell-loving, wonderfully permeable stuff that makes babies grow and by the way, -die, which is how we learned about AllThis here, under the 'Cloud' of targeted Pollution that quickly took out the finest youngstock.. But that's another Long Story, and you just want to know about 'clogged milk ducts' which, of course, can move on to abcess/mastitis ['things don't flow'conditions..] ll related to 'cheesemaking', as just described. [I apologize if this is sounding complex, or worse, incomprehensible, because it's actually very very simple].

Our bones need the calcium we get from 'dairy'; babies NEED 'butterfat', as do all animal young, in order to grow. What we have to know how to do is to regulate the 'cheesemaking' that is done in our bodies, constantly, as a response to environmental and dietary acid levels, so that the bloodstream can continue to flow, and 'breathe'. This isn't as difficult for adults as it is for youngsters. Adults can and should cut down on butter fat, which soaks into the cell walls [which is why it's so great on lobster, and potatoes] use olive oil, instead [which doesn't do this, and thus cuts the risk of sudden 'inflammation']. And if you use mostly already-soured milk, you'll be at much lower risk for the sudden changes wrought by environmental acids [and they can be very sudden, with widespread, dramatic, and ill effects] on bone-level calcium. You need to keep the body's 'cheesemaking' pores, inside and out, clean. Vinegar and lemon juice are very very useful for this, and outside, I know of nothing better than 3% foodgrade hydrogen peroxide. In fact, this is the first year I've used this in warm water [probably fifteen parts water to 1 part 3%hp, but this is approximate; I'm not going to say I measure it at 5 o'clock every morning], in a wash of the udders, before and after milking [other years, we've used iodine, but they stopped making the product we've long used, so we just happened to switch to 'what we had'] and this is the first year along with dietary changes that now include vinegar and whey in their diets- this is the first year I haven't seen even one of those little 'milk duct clog bumps' SO, I would advise:

-see if you can get a reading on the butterfat content of your own milk, and try to adjust this, if it's too high, a real favor for both you and your infant.

-add things [aplenty!] like vinegar and whey and yogurt [in place of milk] and add brewer's yeast to your diet; baking soda and molasses are also useful. In fact, anytime a milker has a problem here, I drench her with whey, molasses, vinegar and baking soda, and 'fizz it outta there'..

-gradually [it's hard to do this 'cold turkey'] replace all the the fats you use presently with olive oil. For the past ten years, we've used only olive oil, with butter, now, only rarely, and really, the benefits are noteworthy.

I'm rather busy here, but I will try to post our very easy recipe for 'curds and whey' over the next couple of days. The addition of whey to the diet -well, you'll consider it a 'Moment', when you first begin to use whey in your cooking and baking, and it's as easy as it is 'heart-y', beneficial.

I'm sorry if this isn't too easy to grasp. Looking it over, I'm thinking that if I said this to a child who asked: what's 'curds and whey'? or, 'how do you MAKE cheese'? ...they'd probably run the other way and say to their own youngster, eventually ' no body MAKES cheese'..

Well, in fact, *every body MAKES cheese*... and believe me, it's in your very BEST INTEREST to know as much as you can about how it is done.

Good Luck.

Significant typo re [farming] udder wash on my earlier ['cheesemaking'] reply, although the way I gave it only would have made the wash, 'ineffective'; it would have worse the other way around. (someone in the past has addressed the 'diluting issues' with Hydrogen peroxide. -

Anyway, with 3% hp, I use one part hp to 5 parts water; with 35% hp, I use one part hp to [more conservatively here, because you don't mistakes with this product] approximately 15 parts.

The point I had wanted to make is that hp is, in our recent experience, superior to an iodine wash in this procedure -and for daily use, I think the same thing can be said for us -