Good news for new mothers: A study suggests that carefully regulated formula feeding before your milk comes in will not harm your baby’s ability to breast-feed. And done properly, it may even help in the long run.

Something to take note of: the study used carefully controlled formula feeding: small amounts, given with a syringe. In most hospitals, babies are supplemented with two full ounces given from a bottle with a nipple, which is very different from the procedure used in this study. If a provider suggests the use of formula for your breastfed newborn, make sure it’s given in the way that is best for you and your baby, not just the way that is easiest for the staff.

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We all know about the importance of skin-to-skin contact in the early hours and days of breastfeeding.

But a new study from Sweden takes a look at a different question:  can skin-to-skin contact and a laid back position resolve severe latching-on problems in older babies?”

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“The discovery of pluripotent stem cells in human milk is a game changer, whether your perspective is regenerative medicine or developmental biology.”

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Last week Spanish researchers announced that they have succeeded in creating a map of the “microbiome” of human milk, identifying the bacterial species present in colostrum and mature milk.  They did this through a process called DNA pyrosequencing.  A key finding:  There are are over 700 bacterial species present in human milk.

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What does your pediatrician know about feeding babies and children?

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“I have to have some dental work done next week, and they will be using local anesthesia. When I called to schedule the appointment they asked if I was nursing, and when I said yes the dentist recommended that I not breastfeed for one day after the appointment!”  – Recent post on a La Leche League forum

Few of us relish going to the dentist, but comments like these show just how stressful it can be to be a nursing mom in the dentist’s chair.

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“Today I was talking to a woman who had her first baby about a month ago. She’s already back in the office, trying to make breastfeeding work. “That must be tough,” I said. “Yeah,” she answered, “I feel like a dairy cow.”

I’ve heard this a lot: newly lactating women feel like farm animals. It speaks to me of a culture that is really confused about lactation. Nobody ever says, “I feel like a barnyard animal because I’m gestating.” We see pregnancy as normal; this is not, after all, Brave New World. We see lactation, however, as optional. Weird. Degrading.”

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“Imagine this scenario: you and a close friend, perhaps a partner, perhaps a date, perhaps a spouse, are enjoying a wonderful brunch in bed, or cande-lit dinner, or a moonlight picnic. It’s a lovely, intimate setting for a meal, and it really is enjoyable and wonderful. Now imagine that no matter when or where you were hungry, you HAD to re-create that moment. Every time. Three meals a day and snacks besides. Sound exhausting? That’s because it would be! It would be horrendous! It would also likely rob those intimate moments of all their “special”, because you would be working constantly to make this intimate setting over and over day after day.”

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