Breastfeed a Toddler Why on Earth?

More and more women are now breastfeeding their babies, and many are also finding that they enjoy breastfeeding enough to want to continue longer than the usual few months they initially intended to breastfeed. UNICEF has long encouraged...

Breastfeeding & Fatherhood: How a Father’s Support Enriches the Breastfeeding Experience for the Family

Throughout our history, the incidence of mothers breastfeeding their babies has run the spectrum from feast to famine. Very long ago, nearly every mother breastfed; nature obviously had a good plan. More recently, breastfeeding became...

Breastfeeding Basics For a Successful Start

This year’s theme for the World Breastfeeding Week is: Exclusive Breastfeeding: The Gold Standard, Safe, Sound and Sustainable. The World Health Organization currently recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months and up to two years with other...

Breastfeeding Difficulties and Chiropractic

Modern birthing procedures, even those with seemingly minimal intervention, are known to cause trauma and stress to the infant’s cranium and spine. In a leading pediatric textbook on manual therapy for children, one author tells...

Breastfeeding in Public: Breastfeeding and the Law (Part 2)

Breastfeeding in public IS legal in the United States, though sometimes people simply don’t know it and therefore might complain about it. This means you can nurse your baby anywhere that you are allowed to be with your baby. About 20 states have...

Breastfeeding is Best Feeding

Breastfeeding significantly increases short-term attentiveness in 4- to 6- month olds, according to an article in the journal Developmental Psychobiology. Investigators outfitted 13 infants with limb movement detectors. The youngsters were watched...

Breastfeeding Protects Mother from Heart Attacks

Breastfeeding is known to boost an infant’s health— and now it seems it may be good for the mother as well. In a study of 96,648 nurses who gave birth between 1986 and 2002, those who had spent at least two years breastfeeding were 19% less...

Breastfeeding Twins

Families and friends are always amazed when I mention that I am still breastfeeding my 2-year-old twin boys. Having twins is a very different experience from having a singleton with respect to rearing and baby care but for me having twins has become...

Cluster Feedings and Fussy Evenings

“My baby nurses and fusses all evening! What’s wrong?” It is very common for babies to be fussy and nurse very often in the evenings, particularly in the early months. My daughter had a fussy time every evening for a couple of...

Colic in the Breastfed Baby

Colic is one of the mysteries of nature. Nobody knows what it really is, but everyone has an opinion. In a typical colic situation, the baby starts to have crying periods about two to three weeks after birth. These occur mainly in the evening, and...

Cost Benefits of Breastfeeding

Asked at a Blue Cross/Blue Shield health care cost containment in Minot, North Dakota: “What helps reduce the incidence of ear and respiratory infections, intestinal disease, pneumonia, meningitis, Crohn’s disease, colitis, diabetes, childhood...

Letters From Our Readers

Reader Response to “Breastfeed a Toddler…” I was very excited to read your article entitled “Breastfeed a Toddler… Why on Earth?”. I am very supportive of breastfeeding, and love to read articles on the benefits so I can pass them on....

Milk Sharing: A Mother’s Story

I would like to offer another option to formula and milk banks not covered in the article "What's in Your Baby's Formula." I’m a 41-year-old mother of a beautiful 12-month old, Oliver. After trying for 5 years to get pregnant, even...

New Breastfeeding Policy

Nursing moms advised to keep babies close. Nursing babies should sleep right next to their parents’ bed, advises the American Academy of Pediatrics in a new breast-feeding policy out on February 7 that’s drawing applause and pointed criticism. The...

New WHO Guidelines Growth Charts for Exclusively Breastfed Infants

Finally! The WHO Guidelines have released their new growth standards which, among other major improvements from charts used currently, consider exclusively breastfed babies for at least 6 months as the norm from which growth standards for humans...

Nighttime Breastfeeding: How Does it Affect Maternal Mental Health?

There is a movement afoot in childbirth education and perinatal health, urging mothers to avoid nighttime breastfeeding to decrease their risk for postpartum depression. We know that if mothers follow this advice, it will have a negative impact on...

Of Love and Milk: Facing Our Breastfeeding Ambivalence

Mother’s milk. The term is synonymous with everything tender, nourishing, and loving. The best. Indeed, a slogan-writer bottom-lined it succinctly: Breast is best. So why do we have so much ambivalence about breastfeeding? Why do we wrestle with t...

The Deadly Influence of Formula in America

This groundbreaking analysis from noted author, health educator and advocate Dr. Linda Folden Palmer is the first time a health expert has published an examination of the available scientific research comparing the death rates of formula-fed and...

Tips to Successfully Nurse Twins or Higher Order Multiples

Have an open mind. During the first few weeks of adaptation, get help with cooking and chores—you need to concentrate exclusively on the new babies and nursing. Have confidence in your milk supply. Avoid introducing a...