Breastfeeding, Sleep Training, and Growth

So, after much research and experimentation of my own, I've come to an interesting conclusion: What you eat definitely comes through your breastmilk and your milk quality impacts how your baby sleeps and grows. There are three principles I've found helpful.

 Principle 1: It's not milk volume, it's milk quality. You can feed your baby all day, but if you are missing essential nutrients or they are too spread out in your milk (because you make too much for your baby to drain at least one breast with each feeding), your baby will be hungry all the time. Interestingly, low milk quality is actually not related directly to your diet. Check out this interesting article from KellyMom: kellymom.com/nutrition/mothers-diet/mom-diet/. The gist of the article is that the baby will steal nutrients from you, so a poor diet will affect you more than it will your baby. But, what if you are absolutely missing (completely deficient in) certain nutrients despite a healthy diet? This will certainly affect your baby, and it can show up in sleep problems (waking up every couple of hours at night to nurse well into the 5th or 6th month), digestive troubles (gas, constipation), and growth problems. So, how do you know which nutrients you're missing?

 Principle 2: Add to your diet rather than take away. Here are a list of things to try adding to your diet if your baby is not growing, digesting, or sleeping well:

 For better growth: Oils and healthy cholesterol-rich foods--These make your milk fattier and have an added benefit of decreasing plugged ducts (perhaps they make the ducts more slippery so the milk flows better).

Coconut oil (add 2 Tbs a day)
Olive oil (add 2 Tbs a day)
Peanut butter (add 2 Tbs a day)
Nuts of all kinds (a handful each of 2-3 varieties)
More eggs (like 5-6 a day!)
Cod liver oil (see the Weston A. Price diet for info on this one)

Also, for those of you with way too much milk and an underweight baby (like me), check out this article: kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/supply-worries/fast-letdown/. For me, it turned breastfeeding from a failure into a success in 2 weeks, and my girls are both growing like crazy.



 For better digestion: Just because it's normal for many breastfed babies to poop only every 6-14 days doesn't mean that's what you want for your baby. Healthy adults eliminate once a day or so. Why shouldn't babies be that same? Try these three categories of diet changes to encourage your baby to poop more often and to reduce gas and fussiness.

 1. Increase metabolism: selenium, zinc, and iodine

 (selenium)
brazil nuts
sunflower seeds
fish and shellfish

 (zinc)
fish
beef
chicken
spinach
chocolate

 (iodine)
seaweed 

2. Improve your own digestion:

 Oils (the same oils used to increase growth can help improve digestion by making the digestive tract slipperier)
Probiotics--lacto-fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, and homemade saurkraut and pickles
Whole cooked or soaked grains rather than flour (even whole wheat and other whole-grain flours can glue up the digestive tract)


 3. Cleanse the liver: There are lots of breastfeeding-safe ways to improve liver function. This helps the baby's digestion and also decreases breastfeeding jaundice.

Garlic (mince and swallow 1 clove of fresh garlic a day. Don't chew it. It must be fresh as well as freshly cut in order to get the maximum benefit)
Turmeric (powdered or fresh is fine, 1/2 tsp powder, piece of fresh)
Ginger (powdered or fresh, 1/2 tsp powder, piece of fresh)
Milk thistle (try making a milk thistle tea with honey)


 For better sleep: Eat foods that help you relax and sleep.
Raw milk (better digested than pasteurized)
turkey (contains chemicals that relax you)
cottage cheese
maca (this is the South American sweet potato, easiest to find in powdered form, increases progesterone, the relaxation hormone, decreases anxiety)
sweet potato



 Remember, that part of good sleeping comes from parental training. Parents must teach their babies to get themselves to sleep, so before you write off letting your baby fuss or cry to sleep, think about this: Babies get overwhelmed easily and have to let off stress by crying (I cry when I'm overwhelmed). I'm not talking about screaming or wailing here, just a normal wah-wah-wah kind of cry with tears that helps reduce stress by releasing stress hormones through the tear ducts and through increased respiration. Also, remember that growth hormone is released during the deepest stage of sleep. The less time a baby spends there because of nighttime waking, the harder it will be for him or her to grow. 



Principle 3: Eat the foods that make you feel good in the long run.

 Avoid foods that make you feel yucky like coffee and OTC meds if you can.

 Also, if you find the metabolism increasers above helpful, you should probably avoid broccoli, cauliflower, and soy, as these counteract the effects of selenium, zinc, and iodine.

 If raw milk works for you, try to avoid drinking pasteurized milk. Other than that, eat healthy foods whenever you are hungry, and drink when you're thirsty.


Good luck, and happy mothering!