Breastfeeding Benefits - My Personal Experience

I have been breastfeeding baby J since I was wheeled out of the Operating Room ( baby J was delivered via Caesarean section) more than 15 months ago.  So, I have personally seen and experienced the many benefits of breastfeeding.

First of them is the bond you develop with your baby when you breastfeed.  I have personally seen this with my daughter.  She always prefers to be with me over everyone else (even her dad, who is the next best thing for her when I am not around).  It is also heart melting to hear her squeals of glee when I come home from work.  I now understand what people have always been saying about all your worries, stress, and tiredness disappearing when you see your baby.

Breastfeeding is also very easy on the go.  You do not have to prepare bottles, formula milk, and hot water before you leave the house.  You don't even have to spend time preparing the milk! Just bring along your trusty nursing cover and you're ready to feed your baby with fresh, warm milk.

The puplik nursing cover is what I am using because I like the rigid neckline design which allows me to view my baby while I am feeding her.

Breast milk has many nutritional benefits for your baby. It significantly increases brain development in your baby as well as improve the immune status of your little one.  Breast milk also has less fat content so fully breastfed babies are not as chubby as formula-fed babies.  With the rising number of childhood obesity, I think this is a very good thing.

Imagine the dollars you are saving also when you breastfeed your baby.  I estimated the dollars I have saved in the last 15 months, and guess what it amounted to?  The hubby and I have already saved more than 4,000 dollars!

But I think the benefit most women want out of breastfeeding is the weight loss! Yes, you read it right!  Breast feeding lets you burn an additional 500 kcal per day.  In my experience, I lost 7kg during my first month post-partum.  It was a very pleasant surprise to step on the weighing scale and find out I lost 7kg without doing anything.

So, mommies out there, plan to breastfeed (if you have not done so already), continue breastfeeding, and do it as long as you can!  The benefits are enormous.  Happy Breastfeeding!

Working moms and breastfeeding

I went back to work when baby J was just 2.5 months old.  Naturally, it was a very difficult time for me since that was the first time I had to leave the baby for hours at a time.  What made it even more difficult was the fact that baby J has been exclusively breastfed since birth.  And knowing the many benefits of breastfeeding, I have already decided to breastfeed her for as long as I have milk to offer. 

Balancing a full-time job (with frequent travelling involved) and being a full-time breastfeeding, hands-on mom has been the most difficult challenge I had to face.  If we had tons and tons of money, I would have let my career take a back seat and be a stay at home mom until baby J was old enough to enter pre-school.  But who am I kidding, I would probably have missed working also if I did that, plus the fact that the hubby and I now have a mini human being to raise and give the best possible future to.  So, of course, the extra income would go a long way for the little one.

So, it was off to work I went with my handy electronic breastpump complete with the ice pack and insulated bag.  Lucky for me, the office was very close to our house, so I would go home for lunch to feed baby J when time permitted.  On busy days, I would express milk 2-3 times in the office, leave everything in the office freezer, and just get it before I went home.  Usually, by the time I bring it home, the milk has been frozen already. 

My greatest fear with expressing breastmilk is its "life expectancy".  I did not want to give baby J spoiled milk, at the same time, I did not want to waste a single drop of breastmilk (all breastfeeding moms would understand this!).  With this in mind, I stumbled across the guidelines from La Leche League regarding storage of breastmilk.  Check the link below if you are unsure.

http://www.llli.org/faq/milkstorage.html

Difficult as it is to work and fully breastfeed baby J, we have successfully managed to do it for the last 15 months!  I am proud to say that baby J is still breastfed (and eating solids, of course), and we will keep going until she decides to stop wanting it (at the rate we are going, I don't see her wanting to stop anytime soon).

All moms want the best for their kids.  Since breastfeeding is best for babies, that is what I am giving her! Thankfully, I have been blessed with very good milk supply.  So, if you have good milk supply, just go for it.  Know that there are millions of women out there with the same situation as you.

Child Nutrition Course, anyone?

Once your baby enters the sixth month, your pediatrician may start advising you to start feeding your baby.  Naturally, we always want only the best and most nutritious food for our little one.  But what constitutes healthy food for our kids?

Before baby J started on semi-solids at 6 months, the hubby and I were already reading books on food preparation for babies.  We bought a few books on this, just to be well equipped in providing nutritious food for our baby that is also age-appropriate.

I have recently started joining the Child Nutrition and Cooking 2.0 course by Stanford Medicine on Coursera. Coursera is a free online education course on various topics ranging from Medicine to Business.

Below is a link to the course.  Currently, we are on third week of the five week lecture series already.
https://class.coursera.org/childnutrition-002/lecture

The lectures include discussions on what constitutes a balanced diet, discussion on the different food group as well as creating healthy, easy to cook food to serve our kids.

I am not really a Pro when it comes to cooking, but watching how easy it is to create healthy meals is actually inspiring me to be more pro-active in the kitchen.

For moms and dads out there who would like to further their knowledge, try signing up with Coursera (No, I was not sponsored by Coursera!), it is quite interesting.