Breastfeeding
You probably know there is a strong movement among medical circles to convince mothers that formulas can adequately replace breastmilk if the mother chooses not to nurse. Doctors sometimes say that breastmilk is deficient in iron, fluoride, or vitamins. Cow's milk is meant to build the bones and muscles of a calf, and its casein content is several times higher than that of human milk. Formulas and canned milks have almost all proven to contain lead, either from processing or from the solder used in sealing the cans. Some formulas lack B-6, the absence of which causes convulsions. All formulas lack the micro-nutrient, enzymes and life force that mother's milk contains.
Early Nursing
Researchers at Brigham Young University have shown that a baby's blood glucose begins to drop at birth, but that a baby who is nursed immediately after birth regains a normal level of blood sugar right away. The longer nursing is delayed, the more severe the drop becomes, and a baby who is withheld from feeding for eight hours or more suffers severe hypoglycemia which is very difficult to recover from. These researchers recommend the obvious and natural prevention: let mothers who wish to nurse their babies after birth do what they want!
Dr. Camilla Wood of this research team also found that, although breastfed babies take in less volume of milk, they absorb and utilize the milk much better, so they don't need ounce for ounce the way bottle-fed babies do. Mother's milk, she found, is more concentrated at birth, becoming more and more watery as the baby grows, which provides the perfect ratio of nutrients to liquid that the baby needs.
Exclusive Breastfeeding
Dr. Robert Mendelsohn goes against standard feeding advice by recommending that mothers breastfeed their babies exclusively for six months. After that, babies should receive the good, natural foods that the parents eat, ground up appropriately. I have found that my babies exhibit a desire to eat from around six to eight months. We just grind up fruits and vegetables, and later grains and proteins, in our baby food grinder. I also give water and juices by cup and sometimes in a bottle. Dr. Christopher said that the coming in of the first teeth signals the ability to digest food; the eye teeth and stomach teeth indicate that the baby now has gastric juices to handle foods, but we find that our babies demand feeding some time before that!
Nursing
Statistics show that 95% of all women can nurse their babies if they only will. If you find yourself with problems, questions, or just in need of moral support, contact your local La Leche League. Sometimes you can find it listed in the phone book, sometimes from health food stores, or you can contact La Leche League International: http://www.lalecheleague.org/ Personally, I have found breastfeeding my children so easy that I have never needed much guidance, and if you have enjoyed a good home birth and have the support of your husband and family, you will likely have the same experience.
If you cannot breastfeed your infant, see if you can find a close friend who has an infant to help you feed yours. This is not very common these days, however, and you will more likely be able to locate fresh goat's milk, which is the first choice after breastmilk: goat's milk most closely approximates mother's milk of all the domesticated animals.
You may be surprised to learn that even a woman who has lost her milk--or one that never has had a child--can breastfeed a child successfully. La Leche League tells of women who patiently ran a tube of formula by their breasts as an infant suckled, and the insistent stimulation brought milk into the mother. Dr. Christopher reminded us that it requires a certain balance of hormones--estrogens and progesterones--to produce milk. If a woman doesn't seem to be making enough milk, she should balance up her hormones by taking a few capsules of Dr. Christopher's Hormonal Changease Formula. Dr. Christopher taught that to make the proper conditions in the woman's body for producing milk, she should take blessed thistle, also known as holy thistle. Taken in doses of three cups or more a day, women who do not have enough milk--or who have no milk--can abundantly supply a baby's needs.
A very unusual lady, blonde, dignified and queenly-looking was planning to adopt a baby and wanted to nurse it. Dr. Christopher told her to go on the mucusless diet, drink a gallon of distilled water each day, which is very necessary because so many people are dehydrated, and to drink three or more cups of blessed thistle tea a day. She planned to receive the baby in a couple of weeks.
One blizzardy day, this lady came into the office, wearing a purple robe with a white fur collar on it. She shook the snow off and was admitted to Dr. Christopher's office. She threw back the robe, and there she had in her arms, at her breast nursing, a beautiful little Navajo baby. She was so blonde that the contrast was amazing. She said she took the baby and put it to her breast, and it started nursing right off. She had taken the blessed thistle tea a few days before the baby was received. Although she had adopted three other Indian children, she felt very close to this one and felt it was a part of her because it was receiving her own milk.
Another time, a young lady in her upper teens came to Dr. Christopher's office asking for help. Her older sister was in a fatal automobile accident and left a newborn baby, thrown out of the car but not hurt because it had fallen in a pile of leaves. The baby would not drink any formulas or anything else. The girl wanted to nurse the baby, although she had never been married nor had anything much to do with men. She drank plenty of the blessed thistle tea, and started nursing the baby within twenty-four hours. She was able to nurse that baby until weaning time.
Our goat got mastitis and recovered, but she lost all of her milk. Normally that would be the signal for breeding her again, but we got a bottle of blessed thistle tablets and fed them to her; they tasted good to her, and she ate them out of our hand. In a day, she regained her high level of milk production (about a gallon a day), which she has maintained for a year and a half, quite unusual for a milking goat.
How often should you nurse your baby? As often as s/he needs it; you'll be able to tell when the baby is hungry. Use nursing for comfort as well as for nourishment; the more the baby nurses, the more milk you'll make (and the longer you will remain infertile, if you're nursing exclusively). Don't begrudge the time you are nursing; if you have other children you can read to them during nursing time, and you also can use the time to read things you have been waiting to get to. Relax, enjoy yourself. We sometimes forget that babies are tiny for a very short time, really. In several months that tiny one will be wiggling out of your arms, wanting to get down and explore the world. Enjoy his/her softness and cuddliness while you can.
How long should you nurse your baby? Ideally, a baby should wean him/herself, usually after at least a year and preferably two years. Some children want to nurse longer. Sometimes a child will stop nursing and then want to resume when a new baby arrives, or when there is sickness or accident. In other cultures, prolonged nursing is acceptable and natural. We should be willing to set aside our cultural expectation and give the little ones what they need. Gradual self-weaning is best.
Especially when a mother nurses a baby for a long time, she may reach points where she thinks she doesn't have enough milk or that her milk isn't "rich" enough to satisfy the baby. Most infants go through growth spurts when they need a sudden increase in nutrition to satisfy their needs. The first and easiest remedy for this is to nurse more often and longer. You can take the blessed thistle to increase the volume of your milk; marshmallow and red raspberry leaf teas are said to enrich the content of the milk. When I am nursing a baby full-time, I take a nap every day. I put the older children in charge of the younger ones, put the baby to the breast, and go to sleep for at least an hour. An exhausted mother cannot produce adequate milk for her baby. Dr. Christopher stressed the importance of drinking at least a gallon of steam-distilled water every day; he said that most individuals are dehydrated. You will find a big difference in your overall feeling--and your milk production--if you drink enough. Some women recommend taking a tablespoonful of brewer's yeast in juice (apple juice goes well with the flavor) to increase milk. If you ask around, you can find a good-tasting yeast. I find that this remedy really does increase milk yield, and it brings up the blood sugar and gives stamina to a harassed mother.
Don't give in to the warnings that your breastmilk might be deficient in essential nutrients for your baby. If you are following the mucusless diet, including a variety of fruits and vegetables, you will be getting all the nutrition both of you need. God engineered breastmilk to satisfy the needs of your infant. He also supplied immunity to disease through the antibodies from the immune system of the mother. It establishes appropriate intestinal flora, which can be a benefit throughout the child's life. Breastfed babies experience a low incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, although it sometimes does happen. Breastfeeding helps the infant excrete dangerous substances: when babies are exposed to radioactivity, the breastfed babies excrete twice as much of the substance as bottle-fed babies similarly exposed. Breastmilk does not harbor these substances, but cow's milk does (The People's Doctor, Vol. 9, No. 12, p. 7).
