I chose to breastfeed my baby. This notion is completely outlandish to the French and especially Parisians. For some reason most new French mothers never even try breastfeeding. It might have something to do with keeping body image issues, French women are notoriously obsessed with being skinny. I have also heard others say that they didn't want to be the only ones doing all the work, or be a slave to the baby. I can totally understand not wanting to do all the work while your husband sleeps or relaxes and breastfeeding definitely takes a huge toll on the woman's body. However, from my perspective there were just way too many benefits for the baby for me not to do it.
Since my baby was born in October at the beginning of the ugly Parisian winter and flu season I can tell you from experience that breastfeeding kept her from getting sick. The antibodies in my body got transferred to her through the milk and while everyone around her was getting the flu she was protected. At first I wasn't sure if I truly believed this notion. But when we visited with my husbands friends who had little babies that were coughing with runny noses I was sure that my kid would catch something. After all during the winter people like to be indoors with the heat turned up and rarely think of airing out their homes....thus the germs get incubated and passed to anyone who enters the "sick" house. After several visits to these types of infected homes I caught a cold, so did my husband but the baby had nothing! That's when I realized that there was truth in the breast milk protecting the baby notion after all.
My kid is now five months and a half and I am still breastfeeding. At five months I started giving her formula once a day during the weekdays because I am leaving her with a nanny to go to work and it just got too hard to pump at night (very very tiring). I felt a little bad about it but in the end I have to sleep and get out once in a while also! I don't know how long I'll keep breastfeeding but so far I really love it so probably till she is one. Next month I'll be starting puree's so there will be a post on how that goes...
I know that some people have problems producing enough milk. I used two recipes that really help increase milk production. The first is a mix of herbs for a tea and the second is a yummy cookie.
Lactation Tea:
In France you can find several brands of lactation teas. The one I started to buy was Les Jardins de Gaia, mainly because it comes in a bigger package and I like making my own tea bags. However, you could make your own tea with the following herbs. These are also the ingredients in the brand mentioned about. I drank about a cup or two a day. You don't need to go crazy with it, one or two cups is definitely enough.
***You need to be careful about what herbs you take when breastfeeding. Remember that everything that you eat and ingest (medicine, etc.) goes to your baby!
(This makes two cups)
1 tsp. fennel
1tsp. cumin seeds
1tsp dill
1 tsp. anis
a few raspberry leaves
Lactation Cookie:
I found the recipe here and they turned out great. I made a few changes like substiture sugar for maple syrup and added coconut flakes.
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour (or if you are gluten free you can use any gluten free mix)
1 3/4 c. oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 c. almond butter or peanut butter
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. flax seeds
1/3 c. water
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar (I used maple syrup, or you could use agave as well)
2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
2 c. (12oz) chocolate chips
1 c. chopped nuts of your choice
