Wisdom of Healing

If you are a new Mom and have any concerns about breastfeeding, relax and read on. There are dozens of foods and herbs that can help lactating women produce rich, abundant milk supply to satisfy their little ones.

Drink plenty of pure water, eight to twelve glasses every day. Attempt to drink one glass of water each time you sit down to nurse. Do your best to stay away from soda, and if you drink coffee or black tea, please choose organic and limit it to one cup daily. Green tea should also be organic, but may be consumed during lactation as often as desired. The reason for choosing organic is that the coffee and tea crops are heavily polluted with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, which may interrupt milk flow.

Always remember to breathe deeply while nursing. Reading, singing, reciting poetry, visualization and joyful storytelling in a quiet voice will help your little feel nurtured, help to calm Mom and help with the production of nourishing milk.

If you want to produce richer milk, please visit your local health food store and purchase sweet brown rice and aduki beans (sometimes spelled adzuki). Sweet brown rice is a shorter, plumper grain than traditional brown rice and is cooked in the same way. You may also want to try a delicious drink made with sweet rice, called amasake.

Aduki beans are small brown beans that may be purchased in cans (and usually organically grown) or dried. Both have been used to produce copious amounts of rich, delicious milk by lactating Moms who are having trouble with milk flow. They are also excellent foods for adopting Moms to eat plenty of when they plan to nurse their babies.

There are some great herbs to increase milk flow. My favorite is ginger, especially the Ginger Wonder Syrup made by New Chapter. (This same product also comes under the names Ginger Honey Tonic and Digestion Ginger Honey Tonic.) Ginger Wonder Syrup is simply the juice of organic ginger and a bit of a potent ginger concentrate mixed with Vermont honey. It may be taken right from the spoon, mixed with seltzer water or naturally carbonated mineral water to create a delicious herbal ginger ale, or mixed with warm water (never hot, as you don’t want to damage the enzymes contained in the ginger) to enjoy a soothing ginger honey tea.

Ideally, one would want to have a teaspoon or more of the syrup with every meal or snack throughout the day. This will also help to sooth a baby’s tummy if she’s experiencing colic, constipation or gas. And it’s a great help if Mommy experiences any of these digestive discomforts, as well. Remember; do not give it directly to your baby until after the first year, due to the fact that it contains honey.

If you prefer to consume ginger without the honey, please be sure to have attention to purchasing an organically grown product. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but there are some pretty yucky chemicals used to grow commercial ginger crops, especially potent fungicides, and babies can be especially sensitive to toxins. You can use it in cooking, capsules or tincture (careful, though, it’s quite spicy!) To make the most useful tea from fresh ginger, try warming the water to a temperature that you can sip easily, grate the ginger onto a plate, and squeeze the ginger juice into the warm water. This method of preparing ginger tea will provide increased benefits for digestive, immune and cardiovascular health for both Mom and Baby. Ginger supports increased appetite and is considered useful in Traditional Chinese Medicine for more than 600 conditions.

Other well-known herbs to help with milk flow include fennel, fenugreek, nettles and blessed thistle. Each of the herbs mentioned is superb for the digestion system. One way that they support increased milk production is to help Mom digest more easily and thoroughly, so as to have more high quality nutrients available to turn into rich milk for your little one. You know the drill, organic whenever possible. You may try them incorporated into foods, tea, capsules or taken as a tincture (don’t worry about the alcohol content, as we get more alcohol from eating a ripe banana than in a dose of tincture).

A pinch of fennel seeds are chewed thoroughly following meals in regions of India. Fennel has been consumed throughout much of Asia and Europe for thousands of years. Fennel is soothing to the mucosal tissue, so it is used for calming an irritated throat or lungs. For use, either chew a few seeds, usually ½ teaspoon per meal and snack, or take as a tea. To make a tea, pour boiling water over one teaspoon of seeds, and cover. Steep for 15 minutes and sip a half cup or so per meal and snack. Be sure not to overdo it, as it is believed that too much fennel can slow milk flow. (The amounts suggested above should not be too much for most of us.)

Fenugreek is probably the most recommended herb for lactation by midwives, (although I favor ginger and fennel). Fenugreek is, for many, an acquired taste, so it is usually taken by capsule.

Nettles, considered to be the most nutritious land plant on Earth, helps to make very rich, very satisfying milk. If your little one seems to want to nurse all the time, or if you feel stressed out, so your milk seems to be less satisfying to your babe, you may want to try nettles. It makes a delicious tea and may be added to soups, salads, smoothies, tomato sauce, stir-fries or whatever you’re serving for dinner. This is also a great way to slip some nourishing veggies into your children who may not usually choose to eat their vegetables. Nettles are well-known to help folks who suffer with allergies. So, if you’re a new Mom with allergy concerns, nettles may be a very beneficial addition to your daily diet. There is no known side effects or unsafe upper levels, according to a wealth of research.

Blessed thistle, a cousin of Milk thistle, supports liver health, blood cleansing and colon regularity. Blessed thistle can also help to increase appetite.

Please, if you haven’t already, try Pregnancy Tea, formulated by one of my greatest teachers, Rosemary Gladstar, and produced by Traditional Medicinals. It is delicious. Be sure to place a cover on the mug to hold in the potent essential oils, as much of the medicinal value of herbs is contained in their essential oils.

If your little one is having trouble with nursing, slow weight gain or failure to thrive, try the following simple technique. As baby begins to find the breast and latch on, use your fingers to gently open his mouth wider around the nipple. He may fuss a bit, but relax and help him stretch open that little mouth a bit more with each nursing for the next couple days.

I once had a friend whose baby was experiencing a serious failure to thrive concern, and she did not want to go back to the doctor’s office because she knew what she’s be told, and she was committed to nursing. Her baby girl get sucked on the tip of the nipple, which was not allowing good milk flow and was painful for the Mom. I helped her to get the baby’s mouth widely wrapped around the entire nipple, and within two weeks, the baby filled out, became less fussy and slept better. When she visited the doctor shortly thereafter, her little girl got a clean bill of health.

Another important thing to consider; when you and your little one are ready to wean, be sure to discontinue all of the aforementioned herbs and foods that increase milk supply or your breasts will pay dearly. I once knew a woman who was painfully engorged for more than two weeks after weaning. She couldn’t understand why her breasts weren’t going down, and as she whined to me in pain, we realized that she was drinking amazake (the sweet rice drink) and had eaten aduki bean soup for dinner two nights in a row! She put them all in the freezer, and a day later was out of pain.

The best to each of you as you nourish and grow your beautiful little people.

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