International Breastfeeding Centre

07/17/2021

I will be speaking at a conference focused on solving breastdeeding problems as we do at our International Breastfeeding Centre in Toronto.
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Here is the link to register for the conference https://bit.ly/3yTN2sE

Congreso en Línea: Problemas de Lactancia. Abordajes y Soluciones En este congreso virtual contaremos con la participación de 4 grandes personalidades de la lactancia a nivel Mundial. Donde tendrás…

02/09/2021

The key to understanding breastfeeding is knowing whether the baby is getting milk from the breast or not. This may sound "simplistic", but it is the key! Many people feel more confident about giving bottles because they feel that watching the baby empty the bottle and seeing the number of ounces or mls consumed tells them what they need to know about the baby's milk intake. They worry about not being able to tell whether the baby got breastmilk from the breast directly. But it is easy to tell when watching a baby breastfeeding at the breast. When the baby drinks from the breast, you can see that the baby is receiving milk from the breast. How? By observing the PAUSE in the baby's chin as the baby opens his/her mouth to the widest. Though the baby's jaw may move even without drinking, the baby's chin will only drop down and hold, with a PAUSE, as the baby receives milk. The longer the pause, the more milk the baby received. In these two photos you can see, first how the baby' s chin is at the uppermost position and in the second, how it has dropped down completely. Seeing this with a pause, before the baby closes again, tells you with certainty that the baby has just swallowed a mouthful of milk. And that gives you confidence to breastfeed or seek help with breastfeeding if necessary.
You can find more breastfeeding tips and advice in my eBook:
https://www.amazon.com/Breastfeeding.../dp/1717802842/

The key to understanding breastfeeding is knowing whether the baby is getting milk from the breast or not. This may sound "simplistic", but it is the key! Many people feel more confident about giving bottles because they feel that watching the baby empty the bottle and seeing the number of ounces or mls consumed tells them what they need to know about the baby's milk intake. They worry about not being able to tell whether the baby got breastmilk from the breast directly. But it is easy to tell when watching a baby breastfeeding at the breast. When the baby drinks from the breast, you can see that the baby is receiving milk from the breast. How? By observing the PAUSE in the baby's chin as the baby opens his/her mouth to the widest. Though the baby's jaw may move even without drinking, the baby's chin will only drop down and hold, with a PAUSE, as the baby receives milk. The longer the pause, the more milk the baby received. In these two photos you can see, first how the baby' s chin is at the uppermost position and in the second, how it has dropped down completely. Seeing this with a pause, before the baby closes again, tells you with certainty that the baby has just swallowed a mouthful of milk. And that gives you confidence to breastfeed or seek help with breastfeeding if necessary.
You can find more breastfeeding tips and advice in my eBook:
https://www.amazon.com/Breastfeeding-Empowering-Jack-Newman-FRCPC/dp/1717802842/

12/31/2020

Wishing you all a happier new year. I would be glad to hear your past year´s breastfeeding memories - both good and bad. Perhaps you remember the first time your baby latched, the first time your baby smiled at you while breastfeeding, the first time you felt you got the hang of breastfeeding or perhaps all those times you felt you were going to give up or all those times someone told you you should give up.
https://www.amazon.com/Breastfeeding.../dp/B07FS6K9SF/

12/13/2020

Given comments in the post on my FB pages, it needs to be said: I have NEVER taken or been sponsored by any companies that make vaccines, have never given any presentations on their behalf and declare no conflict of interest in this respect. I simply believe that breastfeeding mothers should not be selected as a group whose breastfeeding makes it more dangerous either to themselves or their babies to receive medications or other treatments simply because breastfeeding is seen as an intrinsically dangerous activity.

There is no reason why a breastfeeding mother should not get a Covid-19 vaccine. Although some vaccines using weakened viruses are being researched, none seems to be on the verge of being ready for use. Even then, a weakened virus should not be a problem for the baby even if it did enter the milk. Covid-19 vaccines that have already been approved for use so far, or soon will be, are not live vaccines, but contain only small protein parts of the new coronavirus. Thus there is no reason to believe that the vaccine should be a problem for breastfeeding women or their breastfed babies. We can derive this knowledge from other vaccines that are commonly in use and have been for many years.
My eBook (and paperback version) Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents has a section explaining various vaccines and breastfeeding. See also this article, just published a couple of days ago:
There is no reason why a breastfeeding mother should not get a Covid-19 vaccine. Although some vaccines using weakened viruses are being researched, none seems to be on the verge of being ready for use. Even then, a weakened virus should not be a problem for the baby even if it did enter the milk. Covid-19 vaccines that have already been approved for use so far, or soon will be, are not live vaccines, but contain only small protein parts of the new coronavirus. Thus there is no reason to believe that the vaccine should be a problem for breastfeeding women or their breastfed babies. We can derive this knowledge from other vaccines that are commonly in use and have been for many years.
My eBook (and paperback version) Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents has a section explaining various vaccines and breastfeeding. See also this article, just published a couple of days ago:
https://www.infantrisk.com/covid-19-vaccine-pregnancy-and...

12/01/2020

My chapter (written together with a colleague) on the issue of medications taken by breastfeeding mothers has just been published in a new textbook called Drug Discovery and Evaluation: Methods in Clinical Pharmacology published by Springer.
This is very important because many mothers who breastfeed happily and successfully may, at one time or another end up being told they need to stop breastfeeding in order to get treatment or take a medication even when this is not true. Being told that breastfeeding should stop when both the mother and child are not ready creates lots of anxiety and problems for both but also takes away the opportunity to continue breastfeeding. Furthermore, when mothers and babies are struggling to make breastfeeding work, stopping breastfeeding for even a few days, will often be the last straw that breaks the back of their struggle. And that is a shame given the knowledge now available on why breastfeeding can and should continue in the vast majority of these situations.
We hope this reference book will contribute to changing professional opinions on medications and breastfeeding.

The vast majority of medications are compatible with continued breastfeeding. The reason for this is not only that most medications have pharmacokinetic properties which cause them to be excreted...

11/30/2020

Here is my latest one hour long zoom talk. This one is on Breastfeeding Myths Even Many Lactation Consultants Believe which covers topics like:
1) What to do instead of ni**le shields to help mothers with sore ni**les or babies who do not latch
2) How to handle hypoglycemia or jaundice without disrupting breastfeeding and using formula
3) Why sore ni**les cannot be called "normal" during breastfeeding
And much more...

11/29/2020

Children do not need encouragement to stop breastfeeding. Much less to be forced. Doing so implies that there is something wrong with their continued breastfeeding. There is not. Here one mother's experience as written by her in an email to me:
"I wanted to write and say I have living proof that everything you say about breastfeeding is absolutely true! My son is nearly 5 1/2 years old now and still breastfeeds (from one breast.) I still produce milk, even though I am 49 years old. Isn't the human body incredible?
He calls it "mommy milk" or "snuggle milk". He has even verbalized to me, in his own words, that when he is hurt or scared, mommy milk helps him feel better. Typically he has a bit in the morning when he wakes up and definitely before bed at night.
Do I share this with many people? No, unfortunately, no, but this is a decision for my son and me. He enjoys it, I am fine with it, so it works for us. One day he will decide to stop of course, but I would prefer it to be his decision.
My son is confident and independent. He dresses himself, he washes his own hair in the bath (with supervision, of course), he's taking swimming lessons and asked the instructor (voluntarily) to teach him to dive as well. In his senior kindergarten class, he has been encouraged by his teacher to be a leader and role model for his classmates.
You and your clinic do AMAZING work and we are so fortunate to have support for breastfeeding in Canada. So thank YOU!"
My new book Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents contains an inspiring chapter on breastfeeding older children and self-weaning: https://www.amazon.com/Breastfeeding.../dp/1717802842/

Children do not need encouragement to stop breastfeeding. Much less to be forced. Doing so implies that there is something wrong with their continued breastfeeding. There is not. Here one mother's experience as written by her in an email to me:

"I wanted to write and say I have living proof that everything you say about breastfeeding is absolutely true! My son is nearly 5 1/2 years old now and still breastfeeds (from one breast.) I still produce milk, even though I am 49 years old. Isn't the human body incredible?
He calls it "mommy milk" or "snuggle milk". He has even verbalized to me, in his own words, that when he is hurt or scared, mommy milk helps him feel better. Typically he has a bit in the morning when he wakes up and definitely before bed at night.
Do I share this with many people? No, unfortunately, no, but this is a decision for my son and me. He enjoys it, I am fine with it, so it works for us. One day he will decide to stop of course, but I would prefer it to be his decision.
My son is confident and independent. He dresses himself, he washes his own hair in the bath (with supervision, of course), he's taking swimming lessons and asked the instructor (voluntarily) to teach him to dive as well. In his senior kindergarten class, he has been encouraged by his teacher to be a leader and role model for his classmates.
You and your clinic do AMAZING work and we are so fortunate to have support for breastfeeding in Canada. So thank YOU!"
My new book Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents contains an inspiring chapter on breastfeeding older children and self-weaning: https://www.amazon.com/Breastfeeding-Empowering-Jack-Newman-FRCPC/dp/1717802842/

11/17/2020

Saving the lives of premature babies goes hand in hand with making every effort for their successful breastfeeding. The technology sometimes needed to keep premature babies safe and healthy is not in conflict with the babies' breastfeeding. On the contrary, breastfeeding is an important part of their treatment plan. One should not wait for premature babies to become bigger, heavier, older in order that they "are allowed" to start breastfeeding. The standard of care for premature babies should be Kangaroo Mother Care during which mothers provide skin to skin contact to their babies. And breastfeeding should be the norm for premature babies. When a premature or sick babies latches on to the breast and breastfeeds, it re-assures the mother that her baby will be okay and that she has a role to play in the scary world of tubes and beeping machines.
Instead mothers of premature babies are often told their babies cannot breastfeed "YET". That they must wait for them to get stronger. And so mothers wait thinking there is no other way and thinking that those health professionals telling them this know what they are talking about. It is only much later that they come to mourn the loss of breastfeeding. There are so many mothers and babies who through no fault of their own had breastfeeding taken away from them. They were never given a chance. They were told they should be glad their baby survived. They were not shown that Kangaroo Mother Care is possible. They were not shown how to make breastfeeding really work. This video is a signal of hope for all future mothers of premature or special babies - it shows a baby with Noonan Syndrome breastfeeding and drinking breastmilk from the breast directly. The mother of this baby was told she had to give the baby bottles even though the baby was breastfeeding well and gaining weight well.