Posts Tagged ‘breastfeeding’

The watches work similarly to traditional timepieces. One of the faces keeps time. The other dial is set (with an easy one-hand winding motion, simple to do when your baby’s on the breast) when your baby breastfeeds, including a setting that tells you which breast the baby fed from last. That dial doesn’t move unless you advance it, making it easy to compare with the face above. “Oh my God, honey, it’s 4 a.m. and the baby hasn’t fed since 2. Wake him up! Wake him up!” No. Don’t wake him up.

Con Leche Lucia Watch, $99

There are so many different kinds of breastfeeding-friendly tops on the market, and many of them seem designed either to make you look like a heifer, or to expose your postpartum stretchmark-speckled gut to the world, even as they shield the top of your breast.

Maternity tops from Swedish company Boob Design feature a horizontal flap above a lower flap, so that one or both breasts can be easily pulled out, while the rest of the body is camouflaged. There are no supposedly one-hand snaps to undo, no layers of cloth to fumble through, no complicated wraps that suddenly fall apart. And the flap is often cunningly concealed in design details, so that it looks like you’re wearing a regular shirt, not a shirt that screams “I LIKE TO TAKE MY BOOBS OUT A LOT.” They’re pricey, but wear well, and will stand up to the stretching and washing that a nursing top takes.

In fact, the one big flaw of Boob Design is that the clothes are hard to buy in the United States. You can’t buy from the company’s website; for a list of online boutiques that sell Boob, see boobdesign.com.

It’s long been theorized that breastfeeding an infant has a protective effect against autism, but 2007 work by neuroscientist Michael Merzenich casts doubt on that theory. In the study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Merzenich found that in rats, introducing environmental toxins at the same levels found in breastmilk contributed to a significant deterioration of the brain. Merzenich fears that the toxins already present in our environment are being delivered to babies via breastmilk, contributing to the precipitous rise of autism diagnoses.

Environmental toxins like PCBs, though they have been banned for decades, are found in high concentrations in the human bodies, and leach into breastmilk. PCBEs, a close cousin of PCBs, are still being produced and are also found in human tissues. Merzenich concludes that these toxins, along with other factors like a genetic predisposition for developmental disorders, should convince researchers to take a second look at breastfeeding.

Find more at ucsf.edu.

Leftover maternity tees and nursing bras have far outworn their welcome. You want to look like your old — fashionable — self again, even with a little milk monger in tow.

Titi Collection’s pretty handcrafted halter “hoodie,” made of stretch silk (yes, silk!) and purple Italian lace, features a clever design that makes for discrete breastfeeding. A button closure at the neck and a zipper front simplify wear, while a cascading hood can double as a nursing cover. The Los Angeles-based collection wants to keep you looking like you — and that does not involve a tired tank.

Available at titicollection.com.

As World Breastfeeding Week comes to a close, this favorite conversation piece among moms continues to be hot topic. (Should you do it? When do you stop? To pump or not to pump?)

But if you’re really just in the mood for a chuckle, check out If These Boobs Could Talk: A Little Humor to Pump Up the Breastfeeding Mom. This lighthearted book is full of tips, trivia, questions and quizzes on latching, lactation and the like. Cartoon illustrations help highlight essential points like “Top 10 Things Your Boobs Would Say If They Could Talk” and “How to Find Your Inner Hottie.”

And keep up the debate.