Forget the Food Rules: What Women Around the World Know About Breastfeeding That Social Media Doesn’t

I am reading Helen Ball’s book: “How Babies Sleep” in she shares that the “ways of “managing” infant sleep are different all around the world, and exposure to
different ways of doing things can offer new insights.”
 
As I read this, I reflected on how this applies to the vast array of “advice” that I am seeing in social media on what one needs to eat and/or drink in order to make
breastmilk, or more breastmilk, or better breastmilk – these range from Oreos cookies to Body Armor.  One parent asked which Oreos they should be using –
regular, double stuffed, mega stuffed, golden?
 
Women the world over breastfeed their infants.  Research has been shown that their milk contains all the nutrients needed for infants to grow and thrive. 
 
I would like one to consider that war torn countries women are not running to the local store and buying Oreos or drinking x amount of fluids or electrolyte infused fluids. 
 
We see this also in comments that one should not eat spicy foods or sushi – Women all over the world spice their foods and nurse their babies, women in Japan eat sushi during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Research has shown that foods that we eat flavor our foods, as they flavored our amniotic fluid which introduces our little ones to the flavors that we like.
 
Women all over the world have occasions to leave their little ones for any number of reasons – in many of those place there are no breastpumps and there are no
bottles – hand expression, cups and spoons are all alternative ways. 
 
Parenting is hard…more so where families do not have a village to provide support – let’s not make it more so with rigid guidelines and requirements.  Or promises that x or y product will help them reach a or b goal when there is no research to support these recommendations