Nursing While Vaccinating

Vaccinating your child is a big decision that every parent should seriously consider before their child is born. There are risks involved when you vaccinate or medicate your child, therefore it is dire that as a parent you are well informed of the risks and side-effects before making your choice to go ahead with either. Not only is it important to understand the risks, but to also take into account your lifestyle and intended future for your child. One of the main reasons we were inclined toward vaccinating our daughter was due to our interest in enrolling her in a private school. There are some schools that will accept an unvaccinated child, but there are many that will not. There is also the risk of disease that comes with placing your child in an environment with a large number of relative strangers. The only way we could rationalize NOT vaccinating our daughter was if we could provide her with home schooling, but as we cannot it did not seem like the right choice for our family.

After deciding that vaccinating would be appropriate, it was time to research the individual vaccines and decide which ones were needed and which were not. Just because you decide to vaccinate does not mean you have to take every vaccine the doctor recommends. This is where you must research specific vaccines and look into what they are for and why they are still being used, how effective they are, the prevalence of the disease that they prevent, etc. Educate yourself and you will be much more confident in your decision. Confidence is very important, especially in this case, because you will have to walk into your pediatrician's office and tell him or her what you have decided and if it is to not vaccinate you are likely to be met with some resistance. If you are confident in your decision and have done enough research to back up your choice, your doctor's reaction should not intimidate you.

Let's skip to the well-check appointment. After the pediatrician has "examined" your child and given you the usual run-down of what to expect at this stage of development and what to look forward to, he or she will leave and a nurse will return with up to four different shots for your child. The first time this happened my parental instinct kicked in and all I could think was "I need to nurse my daughter to ease her pain from the shots." I had read about women doing so, but I didn't think twice about it until put in the situation. So, I asked the nurse if I could breastfeed my daughter while she administered the vaccines. She gave me a dirty look and said "no, she would choke when she starts to cry." Aside from the fact that I wanted to punch the woman for her rude tone and expression, I was really annoyed with how uneducated she was with breastfeeding. While it is very possible for an infant to choke on formula coming out of a bottle, it is very unlikely that your infant will ever have any kind of choking problem at the breast. The difference between the two is that when your infant is not suckling, the breast will not give them milk, but if they have a bottle in their mouth it will continue to leak (even if only a tiny amount) until you remove the bottle. Not only that, but your child has a natural instinct to breathe when it needs to, just like any adult. If she starts to cry because she is in pain over something, my daughter would naturally unlatch from the nipple and breathe. I wanted to attack the nurse with all of this information, like a lioness protecting her cubs, but instead I sat mute and angry while my daughter squirmed and screamed after receiving her first batch of vaccines.

I learned something very valuable that day. I gave the nurse's assumption more credence than my own well-educated knowledge of my child and I was very wrong to do so. As soon as the nurse finished with the shots I attached Madilyn to the nipple and let our closeness soothe her. The nurse became visibly uncomfortable with the situation (even though I was well covered) and hurried away. It became terribly apparent that not only was the woman uneducated about breastfeeding, but she was also uncomfortable with the idea of it occurring in front of her. I don't care if she was "just a nurse" and not the doctor, any professional who works with infants and young children should be educated on breastfeeding. Why is it that the most natural and beneficial way to supply nutrition to an infant (breastfeeding) is something so foreign to a pediatric nurse?

After that I insisted that I nurse my daughter while she received her vaccinations, especially when her father could not accompany us to the well-check visit. It wasn't necessary after about 6 months old, at which point she was more soothed when her father held her and we both tried distracting her. But the point is that every parent needs to trust their intuition and do what they believe (or know) is best for their child. Don't be intimidated by doctors or nurses. They have a degree or degrees in medicine and health, but their education is to serve masses of people, not to specialize in your individual child. A parent knows their child best, so trust yourself.

Boppy Nursing Pillows

Every breastfeeding mom knows that cradling your infant in your arms as you breastfeed can be exhausting at best. If you have a large baby, your arms get tired before they are even halfway finished eating. Having a nursing pillow makes breastfeeding easier and frees up your hands to do something else while your little one suckles to sleep. I've tried a couple nursing pillows but my favorite is the Boppy nursing pillow. It is a basic horseshoe shape and fits nicely around my body so that my daughter is at the right level to nurse. I can read or work on my laptop while I nurse (when she's sleeping) which makes me feel much less confined while breastfeeding. My partner bought me a Boppy for Christmas while I was pregnant, it was the first baby-related gift I had received and I was more than excited to get to use it once my daughter was born. We quickly learned that my partner had his own uses for the Boppy too. The shape of the Boppy contours the neck nicely, making it a wonderful pillow to sleep with (for adult use only).

We now have two Boppy pillows, one for the house and one for the car. Breastfeeding in public discreetly is a tricky matter so most of the time I just put up the sun screens in the front window and breastfeed in the backseat. The Boppy has made it much easier to get my daughter comfortable while allowing me to control just how much of myself gets exposed to peepers.

My partner loves Boppy, so we ended up getting the Boppy brand changing pad covers, the Boppy playmat, and Boppy slipcovers. When I get pregnant with our second child, I don't think it will be hard to convince him to buy the Boppy body pillow. It is a wonderful company that I feel comfortable supporting with products that we have found to be incredibly useful. As our daughter gets bigger we find that a lot of the "must-have" items we bought because all the gift registries tell you to get them ended up only being used for a couple months and then sitting useless in a corner of a room. Not so with the Boppy nursing pillow. I am so glad we made this investment! Moms beware--there are lots of items out there that you think you need, but when it comes down to it you aren't going to use everything.

Nursing vs Formula Feeding

Of all the newfangled inventions to help the new mother, formula is perhaps the least exciting. Formula feeding has become so second nature that many women do not even consider breastfeeding as a real option anymore. When we are little girls playing with baby dolls we have little plastic bottles to "feed" them with. If you are looking for baby shower decorations or party favors, you are sure to see bottles as part of the standard cliche items. If you walk down a baby items aisle you will encounter anywhere from 6 to 20 different kinds of formula for the many different needs of babies. Each of these canisters of formula ranges from $15 to $30, depending on brand and type, but what they don't tell you before you become a mom is that your baby will go through ONE of these canisters every four to five days. Add to that the price of bottles and other formula feeding paraphernalia and it gets costly. If for no other reason than to save money, breastfeeding becomes an option to consider. I don't know what it was that initially attracted me to breastfeeding, but I have managed to put together quite a list of reasons why breastfeeding is not only cheaper, but easier and healthier for both baby and mama.

Why Choose Breastfeeding?

1. Cheaper... because it's FREE!

2. No bottles to clean and sanitize. I do enough dishes at home, I can't imagine having to keep track of bottles too.

3. Breast milk has the right amount of fat, sugar, water, and protein necessary for your infant's growth and development, plus the taste is tailored for your specific baby which means you will save time and money on trying to find the "perfect formula."

4. Breast milk is easier to digest for most babies, reducing colic and other digestion related problems. My daughter never had colic and has to date never had any digestion problems.

5. Breastfed babies tend to gain less unnecessary weight and to be leaner, resulting in being less overweight later in life. (Consider European countries and under-developed countries in which the majority of women breastfeed... they are generally much leaner than Americans.) I also want to add that it is important to note "unnecessary weight." My daughter has been in the nineties percentile for her weight since birth, but she is solid rather than fat. To put it into perspective, most babies in the US that are in her percentile are slower to develop. Babies on average should be sitting up unassisted between six and nine months (seven and a half being the average for most babies). My daughter was sitting up unassisted at FOUR months old. Our pediatrician didn't believe me when I told her, so I showed her. She was shocked. I just smiled.

6. Premature babies do better when breastfed compared to premature babies who are fed formula in both physical and cognitive development.

7. Breastfed babies score slightly higher on IQ tests, which could actually be a result of the way in which formula negatively effects cognitive development.

8. Breastfed babied get antibodies in the breast milk that help protect them from bacteria and viruses. Studies show that babies who are not exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life are more likely to develop a wide range of infectious diseases including ear infections, diarrhea, respiratory illnesses and have more hospitalizations. I will attest to this study! I have been exclusively breastfeeding my daughter for over 8 months now and she has not gotten sick once. Which is amazing considering that both my partner and I have been sick multiple times since her birth. The books and even our pediatrician said that we should expect her to get sick somewhere around 6 times throughout the first year, but she is nothing but healthy and I truly believe it is because she is a breastfed baby.

9. Infants who are not breastfed have a 21% higher post neonatal infant mortality rate in the US, including higher susceptibility to SIDS, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, lymphoma, leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, overweight and obesity, high cholesterol, and asthma. (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2005).

10. Breastfeeding lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancers in the breastfeeding mother, and possibly lowers the risk of hip fractures and osteoporosis after menopause.

11. Nursing uses up extra calories, making it easier to lose the pregnancy weight after giving birth. It also releases a hormone into the body that helps the uterus contract back down to its original size which lessens the duration of bleeding after giving birth. This is one of the biggest draws for pregnant women who are worried about losing the baby weight. I don't know how many times people commented on how good I looked for having just had a baby a few months prior. I was back down to my average, pre-pregnancy weight by the time my daughter was 4 months old and I did NOT exercise at all. It's all about eating healthy and breastfeeding!

12. Breastfeeding exclusively (no supplementing with formula) delays the return of normal ovulation and menstrual cycles. You should still take birth control that is breastfeeding friendly "just in case," but after the initial giving birth bleeding had subsided, I did not have a period and still have not had a period and my daughter is eight an a half months old.

13. A mother can give her baby immediate satisfaction by providing her breast milk when her baby is hungry rather than trying to make a bottle. This also makes middle of the night feedings SO much easier! Instead of getting up to go into the kitchen and make a bottle while your baby is crying and inconsolable, you just attach them to the breast and your baby is not only happy, they will drift back to sleep almost immediately. Save even more time and energy by co-sleeping!

14. Breastfeeding requires a mother to take some quiet, relaxed time for herself and her baby. This is where breastfeeding becomes something that could possibly change your life. Americans are all about careers and making money and going going going. That's why we have fast food and microwaves and all sorts of modern conveniences that save us time. Breastfeeding will save you time, but it will also teach you how to use your time more wisely. Children do not stay infants forever. Breastfeeding makes you slow down and enjoy your infant while you can. It also gives you time to relax and take a little nap. Most infants will sleep while you nurse, which means you can sleep too.

15. Breastfeeding helps a mother bond with her baby. Physical contact is important to newborns and can help them feel more secure, warm and comforted. It also helps combat postpartum depression by creating a natural, secure attachment. I had a history of depression prior to getting pregnant, which meant postpartum depression was a major concern. While I have had my "blue" moments, breastfeeding and other attachment parenting techniques have helped me avoid feeling too overwhelmed.


There are lots and lots of benefits to breastfeeding and there isn't a day that goes by that I am not happy about making the choice to breastfeed. I work part-time to full-time and have to pump in order to keep my daughter fed and my milk supply up, but it is still SO worth it. I had planned on breastfeeding until Madilyn's first birthday, but now I'm thinking I will just breastfeed until it feels like it's time to stop. She eats solid foods now too, so I'm not always breastfeeding, but at night, when we are all trying to wind down and relax, it really helps to just lay her across a Boppy and breastfeed her to sleep.