You’ve probably heard teaching sign language to your baby can help lessen frustration for them (and possibly save you from some tantrums) by allowing them to communicate things to you they don’t have spoken words for just yet. This sounds amazing, right?! But teaching your baby sign language is so much more than avoiding tantrums. You might not know it now, but there’s another BIG benefit to this early communication with your little one.

If you are in at least one breastfeeding support group (outside of the Successful Breastfeeding one, of course), then I have no doubt you’ve run into mothers swearing some dark ale or pink colored drink will dramatically increase your supply.

While a dark ale, a pink drink, Body Armour, or simply drinking more water will not actually increase your supply of milk is already talked about on our blog (this blog explains why), the question still remains: Why do all these women swear it works?! There’s no way all these women can be wrong about their supply increasing, can they?!

If you find yourself asking these same questions then YOU ARE IN LUCK because we have some answers for you. You’re about to hear from not one, but TWO lactation experts, who can explain why all those women swear by all the fancy drinks.

My baby has a confirmed allergy to dairy (cow’s milk protein) and not a single one of his pediatricians caught it. Even after cutting out dairy for weeks and noticing an accidental intake of it would cause my son’s symptoms to return 12-24 hours later, one of his doctors said, “Oh, sounds like he might have a dairy allergy or intolerance.” MIGHT! HA!

At first, his symptoms were concerning but repeated trips to his doctor’s office left me with instructions to just keep putting lotion on him because it was normal and he would outgrow it. I believed them, although I often felt like they didn’t care, but what else was I to do? Surely his PEDIATRICIANS should know how to treat my son. I knew these doctors. I knew they were very smart people and well-educated physicians. I was also a first-time mom so who was I to question to their judgement?

Now I’m over 6 months into my dairy free diet, my son is symptom free and happy, and I’ve learned that too many physicians will blame a sneeze on a dairy allergy before they recognize a baby who actually has one.

Working with breastfeeding moms, I get asked all the time about new products and gadgets marketed to make their lives easier. I wholeheartedly believe you are all you need for your baby, but I don't mind trying out items to review and share my opinion.

Recently, I tried out TWO new products- the Beaugen Inserts and Lacteck BabyMotion Flanges. Both companies sent me these items to review and give my honest opinion. These products have two very different methods for similar problems pumping mothers experience. *I am not receiving any compensation or endorsement from either of these companies.

Nowadays, we can do EVERYTHING online. We can buy almost anything, pay bills and other banking, earn degrees, socialize, and probably a million other things (literally sitting on my laptop doing my VIRTUAL JOB as I write this).

Now you can even get breastfeeding support online, all in the comfort of your own home. Heck, I totally did it. I took the virtual prenatal breastfeeding class before I joined the Successful Breastfeeding team and I was so glad I did. I had access to ALL the information on my phone, which I accessed multiple times while I was still in the hospital after having my son. Because let’s be real, I wasn’t going to keep paper notes or pamphlets from an in-person class close by while in the hospital, but my phone was never far away. Okay, so the battery may have died and I might have lost it a lot in the beginning but I swear it still never got that far away.

Have a baby, get your body back, look and feel sexy, and get back to having sex so you can rock being a mom and a partner all by baby’s 2-month check-up. Hahahaha…yeah, right. If you did this, I’m genuinely happy for you but also curious what kind of magic you found and how many limbs you had to sell to get it. I have a 9-month-old and I’m not rocking all of that yet.

Seriously though, how are you supposed to feel sexy when you spend the majority of your thoughts on literally everything else? And don’t get me started on the amount of time I spend already being touched by a baby all day. Adding in other human touch can sound like torture.

Going back to work after having a baby is filled with a ton of emotions, especially for all you breastfeeding teachers who are nervous about how and where you are going to pump at work!

I was actually a teacher for a year and a half. I taught a phlebotomy course at a local school and it was seriously the most exhausting job I’ve ever had. I no longer work there, but I learned to have the utmost respect for teachers because holy wow, y’all put in some serious work. It saddens me that you work SO HARD and you run into some of the biggest barriers to pumping at work compared to other professions. All too often, I hear of teachers not being provided with an adequate space in overcrowded schools or not being given enough time to adequately pump. Breaks are few and far between, it can be difficult to get someone to get your class, and when do you even have time to pee with all that?!

To all the pumping teachers out there, this post for you. I reached out to our Facebook community and asked REAL teachers to give me allllll the tips and tricks.