Remedies & Other Knowledge

Breast milk is the best food for a newborn; nothing comes even closer to provide all the nutrients that the baby will need later in life. Breast milk is much easier to digest then any formula in the market, at the same time it provides protection against infections, prevents future food allergies, helps the growth of healthy teeth, and most important it improves brain development.

Breast-feeding is the way that creates a bond of love between the mother and the child. Mother’s milk is the best for the babies. A baby who feeds on mother’s milk has fewer problems of stomach upsets, less diarrhea, and almost no constipation. He will also have less skin trouble.

Breast-feeding not only benefits the child but also to the health of the mother. The pelvic organs will return to normal more quickly, and skin will glow. This is one of nature’s ways to keep a woman young and beautiful.

Breast-feeding is much easier than other formulas and bottles.

Breast engorgement is a common problem that occurs in the feeding mothers in the first two or three weeks after delivery and is more annoying to women with poor skin elasticity. Engorgement is due to increase in the milk filling the breast together with blood and fluid retention in the same area. Usually the breast feels full, hard, tight, tender, painful, and hot to the touch and a fever may develop, the baby may have a hard time to suck.

Plugged duct is a problem that occurs when the baby does not empty the breast completely on each feeding, the milk remaining in the duct hardens and blocks the duct eventually plugging it. Tight bras can cause plugged ducts as well. If the breast feels sore it might be a sign of plugged ducts.

Feeding the child in the wrong position can crack nipples.


HOME REMEDIES: LACTATION PROBLEMS



Apply some tea bags on the sore nipples. It will help to reduce the pain of the sore nipples. One of the useful home remedies for lactation problems.

Keep your nipples dry and expose them to air whenever you can. You might try drying them with low heat from a hair dryer.

Applying a small amount of breast milk when you are done nursing, then letting it air-dry before covering yourself up might help.

Avoid using soap on your breasts. It can be very drying.

Prepare a solution of salt and water (1/4 teaspoon of salt per cup of water) and soak your nipples for 15 minutes or so between feeding. This is very effective home remedy for lactation problems.

Massage the lump on your breast firmly between and during feedings.

Sleep as much as possible. Vigorous arm movements may help loosen up the blockage.

Chaste tree increases flow of milk, by affecting pituitary's prolactin secretion.

Milk thistle promotes production of milk and decreases pesticide residues in breast and milk.

Soak one half cup (regular) barley in three cups cold water overnight, or boil the barley and water for 25 minutes. Strain out barley. Store barley water in refrigerator or cool place until needed. Then heat a cup or two to boiling and add fennel seeds - one teaspoon per cup of barley water. Steep for no longer than 30 minutes. This combination not only increases the breast milk, but also eases after pains and improves the digestion of mother and baby. This is one of the best home remedies for lactation problems.

Cumin helps increase milk production. Chamomile help control inflamed breast. Dandelion is very helpful and popular herb to treat mastitis.

If your breasts become swollen and painful, apply warm, moist packs two or three times a day.

If the nipples become sore, carefully sponge them with rubbing alcohol, and then rinse with clean water.

Change the position of child at each feeding. Rotate between various holds like the cradle, football, and laying down to find the most comfortable positions for yourself. Use pillows to bring the baby up to the height of your breast to reduce tugging and pulling on your nipple.

Eat alfalfa to stimulate the milk production or to increase the quantity of milk in the breasts.

Midwives have used goat’s rue for hundreds of years to improve breast milk production by as much as 50%.

Take a handful of Comfrey leaves and steam them for a few minutes wrapped in gauze and placed on the breast. This is one of the important home remedies for lactation problems.

Soak a towel in hot water and place it on the breast ten minutes before feeding.

Give your baby frequent feeds on both breast 10 to 15 minutes each.

Check your nipples every day, if you see dry milk on them or dark dots remove them with a cotton and warm water and feed your child as soon as possible from that breast.

Place the baby in different positions every time, this will ensure that all ducts are being used.

Elder is used to reduce swelling of breast infected with mastitis.

Take plenty of rest during day.

Drink large amount of fluids.

Gently keep some green cabbage leaves in your bra for 2 hours. This will relieve the engorgement of breast.

1. VOMERONASAL ORGAN (VNO), or Jacobson’s organ: a tiny hole on each side of the nasal bridge that is considered to be connected to nonfunctional chemical receptors. Could be all that is left from our once great ability to detect pheromones.

2. EXTRINSIC EAR MUSCLES: These three muscles most likely made it possible for our ancestors to move their ears independently of their heads, as rabbits and dogs do. We still have them, which is why most people can learn to wiggle their ears.

3. WISDOM TEETH: Early humans had to chew a lot of plants to get enough calories to survive, making another row of molars helpful, but unless you chew a lot of branches, these will eventually come out in a painful procedure. Only about 5 percent of the population has a healthy set of these third molars.

4. NECK RIB: A set of cervical ribs—possibly leftovers from the age of reptiles, still appear in less than 1 percent of the population. They often cause nerve and artery problems.

5. THIRD EYELID: A common ancestor of birds and mammals may have had a membrane for protecting the eye and sweeping out debris. Humans retain only a tiny fold in the inner corner of the eye, exactly there where you always catch a spec of dust or debris.

6. DARWIN’S POINT: A small folded point of skin toward the top of each ear is occasionally found in modern humans. It may be a remnant of a larger shape that helped focus distant sounds.

7. SUBCLAVIUS MUSCLE: This small muscle stretching under the shoulder from the first rib to the collarbone would be useful if humans still walked on all fours. Some people have one, some have none, and a few have two.

8. PALMARIS MUSCLE: This long, narrow muscle runs from the elbow to the wrist and is missing in 11 percent of modern humans. It may once have been important for hanging and climbing. Surgeons harvest it for reconstructive surgery.

9. MALE NIPPLES: Lactiferous ducts form well before testosterone causes sex differentiation in a fetus. Men have mammary tissue that can be stimulated to produce milk. This just makes me angry; I’ve been spending a fortune on milk all these years! I’ll have to test this tomorrow with my Special K.

10. ERECTOR PILI: Bundles of smooth muscle fibers allow animals to puff up their fur for insulation or to intimidate others. Humans retain this ability (goose bumps are the indicator) but have obviously lost most of the fur.

11. APPENDIX: This narrow, muscular tube attached to the large intestine served as a special area to digest cellulose when the human diet consisted more of plant matter than animal protein. It also produces some white blood cells. Annually, more than 300,000 Americans have an appendectomy.

12. BODY HAIR: Brows help keep sweat from the eyes, and male facial hair may play a role in sexual selection, but apparently most of the hair left on the human body serves no function.

13. THIRTEENTH RIB: Our closest cousins, chimpanzees and gorillas, have an extra set of ribs. Most of us have 12, but 8 percent of adults have the extras.

14. PLANTARIS MUSCLE: Often mistaken for a nerve by freshman medical students, the muscle was useful to other primates for grasping with their feet. It has disappeared altogether in 9 percent of the population.

15. MALE UTERUS: A remnant of an undeveloped female reproductive organ hangs off the male prostate gland.

16. FIFTH TOE: Lesser apes use all their toes for grasping or clinging to branches. Humans need mainly the big toe for balance while walking upright, the other four are for holding when you slam them on a coffee table at night!

17. FEMALE VAS DEFERENS: What might become sperm ducts in males become the epoophoron in females, a cluster of useless dead-end tubules near the ovaries.

18. PYRAMIDALIS MUSCLE: More than 20 percent of us lack this tiny, triangular pouch-like muscle that attaches to the pubic bone. It may be a relic from pouched marsupials.

19. COCCYX: These fused vertebrae are all that’s left of the tail that most mammals still use for balance and communication. Our hominid ancestors lost the need for a tail before they began walking upright. All they’re good for now is give us painful falls on the butt.

20. PARANASAL SINUSES: The nasal sinuses of our early ancestors may have been lined with odor receptors that gave a heightened sense of smell, which aided survival. No one knows why we retain these perhaps troublesome mucus-lined cavities, except to make the head lighter and to warm and moisten the air we breathe.

[VIA: Jex Gill]