Breastfeeding Wairarapa

14/01/2026

Useful info about the myths around food you eat and breastfeeding

Breast milk is NOT made directly from your stomach contents but within the breast itself from your blood. The foods you eat are broken down in your digestive system. Proteins, carbs, vitamins, white blood cells, enzymes, pre- and probiotics, water, fat, and chemicals (alcohol, caffeine, medications) are pulled from your intestines into the blood stream. Blood delivers these nutrients to the milk making glands in the breast. Every nutrient you consume gets used or stored and each type gets cleared from your blood in a certain amount of time. Cow protein, for example, is completely cleared from your blood steam within 8-12 HOURS of consumption. So it is completely eliminated in no more than 24 hours from your milk. Not weeks like some people are told when doing elimination diets. Caffeine clears your blood in 4-7 hours and alcohol within 2. Medications have longer or shorter half lives, which is how long they stay in your body, and larger or smaller molecules. Some can pass into breast milk and some can’t.

⚔️MYTH: Digestive discomfort and reflux is always from eating dairy
💡FACT: Cow milk protein allergy is only in 2-7% of the people. Digestive discomfort/reflux are more commonly caused by unidentified tongue ties

⚔️MYTH: Spicy food makes spicy breastmilk which will upset baby’s tummy
💡FACT: While the foods you eat can change the flavor of your milk, there is no evidence that capsaicin (the compound that makes foods spicy) is ever present in breast milk

⚔️MYTH: Beans, cabbage, broccoli, etc give baby gas
💡FACT: The insolvable fiber found in vegetables mixes with your gut bacteria and makes you gassy. Insoluble fiber does not leave the GI tract and cannot reach your milk

⚔️MYTH: Baby will refuse your milk if you eat garlic or other potent flavors
💡FACT: Research studies have found babies actually prefer the flavor of garlic in breastmilk and will spent more time at the breast and drink more milk. (Mennella, 1993)

⚔️MYTH: Soda and other carbonated beverages will make baby gassy
💡FACT: Carbonated drinks don’t carbonate the blood. The bubbles don’t get into your milk

What’s your favorite food and breastfeeding myth?

10/01/2026

In hot weather, babies might want extra (often shorter feeds). This article has lots of useful information about ways to cope in the heat.
https://theconversation.com/5-expert-tips-on-how-to-look-after-your-baby-in-a-heatwave-216906?utm_medium=article_native_share&utm_source=theconversation.com&fbclid=IwY2xjawPOxttleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR4xL85ZATLCJC0VbT1O6Sb7Qr0LWGpFu_hza6kFg_SClL7oKQda3EFi5bc8uw_aem_uqcxz4Ff5NbEQ7yGXlbFWg

Looking after a baby during extreme heat events takes a little planning and a lot of patience. Here are some practical steps you can take.

24/12/2025

Meri Kirihimete e te whānau
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your families
This article might be useful at this time of year:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17eyv4nNvk/

Enjoying an occasional drink while breastfeeding raises a lot of questions. The good news, research shows occasional drinking has not been linked to harm for breastfeeding babies.

Alcohol moves into milk at the same level as blood alcohol. Those levels drop with time. For context, even milk at 0.01 to 0.05 percent alcohol contains less alcohol than many brands of apple juice.

A few reminders from the evidence.
• Breastfeed before drinking if you want to lower exposure.
• Time, NOT PUMPING, clears alcohol from your system.
• Eating while drinking slows alcohol absorption.
• Avoid bed sharing after drinking.
• Heavy drinking affects babies differently and carries real risks.

Learn more and decide what feels right for your family:
https://www.lllc.ca/alcohol-and-breastfeeding

16/12/2025

Kia ora koutou, we won't be having a Little Latch On session for a few weeks, so I hope you will all have a wonderful time with your families. Here's hoping for some lovely beach weather for us all to enjoy!
I will see you all back on Thursday 8 January 2026!
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year :)🙌

24/11/2025

Some useful information in this post.

22/11/2025

A topic I'm often discussing with parents.

20/11/2025

I (Julie - LC at Wairarapa Hospital) am heading off on holiday from Friday 21 November and returning on Monday 15 December.
The Little Latch On sessions will still be happening on Thursday 27 November and Thursday 4 December as one of the Mum's will be setting up.
If anyone needs some urgent LC support during this time, you can contact Plunketline to request a video call from an LC. This service is free and available to anyone, even if you are not a Plunket client. Just phone 0800 933 922 to book, or book online at:
Lactation consultant service » Whānau Āwhina Plunket https://share.google/qlbdWOjwhdC8or0KI
I look forward to seeing many of you in the New Year (if not before)

20/11/2025

A really useful video.

http://www.naturalbreastfeeding.com/ Bryannah describes Googling breastfeeding positions. Watch her hands to see how easy this position is for her and her ba...

19/11/2025

just a reminder that the little latch on session is on tomorrow morning (Thursday) 10-11.30am at Hessey House, 21 Worksop Road, Masterton. I hope to see some of you then.

17/11/2025

This article might be helpful for some.

Are you worried about clicking & gulping noises and whether it means your baby is swallowing air?

Gulping is just fast swallowing. Think of someone “downing” a pint of water. They tip back their head, pour & gulp. They are not taking in a load of air - they are swallowing. Gulping is fast swallowing, and it can be noisy, but that doesn’t mean there is air.

Clicking is about changes in vacuum. Everyone can make the click noise. Push your tongue upwards against your palate hard. Now quickly pull it downwards. You’ll hear a click, but you didn’t swallow! The click is from the break in vacuum, not from a swallow. When breastfeeding, the click usually happens when the tongue loses contact with the breast in the same way that you lost the contact with your palate.

ALL babies will click sometimes. They will click if the positioning isn’t quite right and they are struggling to keep up with the milk flow. They might click if feeding from a really full breast. They will click simply because they are a bit immature. Remember that a baby goes from no breastfeeding in utero to suddenly breastfeeding for hours a day - perhaps 6 hours? Imagine if you went from doing no exercise to exercising 6hours a day. Muscles get tired. The tongue is a muscle. Sometimes the tongue drops and then re-engages. A little clicking is not an issue. If your baby is constantly clicking throughout every feed however, then get some feeding support to see if a change in positioning or feeding pattern might help.

Studies do not back up the idea that clicking causes a baby to swallow lots of air. MRI of babies actively feeding found no air in the oral cavity while the baby remained latched (Mills et al 2020). I have spoken to someone who has watched ultrasound of babies feeding and has told me that even when you hear the click, no air is seen in the oral cavity. Ultrasound of breastfeeding babies stomachs show that breastfeeding babies do not have a lot of air in their stomach (Gridneva et al 2017).
All of us swallow a little tiny bit of air when we swallow - including adults, but there is no evidence that babies are taking in large quantities of air when you hear a click.

09/11/2025

This is a great blog on breastfeeding and teeth (how it doesn't cause decay). A question that often comes up when starting solids - which this article provides info on as well.

Parents are often told not to breastfeed their baby to sleep because it will damage their baby's teeth - or that if they "have" to do it, to brush their baby's teeth or wipe their mouth after feeding. Many parents are left feeling guilty or struggling with the logistics of how to brush the

22/10/2025

Sorry, the little latch on session is cancelled this morning as Julie is away.
It will be back on next Thursday 30 October as usual, 10-11.30am at Hessey House, 21 Worksop Road, Masterton.
See some of you next Thursday :)