Dr. Jen 4 Kids: Breastfeeding Medicine

08/15/2025

Looking forward to spending the day with the Southern Oregon Lactation Association on October 17th!

03/28/2025

I am going to be speaking in Iowa at their annual breastfeeding conference in May!

Email from UnityPoint Health Register now! 35th Annual Iowa Breastfeeding Conference Wednesday, May 14 & Thursday, May 15 FFA Enrichment Center DMACC Ankeny Campus 1055 SW Prairie Trail Pkwy Ankeny,

03/28/2025

I am going to be in Atlanta at Emory University on April 15!

Emory University is pleased to offer a dynamic and engaging conference on breastfeeding in collaboration with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, hospitals across the region, and partners from community organizations. The conference is known for bringing in national speakers and local experts for a ...

03/21/2025

On World Down Syndrome Day, I'd like to share one of my favorite parent resources for breastfeeding a baby with Trisomy 21. Thank you, Julia's Way, for this video!

02/25/2025

I'm presenting some info on interpreting weight loss and growth curves!

How much weight is too much for a newborn to lose? What do we need to consider when a child starts decreasing percentiles for weight? What do changes in the growth curves mean for breastfeeding infants and children? Dr Jenny Thomas () will share factors that may cause changes in growth percentiles over the first years of life and when we need to intervene.
Learn more at our upcoming online conference: Empowering Breastfeeding: science and support, online from March 5. Register at iLactation.com or linkinbio.
(This talk was also part of our Connect • Nourish • Thrive conference - it was so well-received we are including it again!)

01/11/2025

I have a problem with lactation cookies being available all over the place as if people who have issues with low milk supply are simply cookie- deficient.

So why show cookies? Well, I got tired of saying that the recommendation for newborn feeding is at least 8-12 feedings every 24 hours, not every 2-3 hours. I get it- 8 and 12 into 24 make every 2-3 hours sound reasonable, but babies don't know how to tell time. We are often teaching that we need to watch for feeding cues as long as we are feeding every 2-3 hours, which is confusing. Plus, we know that sleeping babies often stay asleep if you try to wake them to eat. We need to focus more on the number of feedings rather than the time in between.

So- cookies. I like Oreos because you can stack them. You stack 8 (or 12 or more -whatever goal we want to set) and every time you feed the baby, you eat a cookie and when the pile is gone, you win. We get a new stack every day.

Picture is a stack of 8 Oreos, taken real time by a mama who is rocking this!

07/29/2024

After many years of collaboration and many rounds of peer review, our clinical report team for the American Academy of Pediatrics got the report across the finish line!

Many medical professionals have expressed concerns regarding the overdiagnosis of tongue-tie and surgeries that may not always resolve breastfeeding issues.

11/30/2023

It’s official! I passed the board certification exam so I am in the first group of physicians to be certified in Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine! 🎉🎉

11/24/2023

We see marketing that says that babies would sleep better if you weren't breastfeeding. That formula makes babies sleep better. The idea that formula makes babies sleep is a marketing strategy. You can read more about this in the Lancet's 2023 Breastfeeding series here: https://www.thelancet.com/infographics-do/2023-lancet-series-breastfeeding. In the series, they say that formula makers are selling sleep. And that, in the US, they are actively working against paid family leave.

We wake up *and* we are hungry but we do not wake *because* we are hungry.

11/22/2023

As we head into "pass-the-newborn" season, here's a public service announcement: Our babies often respond to being held by people who have an unfamiliar voice or smell by protesting (crying) and then shutting down. Many babies sleep most of the time and don't eat much. And that might make this Friday a catch-up all- day nursing day. Possible solutions: babywear because you really have to invade personal space to even see the baby. Or, you can stay home if that works for your new, growing family (you can blame me!) If you are going to celebrate, make sure you smooch everyone who holds the baby- you know, so you can make secretory IgA against whatever illness they may have. Breastmilk is infection protection!
Have happy, blessed and secretory IgA -filled holidays!

11/20/2023

Choline is a nutrient that our brain and nervous system need to regulate memory, mood, muscle control and we may not be getting enough. It is especially important in the first 1000 days as a part of infant neurologic development. Choline is the precursor for acetylcholine, a very important neurotransmitter. The "cholinergic" part of the autonomic nervous system, in charge of the parasympathetic nervous system, gets its name from choline.

Choline, DHA, and lutein often appear together in nature, such as in eggs and in human milk. Independently, DHA, choline and lutein may not have effects. If they are together, as they are in human milk and eggs, they have an effect, if maternal choline is adequate.

But our diets may not be adequate. Our diet is often low in choline (as high as 25% of all women in the US) but can be increased with eggs and meat.

This review found that choline supplementation in pregnancy and lactation could help facilitate normal infant brain development.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7352907/
other info: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3639110/

11/17/2023

It is RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) season and we did not get enough of the RSV monoclonal antibody we thought we were going to have. One important way to prevent and treat RSV infection is through human milk. Human milk feeding decreases the severity of RSV and decreases the need for hospitalization. And if the child is hospitalized, there is less of an oxygen requirement, suggesting less lung damage. Human milk feeding decreases the risk of recurrent wheezing that RSV can trigger. There are glycosaminoglycans in human milk that block the RSV receptor site, altering the virus attachment to the cell.

I can go on, but know that we still have a way to make RSV less stressful. Human milk feeding can help make this RSV season less full of snot. (references in the comments)