Le Leche League Myths

Yup, this is a biological argument against some of the breastfeeding myths that Le Leche League publishes and perpetuates with women world wide.

1. Breastfeeding keeps your period away.

This is completely false.  My period started immediately after giving birth and continues every month regardless of the feeding schedule I keep with my baby.  (and just for the record, I pump or breastfeed for 20 minutes 10-12 times a day.)  I confirmed this with several OB/GYNs in the local medical system- the two are completely unrelated.  I was really pissed off when this turned out to be the case- I REALLY don't like getting my period but because of a history of high blood pressure, I can't take birth control to turn it off.  GRRRRRRRRRR.

Ding one for LLL.

2.  You'll keep all that glorious hair that you grew during your pregnancy as long as you're breastfeeding.

Again, completely false.  The hormones that create the extra hair and longer nails during pregnancy are a biological reaction designed to make you look bigger and meaner during your pregnancy, so as to keep other animals away from you.  (yeah...like you need that with the mood swings, but that's the point of it.)  Those hormones stay around in your body long enough for you to protect your young, immobile animal after birth.  But regardless of whether or not you're breastfeeding, your hair will suddenly fall out in clumps around 6 months after birth.  Same with the nails- those glorious hard nails that you developed will all crack and peel back to their original, pre-pregnancy appearance around 6 months post-partum.

Ding two for LLL.

3.  Your baby won't be ready to wean until 18 months.

Completely wrong.  After speaking with a couple of lactation consultants and several mothers that breastfeed, your child may decide to stop breastfeeding at any time.  My (and several other lactation nurses I spoke to) weaned herself at 9 months on the nose.  I still pump months later, but she won't take the boob anymore.  And that's normal.

Ding three for LLL.

4. Le Leche League states that you have the right to breastfeed your child, and should do so, until the age of 5 or 6.

This is wrong.  The US government has a law that you are only guaranteed the right to breastfeed your baby for 1 year after birth.  Other states, like Colorado, may extend this time period, but not shorten it.  You probably weren't aware of this.  But it does seem strange the there is so much controversy over a woman's right to choose whether or not to have the kid, but there is NO controversy over a woman's right to breastfeed her child for as along as she likes.  True, you won't be thrown in jail for breastfeeding (well, at least not in some states), but you can be fired after 1 year for breastfeeding at work.

Go freakin' figure.

5.  As long as you keep up with the breastfeeding, you'll always produce enough milk for your baby.

Sorry, completely WRONG.  Stress, decreased caloric intake, decreased fluid intake, and an increase in activity all lead to decreased milk production.  This is in addition to the little revealed fact that you just generally don't produce as much milk as time goes on as you did in the first 6 months of your child's life.  I find it interesting that this is a hidden fact by LLL because even dairy farmers know this is true and have their dairy cattle in different groups based on time post-partum.  (yeah, don't ask me to go into detail on how they take care of that).

So, in continuing with the theme of this blog, if it sounds too good to be true, it IS.  That's not to say that LLL is completely bad- they can help you with questions about HOW to breastfeed, but, then, so can any lactation nurse with your health system.

Another Company to Avoid

So, my daughter is currently eating baby food.

In other words, purees. 

Purees aren't just from Gerber anymore.  There are three other companies that are major competitors with Gerber now:

1. Happy Tot
2. Ella's
3. Plum Organics

I like the idea of purchasing "organic" food for my daughter, though it is worth mentioning that "organic" doesn't necessarily mean that it's pesticide and hormone free...the FDA has a wider definition that that.

Anyway, I like the idea of organic.  And on top of that, I like the idea of having foods that are already gluten-free for my daughter, because I'm pretty sure that she's got gluten intolerance.

So, in my first time through the baby food aisle, I was depressed to see that these wonderful new products are mostly mixed products; you can't just buy "pears" or "yams" or "squash" like you can in Gerber.  I did finally find some Happy Tot single-food items online, but you have to be willing to purchase by the case...and hopefully, you kid likes it.  Then, you better hope your kid doesn't sprout an allergy to something in there because you'll have a heck of a time tracking down what it is that he/she is allergic to.

Under the circumstances, I did the best I could:  I bought Gerber single- foods that I could find, then I bought only the other brands that had one other food than what she'd tried before.  I figured that I could at least narrow down any allergic reactions that way.  One of the products I tried- well, my daughter tried- was Plum Organic's Broccoli Apple.

When I got it home and opened it, the product was brown inside- not a good color tan, but rotten brown and smelled rotten, too.

  

I contacted the company and they seemed all apologetic and they said that they would send out a couple of replacements.

That was the first week in December.  

After contacting them twice more about the same problem, I have yet to receive anything and it's almost March.

I have enlisted the assistance of the Better Business Bureau to help motivate the company to send replacements for their rotten food.  What disgusts me (besides the smell of that rotten broccoli) is that the company had a report of rotten food and has not seemed concerned by this problem in the slightest.

So, my advice to you:  A company that doesn't care about a report of rotten food from one customer is putting my baby and your baby at risk, so consume under your own risk.

When You REALLY Wish You Hadn't Invited....

We have friends that we've been friends with for years.   They live on the other side of the Twin Cities, which is to say they live about 30-45 minutes away...or more (depending on traffic and snow, obviously) .  They live down the street from former coworkers of my husband.  They really like card and board games - "positive win" games like Bohnanza, Dominion, and the like.

Generally, we've really enjoyed their company.  Kind of nerdy, mousy, quiet, smart types.  Glasses.  You know the type.

Anyway, they had a kid first in the group of friends.  A little girl.

And I guess that was the start of everything downhill for our friendship.

To summarize the situation, let's say that we differ greatly in our parenting styles.

My husband would be the first to deny that we live a very strict set of rules and guidelines...but when compared to these "friends", he's the first to want them out of the house and want stop the friendship.

Take for example, my daughter's first birthday party.

1. They didn't RSVP.
2. They show up and smell like they've been working in the yard for an hour.
3. They immediately tell us that their daughter needs a nap and where would we like to put her (uhm, how about in her room at your house.  How rude to show up and demand a napping place for a child!  If she's that tired, DON'T BRING HER.
4. Once she sees all of our daughter's toys, she starts grabbing them off of shelves and even out of our daughter's hands!  Perhaps this is a familial thing, but I was brought up that you don't touch things in other people's houses.  You come in, sit, and have manners.  You don't jump around like a hooligan pulling toys out of the birthday girl's hand or running off with her presents.  Luckily, we had the foresight to remove all non-washable items and hide anything that was special before this brat showed up.
5. When you're in a house and there's a closed door, you:
1. Leave it closed
2. Open it and peek
3. Open it and then go and play with the toys in that room.  I think you know that there's only one right answer. 

Now, in all of this, I blame the parents.  The kid is pretty much carte blanc- they behave how they're raised...for the most part.  So, the several times that thing brat is jumping up and down on my yoga ball or running around stealing toys...where were the parents!?

Yeah, it was up to me, the host and mother of the BIRTHDAY GIRL to say something.

Now, my mother was quite wise.  Whenever we went anywhere as children, we had our little traveling toy box- something to keep us occupied while the adults visited.  Heck, I still bring my knitting or cross stitch to parties in case of boredom.   Anyway, I've noticed that good, attentive parents do this.  

Want to guess how many toys this child had with her?  

Yeah, none.

All I can say is that the rudeness and the invasion of privacy- to go into my closed master bedroom and play in there WITH HER MOTHER- well, they won't be attending any more events at the Irish house.  

It just made me so sad that I had to give my daughter that experience for her first birthday.  

Latest Scam From CitiMortgage

The HARP Program (Home Affordability Refinance Program)

This is a scam program from CitiMortgage.  What I found so interesting is that they send you this formal looking offer letter showing how you can decrease your payments.  The last page shows that this special offer for you has no closing costs and is the going market interest rate (at the time, a shocking 3.25%).

I called about this program to find out whether or not there was any mandatory mortgage holding time (so, whether or not I'd have to hold the mortgage for a certain number of months).  The agent on the line refused to answer the question but wanted to get me invested in my time before "transferring me to a mortgage consultant who can answer those questions for you."

This is a not a mortgage-specific program.  This is "Do I need to hold the mortgage for a certain number of months for this offer to apply?"

Still she refused to answer.

But I decided to get to the mortgage consultant step to see if I could get my question answered.

The whole process took 10 minutes on the phone with the agent- her asking me a bunch of "qualifying questions".  I believe that the whole thing is set up so that they keep asking you questions until they get to one that you answer the wrong way on.  Mine was "Has there been any change in Title since the last mortgage?"

I had gotten married and my last name changed.

They considered that a Title change, even though I wasn't changing ownership.

What makes this a huge scam is that I had just had the name on the mortgage changed three months ago- same company.  It's not like they didn't know that my name had changed.

So, the sinker comes in when they finally reach a question to which you answer incorrectly.  There's a period of silence and they come back and tell you that you are not qualified for this program, but there are several other refinancing offers for which you are qualified, though you'd have to pay the closing costs.

Uhm.....

No thanks.

Do NOT bother calling on this scam.  It's just a waste of your time.

Sonya Lee

Well I guess I wasn't the only one that mentioned the lack of a female presence in their farmer toys because they have an add-on "kit" that has another cow, another tractor, and a female farmer.

What I find unfortunate is the following:

The add-on kit costs $15, which is 1/2 the price of the whole barn to begin with.
The add-on kit has two of the same items as the original- a cow and a tractor.  The cow is slightly different shaped and is white instead of brown- ooo.  And the tractor is green and yellow instead of yellow and green.
Lastly, the farmer is in pink.
o_O

I asked my mother-in-law who was a farm girl (Minnesota dairy) how many times she wore pink on the farm.

She said none.  Nor did her father ever wear overalls.

Hmm

Good "research" there, FP. And thanks for perpetuating the myth that girls only like pink.

Apocalyptic Plot Holes

I just finished re-watching the new Battlestar Galactica.  My opinion is pretty much the same the second time watching it as the first:

Two seasons of sci-fi, two seasons of TV drama.  

It's sad that such a great premise and story couldn't find enough content for more than two seasons of sci-fi episodes, particularly when you consider programs like Star Trek and Eureka managed to eek out at least 5 solidly sci-fi seasons before ending the show.

It's nothing like the original, but it had so much potential and they threw it all away in the second 1/2 of the program, particuarly the crummy 3-part ending that didn't really resolve the sci-fi plot lines.

Setting that aside, I find a couple of things glaringly incorrect about this apocalyptic show:

1. They went looking for bullets at the beginning of the show, but then they suddenly had plenty.  Where did those come from?
2. There was an early comment made by the President about only have three outfits.  But later on, you see other people in brand new suits and even the president in new clothes.  Where did those come from?  I mean, I understand that people could be a loom or knit or crochet on a ship, but where do the rough materials come from?  I don't think they have any sheep for wool suits.  I don't think that they have any silk worms for making silk scarves.
3. When people die, they lay these flag-like shrouds over the bodies.  Where do those come from?  Gruesome as it might seem, I understand if the military personnel are given their own death shroud when they join on, but what about the civies?
4. Why aren't bodies stripped of their belongings before throwing them out to space?  If it's the apocalypse and there's no rubber factory to make boots, wouldn't you scavenge what you could?
5. Paper- ok, paper is very easy to recycle.  HOWEVER, the quality of the paper would be very difficult to maintain, but you never see this as a problem in these shows.
6. Most obvious of all, there is no sound in space.  It's something that the new Star Trek movie got right- first sci-fi program yet to get it right.  Space is a vacuum. Sound does not travel in a vacuum.

Alas, it's all in the details.  I don't know why they pick and choose which details to focus on.

Still, with all of these glaring issues AND the poor acting characteristic of a serial TV drama, I still got the blues when I finished watching the show.

Naked Truth About Chocolatier

Warning:  This is a complaint blog.

Don't bother getting Godiva chocolates.



My husband decided to splurge and get me some for Valentine's Day.

I HATE chocolate flavored chocolates.

I don't know where it comes from.  I think some level of toxicity from eating too many M&Ms while selling them for the band fundraiser during high school.  But for whatever reason, I'm one of those weird people who just doesn't like chocolate.

I do like white chocolate, however, which really isn't chocolate at all.  It's cocoa butter and vanilla-flavored candy.

So, my husband, knowing my absolute disdain for chocolate truffles, specifically asked the cashier/shop worker (what do you call them?) for white chocolate only.  He was directed to the following:

1. White Chocolate Genache- pure white chocolate and vanilla beans.  Absolutely delicious.
2. Tiramisu- has some small amount of chocolate, but mostly it tastes like coffee and marscapone cheese.  Yum.
3. Creme Brule- this one was a pure chocolate truffle inside.

o_O

So, I don't know how many of you have had creme brule, but it's a VANILLA custard with burn sugar on top.  There's NO chocolate in it at all.  The truffle was so terrible that I spit it out.

When I wrote to customer service to complain, they said that I needed to return the chocolates to the store.

Uhm, couple of problems with that!

1. What do I do with the one I already ate?
2. What are _YOU_ going to do with the ones I return?  You can't resell them- it's a health code violation!

When I responded with this feedback to customer service, they changed their reply to, "Sorry, you need to take this up with the store manager."  When I wrote back and asked again, I got no reply.

So, Godiva Chocolatier- never going to purchase your chocolates again.  Great company- refuses to back their product when there's a problem.   I honestly wonder what they would have said if I would have gotten one that I was allergic to...

...probably nothing different.