Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Breastfeeding

Episode Date: June 17, 2014

Welcome to Sawbones, where Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy take you on a whimsical tour of the dumb ways in which we've tried to fix people. This week: We shotgun some breastmilk. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers (http://thetaxpayers.net)

Saabones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books! One, two, one, two, three, four! We came across a pharmacy with a twin that's lost it out. We were shot through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around.

Some medicines, some medicines that escalate my cop for the mouth Hello everybody and welcome to saw bones a marital tour of misguided medicine. I am your co-host Justin McElroy and I'm Sydney McElroy trying to something as I'm something like a bigger deal. Okay. Here is Justin McElroy. I don't think you're allowed to do that about yourself though. If I don't, who will? Say, do you need me to? I mean, if this is something you need, like for yourself a steam or for a way you feel about yourself. I would never ask that of you.

Sydney, I've been thinking a lot about our human that we're making and one of my, I would hope so. One of my things is I wanted to get a head start. I think that's natural. I think any parent wants that for their child, you know, head in a class, as it were. Right. Well, I've been like reading calculus textbooks to my abdomen. Sure. Yeah. That is one way. I have an alternate suggestion.

How about this from the first day that she is alive? We give her to drink exclusively Red Bull. You wait, like Red Bull. Like the energy drink, Red Bull? Exactly. You hit on the key core principle here. Red Bull energy drink. Here's my theory.

We know it takes kids a year to develop many skills like walking and talking and reading and baseball. So usually not reading to the ears. Okay, well, just to generalize. Who knows? Why not pie in the sky there? But people think that that's because of development. Here's what I think.

Maybe they're just too tired to work on those. They don't have the energy to, hey, maybe it's time to learn walking. Can't tired pooped. Don't have any get up and go. Right, I mean, they sleep a lot in the beginning. Exactly. Why?

Because they're so tired and aren't amped up with the power that Red Bull energy drinks will give you. Oh, so you think this is just that it's not normal? Like it's a problem, but it's so widespread that we have mistaken it. Let me ask you this. If somebody wanted you to go about your day

without your caffeine, how would that go? Well, it would go really bad. It would go really bad. Like we are handicapped in our children by not giving them energy drinks, specifically red bull brand energy drinks. And I think we need to step it up. Or maybe.

I don't know that that is the healthiest thing. It's like Jacob's ladder, right? But for energy. Yeah, but maybe. No wait, Lorenzo's oil, sorry. Jacob, what? That's not pretty bad. I thought you meant maybe the, like the game,

the string game, the Jacob's ladder. No, I want to hear our child of her sloth by giving her rebel energy drinks exclusively. I think that there's like, I mean that there's a lot of caffeine in there, which isn't great for kids. There's probably a lot of sugar and then a lot of, I don't know, I mean, it's Red Bull. I don't think that's a good idea.

It's full of this stuff. Well, you better have a better suggestion because I started there. That's my first time on the whiteboard. What do you got? I mean, there's really one right answer is for the best thing, not the only thing, the best thing. I know where you're going with this.

Give your kid, especially the first six months of their life. Oh, yes, okay, I know you're going with this. I know Monster Energy Drinks have their fan base. I don't think they pack a punch that a Red Bull does, but we can talk about this. No, I'm really not an energy drink. And what's your partnership? Not an energy drink in the traditional sense anyway.

I was thinking maybe more like, like, breast milk. Okay, well that has, I mean, it's cheap. I like that. Yeah. See, it's cheap. I make it. Yeah, free. I mean, not yet.

No, but you will. But I will. Free. I should. I'm assuming. Well, free. I mean, not yet. No, but you will. But I will. I should. I'm assuming. Well, I don't know. I don't know. We have a lot. You know, we got a lot more evidence that that helps than we do energy drinks at this point.

Now I will say that their, that the use of mountain dew is widespread among my patient population. So I probably could do a study. Put it in the bottle for Bubby. And Bubby get his get a pungogious. But I think toddlers and Tierra's could probably do a study on this. But I think breast milk is probably where we have the most, you know, information right now. You seem to know so much about breast milk.

You say there's so much information. Why don't you hit me with some of it? Well, Justin, breastfeeding has been around, you know, as long as we have been mammals, which is a lot. I mean, what eight, nine hundred years, easy. A little longer than that. All right. I mean, so as long as we are species has existed. Um, Larry King's not a mammal. He's the last one. Everybody posts Larry King. What? He's not a man. What is he? What? He's a reptile. He's a, yes, he is that. He's like a reptile man. Like in the Super Marble,

there's maybe the highly evolved reptile. Obviously, it is, you know, just as a little FYI, that is what boobs are for. So everyone get on board with that right now, and then you can continue listening. Got it. Obviously, in ancient cultures, Egyptian Greeks, Roman, they all breastfed their kids. I would imagine that goes back, like as far not that. Tribal populations, very early humans. Yes. Well, that's where, I mean, it made sense. All mammals breastfeed their kids.

It's kind of crazy that this even has to be a thing. But it is a thing. And largely because in the beginning, just like today, not every single woman could breastfeed. While the majority of women did and had no trouble, there have always been some women for whatever reason, you know, genetically, medically, could not breastfeed or in those early pre-doctor years who unfortunately maybe died in childbirth. So as long as we have been feeding children, we have been trying to figure out other ways in addition to breastfeeding to feed them as well. Actually, if we go

back to the Ebers Papyrus, which we've referenced before, which is kind of like the oldest medical textbook, They have a prescription for moms who are having trouble breastfeeding. So, and I kind of like the this idea. So if you to get a supply of milk in a woman's breast, you just warm the bones of a swordfish in oil and then rub her back with it. Or alternatively, you could let her sit cross-legged eating fragrant bread of sourced durah, durafruit. And then rub the parts with the poppy plant. I'm assuming the parts references, you know, the the nipple parts. Yeah, they're trying to be discrete. Right. Rub the parts with poppy plants.

Presumably she has passed the kid off at this point because otherwise she's gonna need three hands. Right, well I think maybe like you could hold the baby while I sit cross-legged, eat some dura and rub my nipples with poppies. I would rather feed you the bread and hold the kid in the other hand, and let you just focus on the puppies. Just focus.

You just get it. Is this a fantasy of yours? Is this a fantasy? No, this is probably a private space type activity, right? I would imagine. Well, I'm assuming you don't, yeah. I'm assuming this is kind of something you'd want to do at home.

What, one, the bones of a swordfish in oil and rub her back with it. I think that's just a great excuse for a back massage. Oh, you know what it would help on. You know what would be great for me? What would really get the milk flowing? Uh, a back massage. Wait, no, I mean. Does anybody's swordfish bones?

Perfect. What's over there in that corner? What do we have for dinner? Swordfish, yeah, it's perfect. That's why I need. I think that's where that came from. Exactly. I think the first woman, it was just that's what they cooked that night.

Yeah, she's having a swordfish liner. It's a fancy household. It is nice. I don't know that you're supposed to eat a lot of swordfish when you're pregnant though. Yeah, like that. But I guess you've already delivered that. So this is a world that you've imagined

where we think rubbing swordfish oil on your back with lactation, but we also are like super keen on mercury levels and they're effect on lactating women. Is that what we're at? I guess at that point you're right. We don't have to worry so much. She's not pregnant anymore.

We're lucky women back then couldn't eat cigarettes because that's what they would be eating exclusively. They wouldn't know anything. The Greeks also believed in supplementing breastfeeding with wine and honey. So it's nice. You know, just if your baby wasn't getting enough weight or just for fun. Now honey's really bad for babies, right? Yes. You're not supposed to give them honey because of botulism.

So under a year, the possibility, not that all honey has botulism necessarily, but... Except surprise, it does. No. We just tear it in the cup. Here we have talked up honey for so long, and now we just... Sweeter in your cupboard, just like that. Just trying to kill you, more than 11.

Honey said, I think we should have to wait. The thing is that as long as we have been breastfeeding our own children, you know, there have been like I said, women who have had trouble with this. So we've had to ask for help from other women to breastfeed our children. So wet nurses who are, you know, women whose job it is, you hire them to, you know, breastfeed your child if you can't, have been around since like 2000 BC. And that was, again, mainly not for convenience, but for women who couldn't breastfeed or for families who, you know, the mother died in childbirth, and so they would hire somebody to breastfeed the baby.

Can I ask a stupid question about this? childbirth and so they would hire somebody to breastfeed the baby. Can I say a stupid question about this? Sure. How do you keep like that going? These are women who recently had children of their own. Okay. So it's not a long term career. This is real. This is really contract work.

I mean, if you keep, you can keep the milk going once you've had a baby and you start lactating, you can keep it going for quite a long time, which is why some moms breastfeed for years. But no, it's not like you had your kid eight years ago and you can become a wet nurse today. Okay. Now, you know, there were also alternatives for bottle feeding that far back for if, let's say, that the mom passed away and you couldn't afford maybe a wet nurse because you did have to to pay them unless you had slaves which you know you probably had to be rich to have slaves too. You could

use terracotta pots that they used kind of they look kind of like coffee or tea pots and just kind of dump stuff in the baby's mouth. Now let me ask another dumb question if you'll permit it. I imagine at this time period, it was a pretty savage time, pretty fairly mercenary, I think. I don't think you had a lot of super engaged single-ads. Like, who is making sure these babies got fed? Well, I mean, in some cases, you're, you're hoping in like tribal scenarios, you know, in close knit, small communities, then it would be the whole villages kind of job to

feed the baby. In larger societies, the Romans used to do this. Actually, they would, Roman royalty would find abandoned children. So exactly what you're saying, the single dad or whoever was left in the family may not have cared enough to bother once the mom passed away. But they want to be honest though, no one dads, he probably just forgot him. They went to the park and they specifically said that these were babies found in rubbish piles in what I read. Where else were they supposed to take the kids to play, Sydney?

I don't have anything, I think, I think, I think jungle gyms. I think it's weird that you don't care enough about your kid that you're not gonna raise them, you're gonna abandon them, but you do wanna make sure and abandon them in the appropriate place. Yeah. But the Roman royalty, maybe they started off there

were taking an ironic Instagram. Like, taking out the trash, get it, and then they forgot the kid was there. Maybe. I don't, maybe. Possible. Instagram is very popular. Back then.

But usually this was just to increase their pool of sleep. So the royalty would go collect these abandoned children, which sounds like a really swell thing for them to do, but it was really just, they would force their already enslaved wet nurses to feed these babies so that they could increase their slave. Wonderful. Okay, great. Because the use of wet nurses was known, even though it was not necessarily popular,

most women still fed their own children. Seranis, who we've referenced before in Roman times, actually wrote about a way to check for the quality of breast milk. So if you, you know, you want a wet nurse, but you want to hire the very best, you're going to check out the product. Oh, yeah. You should be able to stand a spoon up in it. That's what they say. No, that would not be breast milk. That would be, I'm sorry, this is the best milkshake. No, what you're supposed to do is you take a drop of breast milk and you put it on your fingernail. Mm-hmm.

And if you move your finger around a little bit, the breast milk should not be so thin as to spread over the entire nail. Mm-hmm. That's too thin. On the flip side, if you turn your finger over, it should not be so thick that it just clings to the nail. That's right. So somewhere in between that.

There's the right viscosity. Exactly. They use this test for 1,500 years. Holy crap. At no point did they just switch to a taste test? Malfield. First quenchability. Nothing.

You know, I'm sure there was somebody who tried to do that. Happy some weird beard, trying to get that going. They also had... I have a new system. who tried to do that. Happy some weird beard, trying to get that going. They also had... I have a new system. Let me get a taste. What? That's the whole system. Let me get a taste.

That's like some weird fetish. Yeah. Or it's thirsty. I don't know what they have to drink back then. They're tired of water and wine. You're tired of wine so you turn to breast milk? Or breast milk makes this wine. I'm not of wine so you turned a breast milk or breast milk makes this wine. I mean I'm not arguing the nutritional property.

Breast milk makes with wine is how barles and jams has been. Do you know that? That's true. And sugar and all the sugar. And all the sugar. The Romans also believe that you need to keep your wet nurses working. If you you're gonna hire them to feed babies, like they're not gonna spend all their time feeding babies, so you're gonna do something else with them. They just want to get their money's worth. Sure. So they should engage in like upper body labor,

because their excuse was, well, we'll really keep the milk flowing if you're like moving those arms. I guess using them like kind of like a pump. Sure. Yeah, that's how humans work. That that betrays a good, because substantive understanding over various systems were like a pump. Like a pump to do some grinding and some weaving and then crank us up. In the middle ages, of course, because everything was messed up, we thought that

mother's milk had magical properties. Oh, naturally. We thought it could pass along wisdom. And everybody got dumber for a little while. There was a mythical being named philosophia, sapiangia, who passed on wisdom to philosophers by nursing them at her wise teeth. I mean, no. Okay.

No, there wasn't, but this was a common. That's what they told their wives. nursing them at her wise teeth. I mean, no. Okay. No, there wasn't, but this was a common heal. That's what they told their wives. Me? I was, um, ooh. Would you believe? It was, it was also at this time that they started thinking that there was a lot more passed on to the child other than just milk when you breastfed, that the child could

actually take on some of the characteristics of whoever was breastfeeding them. So you really had to be careful about your wet nurses. And this actually led a lot more women to try to feed their own children and move away from wet nurses if possible, because you didn't know what kind of attitude, temperament, how smart this woman was, what kind of physical imperfection she might have. What if she really liked James Taylor?

Now you have to live with that. Enjoy your child. Now your baby loves James Taylor forever. Now your baby loves James Taylor forever. That's on you. No, and Justin can't stand you. What is your hate on for James Taylor? I don't want to talk about James Taylor on my podcast.

This is my podcast. I don't have to give him any space. He's already infiltrated the entire popular conscious of a tired baby boon and generation. He doesn't get the whole sway here too. I know he tainted Carol King for you. Tainted everything he touches. He's the anti-mitis. All right. Well, this podcast will be a James Taylor list universe just for you. Okay. Thank you. The one particular idea that persisted was the women with red hair should not be chosen to breastfeed your baby. I guess if you have red hair you should breastfeed your kid because it's I don't know maybe they will too but if you're picking a wet nurse don't pick a red head

because red heads were thought to have hot temperaments and you don't want to pass that on to your child. If babies did bottle feed in this era, which was rare, but if they did, they used a perforated cow's horn. How odd. Okay. Sure. And cows have milk. You can kind of picture that. You can look at pictures of these online if you want to, but it is. It's just a big giant cow's horn with like a little like, well, it's not plastic, but a little spout type thing or rag tied to the end of it that the baby can suck on. In the 18th century, there was more and more of a move toward women nursing

there in children. And you see this wax and wane throughout time. That there are time periods where it is very fashionable to nurture in children, and then there are time periods where it is very fashionable to nurse your own children, and there are time periods where there are, where it's kind of like a backlash, like, oh, I'm too important, I'm too rich, whatever, I don't have time for that, somebody else nurse my kid. They, in the 18th century, they believe

the infant mortality was linked to the use of wet nurses. And so they began to, and it, you know, it's possible depending on what diseases and things were rampant that maybe that was contributing at times, but I don't think white spread. Lenea has even wrote about wet nurses very negatively saying that they ate too much fat, they drank too much alcohol, and they all had VD. So that's a very broad brush, Leneas. I have to say, I'm sure they were a lot of very decent wet nurses.

Oh, there certainly were, but this did lead to, there were some laws passed in different parts of Europe that actually forced women to breastfeed their own children. See, that does, I don't like that either. That seems like an overstep of the government's power. I agree completely. I am all for breastfeeding, but I don't want to do it because the government makes me. There's nothing that makes milk taste sweeter than when it's power. I agree completely. I am all for breastfeeding, but I don't want to do it because the government makes me. There's nothing that makes milk taste sweeter than when it's court mandate. Why? Why? Justin, can you explain to me?

Why do men get off on writing laws about my private parts? Justin stood silent, staring at the distance, knowing that if he waited long enough, it was quiet, the moment would pass, and Sydney would continue with the bot cast. All right, fine. Let's talk about the Bubby Pot. I like that. This was about the same time that Hugh Smith in London invented the pewter Bubby pot. I should clarify earlier that reason I didn't answer was out of fear just to be clear. Right. Because there's really no. I know you agree with me. Thanks. Okay. I didn't know. I just want to make that clear. I don't want to think. Oh, there she is again. Stop legislating. My mammary glands. Mine too. So the the Bubby pot. No, he's legislating my mammary glands. Mine too.

So the, the Bubby Pot. Nobody's legislating your mammary gland. Sorry, Bubby Pot. Sorry, you're saying Bubby Pot. So, okay, it was kind of like a coffee pot, except for over the spout at the end is like a little knob, like a heart-shaped knob. Okay. And it has holes in it.

And that's what the baby kind of sucks on, but you want to put like a rag over that first, because you's what the baby kind of sucks on, but you want to put like a rag over that first, because you can imagine that's kind of uncomfortable. And you could fill it with whatever you were feeding your baby. And all through this time period, I should mention, I don't think I've said this, animal milk was an alternative if you had it. But you couldn't refrigerate things, so you don't always have a fresh supply of animal milk available

Especially if you lived in an urban area. So your cow had just had a baby And I'm enough to go around Although you probably would preferentially feed your child over the baby cow. Maybe maybe I don't know I don't know Pay Paul though because then your baby done have staked later. So I don't know You you could also feed your baby at the time. It was popular, pap. Paps?

Paps. Paps. Paps. What's pap? You don't have a hipster baby. Yeah. No. This, uh, pap was a mixture of, it was like bread that you soaked in water or milk until

it got really like, you know in water or milk until it got really like, you know, mushy. So you could feed them that. Pap is also, that makes sense actually, because I know, Pap is a slang term for something that's kind of like filler. Filler or milk toast. Yeah, yeah. It has no real substance value.

Substance value. Yeah, and that's probably where it comes from. There was also panada, which was a term for cereal that was cooked in broth. Oh God. There were all kinds of weird mixtures during this time period of milk and beef broth and melted butter that you could feed your baby. If you thought they weren't getting enough milk or if there's a problem with breastfeeding or you didn't have a wet nurse or whatever. They had another thing to feed your baby with called a pat boat.

And you can find there's some vessels where you just kind of pour the pap into the baby's mouth but a lot of them would come with a spoon with a hollow stem and you would get some of the pap in the spoon and then blow through the stem to kind of like shoot the pap straight down your baby's throat. Nice. Does not seem like a good plan to make.

No, coming drink from the fire hose baby. I'll, I'll, PS, got a little something special in there for you, they're called germs. I don't know if those are yet, they haven't been invented, but trust me, they're in there. I'm gonna shotgun this pap down your throat baby. Hey, baby. Hey, baby. Hey baby come slam this Baby come slam this grain and broth

Come on, we're gonna me and scholar gonna crush it. Baby Oh As you as you already kind of hit it at the one thing that the pat boat and the the bobby pot and all these inventions were really great for was growing bacteria. Yeah. Right. And they were very difficult to clean. So as you can imagine, this was really bad for baby.

And it was seen as, you know, the last kind of ditch alternative. These were not preferred by any stretch. And as I said, animal milk was still an alternative if you lived in more of a rural area. And if you maybe couldn't store it or you didn't have some sort of device to feed it to your baby, you could just let the baby get it straight from the source. From the goat source.

From the goat source. Oh no. Oh baby. How did your head get kicked baby? Are you doing it in there? This became very popular in France with goats when the syphilis epidemic hit because all the wet nurses had syphilis

so you don't want them feeding your baby while they had syphilis. So it sounds like the... Sounds like the opening scenes of of the weirdest Disney movie ever. The child gets very attached to it and gets killed by a hunter. It's sort of like Tarzan, but with goats instead of monkeys. Hey, that should be the next big Disney movie. They've caused enough of an uproar with Frozen.

Let's just keep on this. Yeah, keep on trucking. Sid, that should cover the 18th century, I guess. Why don't you hit him with that 19th century? Well, Justin, I would love to do that for you, but unfortunately, you're behind again on your payments. Oh, okay. Well, let's head to the billing department. Okay, 19th century. Hit me. All right. So in 19th century, hit me. All right, so in 19th century, that's when we start to see more and more of the upper classes in Europe and throughout the US starting to utilize a wet nurse, even when they don't

have to. A lot of royal families did this because they were expected to have so many children and just, it's harder to get pregnant when you're breastfeeding. It is a myth that you can't get pregnant when you're breastfeeding. You can, but it's harder. And so it was easier for these. Yes. So it was easier for these royal women to have their baby pass it off to their wet nurse

and kind of get started on making the next one ASAP. This became popular among other rich people thinking like, well, I'm too good to nurse my baby too. Then it becomes fashionable and then everybody's trying to. Right. Then everybody wants to pass the baby off to wet nurse. Formula was still seen as a last resort and it was considered possibly dangerous. And this was largely again because of just refrigeration. And I'm surprised you didn't have.

It had formula. It just seems like it would be like dust mixed with water. Well, it is. And I should say that we do see during the century the introduction of something that was actually called formula and was a mixture of things other than just milk. But a lot of what we're referring to as formula is milk with all that stuff that I mentioned before that was still popular like melted butter.

Although we say that, but like I have patients who feed their babies gravy. So I don't know that I can say much in the bottle. I think they just use like a spoon or a cup. Yeah. That's too bad. I'd love a bottle like gravy. But in the century, we find the introduction of better bottles. Rubber nipples were invented in India, and that made it much, much easier to feed your

baby. Sure. And these were also products that were easier to clean. That was a big thing. Improved formula. So we started to actually see actually things like powdered formulas and stuff were introduced. And then finally, refrigeration was a big part of that. That's actually, if you've ever heard the myth

that you're not supposed to wean your baby in the summer, that's where this comes from. Because you couldn't reliably refrigerate stuff in the summer before then. So you wouldn't want to take your baby off the breast in summer because then whatever you fed it could be spoiled. But as formula became safer, the perspective on breastfeeding actually became more and more negative.

Why do I have that? Is it just because it's sort of like hardwood floors got for a while? It's natural and sort of untooled with, unshaped by man. And as such, it is inferior. That's actually pretty close to what it was. It was very much a time when science and innovation was being prized. And as we move into like the 1900s, we're talking about people who wanted the latest, the newest, the best stuff that

was manufactured in a lab and not stuff that you could get at home. And so as a result, everybody was switching to formula. Everybody was switching to bottle feeding. What this was coupled with, this time period, especially in the early 1900s when it was thought that you could easily overcautil your infant. And so all that bonding that you do when you breastfeed was actually seen as a negative thing. Oh, because they get too reliant, cut the apron, strings, or... Right, you'll make your, you'll make weak children.

And Freud made it a lot worse when he told everybody, you know, I think babies get sexual pleasure from breastfeeding. Oh, good job, Freud. So a lot of women got pretty freaked out, thought that maybe they were hurting their infants or the family. Because it's like, kind of like everybody's baby and like weird sexual perverts last on to their nipples. You creep. And as you can see this, you know, throughout this time period, breastfeeding just fell to very little.

I mean, it was something that you were supposed to do if you couldn't afford anything else. So it was seen as something that you only did if you were poor or if you were just uneducated and didn't know that you should either go get a wet nurse or even say for go get formula. There's actually peaked in the 1950s. That's how late we're talking, that this attitude were less than half of the population was breastfeeding, and it was very much frowned upon. A lot of women thought it was gross.

This changed again, as I said, there are waves of this throughout history. This changed again in the 60s. We began to see, and I think it probably makes sense to a lot of people, kind of that return to the earth, natural lifestyle, kind of the... Exactly. And so you began to see breastfeeding come back. It was difficult, and still is to this day day and I thought this was really interesting

Part of the part of the barriers to women breastfeeding today is that a lot of our previous generations didn't So it can be hard for you to look look to your moms or grandmothers to give you advice Because so many of them didn't we so we lost a lot of sort of institutional knowledge right I mean, breastfeeding was really something that all of the kind of trials and tribulations of it were things that women just passed down to each other through the generations, except for them it fell off for so long we lost a lot of that knowledge. And then one big thing that they're still fighting is direct to consumer advertising of formula. We get in the 80s and it let a lot of people to believe that that was better, that formula was better than breast milk.

This actually had a big impact not just in the US, but in developing countries where it can be deadly for a woman to think breastfeeding is bad because formulas and short supply. Oh wow. So, so there are things that are helping now of course breastfeeding is again on the rise. Yay! More and more women are doing it. There's more education, there are things like baby friendly hospitals and LLHA League and there's tons of resources if you want to know

about breastfeeding and why you should because you should. Breast is best. Breast is best. So I said rapid fire, I know you got some myths. Why don't you hit me with them? So just like good info was passed down from mothers to daughters for generations about breastfeeding. There are also a lot of wacky ideas that have persisted.

Hit me, ready. Okay, so one drinking cow's milk will help you make human milk. Incorrect. No, absolutely not. Dark beer will help you make human milk. Incorrect. No, absolutely not. Dark beer will help you make milk. Oh yeah? Unfortunately no. No, sadly not.

Some things to eat, peanuts, oatmeal, and fried pies. But that does not. I mean, if you want to, but it does make fresh milk. Sure, good nuts. Things not to eat. Onions, cabbage, spicy foods, and fruit juice. No, eat those if you want to. It's not going to make your baby gassy.

There you go. A lot of people still think that eating foods that make you gassy does not make your baby gassy. Interesting. Chocolate has been known to cause either constipation or diarrhea, depending on who's mom you ask. In the baby? In the baby. Okay.

And that is not true. But no, right. There are a lot of kind of myths that surround around treating the woman like a cow. If it makes a cow produce milk, then it probably will make a woman. So have her eat alfalfa, only if she wants to. And don't let her eat apples because those are notorious for I guess making cows not produce milk. This is all a myth Don't breastfeed after you have seen a death You could probably figure out that's not true to speak to lactate

Don't rock the baby while you are breastfeeding because you'll shake up your milk. Okay, come on That has seriously these are these are things people tell you don't touch cold things. It'll up your milk. Okay, come on. That has seriously, these are things people tell you. Don't touch cold things, it'll make your milk too cold. Okay. Like frozen meat, don't handle frozen, never. Maybe it'll be like that from time to time. Makes it up a little bit. Ooh, mom, chili, nice, very refreshing.

Don't get scared, nervous, angry, or sexually aroused, or your milk will sour. Am I supposed to not be scared for it? Just tell me there's a weird little peeping tom last on my, on my breasts. Now it's cool, you can get scared or sexually aroused, or both if that's your thing. Excellent.

It will not sour your milk. Excellent. And there, depending on who you ask after one month, three months, six months, one year, there's a myth that your milk will turn to water. This is not true. It seems easy to troubleshoot that one. Honestly, all the time you people.

Again, there's tons of information on breastfeeding. You should do it. If you can, obviously there are women who can't and there is, there are lots of, thankfully, now healthy, safe alternatives in formula products that if you have to use you can and you shouldn't feel bad about it if you do because there's a lot of guilt associated with that and mom shouldn't feel bad about it. But if you can breastfeed, breast is breast breast breast breast breast breast breast breast from a doctor breast is best.

Take it. Thank you so much for listening to our program. Sitting on see you got a pile of stuff over there. What do you got? Well we got a few people to thank this week, Justin Who sent us some lovely little presents? First of all, Joshua, Danielle and Coraline and we have an adorable little picture here of Coraline. She is a cutie They sent us a whole list of things they have learned. They were quick to say this is not advice. These are just things they have learned

from having a baby and also sent us a really cool book called Goldilocks in the Three Dinosaurs that I've already read and laughed at. Yeah, it was very fun. So thank you guys and Coraline, you're adorable. We also got from Amanda and Kyra. Amanda is also known as Capitan crochet. Can me that Twitter handle Sid? Which I appreciate. Let's see. Amanda and Kyra Amanda is also known as Capitan crochet. Can me that Twitter handle Sid spelled out? Which I appreciate. Let's see.

Here, let me hand it to you. Wow, you can, wow. Okay. What's in this the Twitter one? C-A-P-P-N-C-R-O-C-H-E-T. So. Captain crochet. There's a lot of information. I couldn't figure it out fast enough.

It's alright. I just thought you couldn't read it. I was getting so sad. I wasn't. Baby's drinking your eyeballs. No, I was looking. I was looking. There was a time where.

There was a Twitter and a Facebook. And I was looking. I got overwhelmed. Anyway, I was also overwhelmed at the beautiful present she sent us. Yeah, it's B-Vo. It's a cross-bizet. A Crochet blanket. Yeah, it's B-votes across the outside. It's a crochet blanket. Yeah.

And an adorable little crocheted log. It may have been using the blanket. It may have accidentally fallen asleep downstairs. So thank you for that. It made me feel very safe and loved. Thank you. It's wonderful. And last but not least, I want to thank Susanna Roundtree who sent, I mean, they're for me, but you can share them if you want to

Who sent me a whole bunch of archie comic books and she works for Archie for Archie co, right? She works for Archie comics and I love Archie comics and she sent me a whole bunch of them Including Archie meets Kiss which I've always wanted to read and never have gotten to so thank you so much Thank you Archie. Thank you everybody. If you want to send us something, I mean, don't forget to have to. If you want to send us something, it's a Sabah and P.O. Box, 54. Huntington wants Virginia 256.

Don't feel like you have to. It's just very nice when you do. It's very sweet of you. Thank you. It made me feel really good today. Thank you to the taxpayers for letting us use their song Medicines for our intro and outro. Thank you to the maximum of fun us use their song medicines for intro and outro. Thank you the maximum fun network for having us on as always there's tons of great programs for you to listen to Jordan

Jesse goes stop podcasting yourself judge John Hodgman The goose down lady the lady Oh, oh no Ross and Carrie my brother my brother and me. Thank you so much I could go on. There's there's a ton of great shows maximum shows maximum fun.org and hey if you don't have plans this July Go to boatparty.biz and take the crews of your life max fun is putting on An amazing music and comedy crews the Atlantic Ocean comedy music festival And they've got rooms available and it's gonna be an amazing time and you should definitely get there They've got a ton of great talent and musicians and fun and friendship and it seriously will be the best time for your life with some suppressing like

affordable cabins. So go to boatparty.biz, do that, go to simple.com for session albums, share the show with somebody you love, sub on show.com is our web address and you can rate us on iTunes and review us there, that means the world to us. And suggest topics to us anytime on Twitter. Yeah, and you can email us subbonedsmx from fund.org and that's going to do it for us until next Tuesday. I'm just a Mac Roy. I'm Sydney Mac Roy.

She's always too. Drill a hole in your head. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone, Listener Supported or comedy and culture, artist owned. Listen or supported.