Mother Food: A Breastfeeding Diet Guide with Lactogenic Foods and Herbs - Build Milk Supply, Boost Immunity, Lift Depression, Detox, Lose Weight, Optimize a Baby's IQ, and Reduce Colic and Allergies [Paperback]

Hilary Jacobson (Author), Beverly Morgan (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0979599504 | ISBN-13: 978-0979599507 | Publication Date: August 1, 2007

"Mother Food," a unique healthguide, herbal, and cookbook for breastfeeding mothers, draws on traditions from around the world. Focusing on pregnancy and the postpartum, "Mother Food" explores lactogenic foods and herbs and how they enhance milk production, prevent postpartum depression, increase energy, promote gentle weightloss and detox, improve the mother's and baby's immune systems, and also how they affect a baby's IQ, colic, allergy, and even her like or dislike of the taste of her mother's milk. Expert opinions are reviewed and traditional systems of medicine are succinctly explained. Written in an easy-to-read style and replete with remedies and recipes, "Mother Food" is both practical and informative. Recommended by lactation consultants and approved by the La Leche League International Book Evaluation Committee, "Mother Food" has become a favorite of mothers who want to learn what they can do to optimize both the quantity and quality of their milk, while contributing to their own and their baby's best health.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A world of possibilities will open for you when you read Mother Food: Food and Herbs That Promote Milk Production and a Mother's Health. There's a wide range of tips, from learning to recognize food sensitivities to using foods and herbs to help build a milk supply. One chapter focuses on supporting digestion, preventing allergies, and lowering the body's toxic load. As well as providing ways of using foods and herbs to promote health, the author offers recipes for basic whole food cooking as well as recipes for lactogenic foods -- which is just a fancy way of saying foods good for helping a body make milk! Today's mothers, and all family cooks and food shoppers, can benefit by the down-to-earth, practical, and easy-to-use information about herbs and foods.

Mother Food is a good general guide for mothers who want to know more about herbs and how foods can affect health. The author takes a refreshing approach to eating, recommending wholesome foods according to how they suit one's particular digestion, and selecting foods that support lactation. Much of the information in the book could help mothers spot potential diet-related problems, such as allergies and food sensitivities. For example, did you know that, according to allergists, a diet focused on one food may eventually lead to a deficiency in the enzyme needed to digest that particular food? Consequently, undigested food molecules pass through the intestines and set up an allergic reaction. Consider a mother drinking gallons of milk, for example, because it is considered to be a healthy food, only to suffer from symptoms of sinus pain and earaches and her breastfed baby suffers along with colic, too. Recognizing how food makes her feel could change her life!

Mother Food is an especially valuable book for those who have a partial or overabundant milk supply. Hilary Jacobson's years of personal research have been driven by her efforts to bolster her own faltering milk supply. Hilary has four children and had an incomplete milk supply for her first child for many weeks. She also found that her supply was very sensitive, and would decrease easily. As she read and learned more, she was able to produce a sufficient milk supply for her babies, which took less effort to maintain with each child. She found that certain foods and herbs helped her to keep it steady, and this book is her way of sharing what she has learned with other mothers. Inspired by the grief of struggling with her milk supply, and the excitement of overcoming her difficulties, Hilary became a champion for mothers who are growing their babies with love and as much milk as they can manage to make.

Once a mother has tried all the basic strategies for increasing her production and still cannot achieve the relationship she craves or the milk supply she needs, she may feel cut adrift and alone in her sorrow. Mothers facing struggles similar to those of Hilary battle with feelings of failure, frustration, and grief. A mother coping with breastfeeding problems needs a mentor as she might be facing other issues such as depression and/or health issues for her and/or her baby. Furthermore, she might be emotionally vulnerable to every perceived criticism. This book is a soothing tonic for a mother's weary heart and it offers hope as well. With this helpful manual in hand, a mother can focus on preserving her breastfeeding relationship, and celebrating every drop of human milk her body can make for her baby. The book is also loaded with encouragement and information to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding problems, especially as they relate to a lactogenic diet.

Mother Food is well researched with wisdom from India to China, from the medical records of the Greek doctor Discorides in the first century, to the results from an Iowa Women's Health Study about coffee, tea, and caffeine consumption and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Whether you are interested in exploring herbs to help with skin rashes or depression, or foods for a low milk supply, you will find what you need in this book. --New Beginnings, Vol. 24 No. 4, July-August 2007, p. 180

From the Publisher

Expert Reviews:

Linda Folden Palmer, DC, author of "Baby Matters" and "The Baby Bond":

Jacobson covers a wide array of pertinent topics in this book, with an excellent understanding of the current spectrum of maternal, lactation professional, and science knowledge (each of which seem to have gaps between them), and adds lots of insightful and fun historic and anthropologic information along the way.

She's raised my own consciousness in my own favorite directions: just how intimately and distinctly our food choices affect us.

Something to bring to the beach for pleasure reading if you have ANY interest in infant feeding; really. A must-read for lactation professionals, and for breastfeeding mothers with any challenges at all. My dream to see pediatricians read.

Diana West, BA, IBCLC, author of "Defining your Own Success: Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery" and "Making More Milk":

"A book about the way foods influence milk composition - truly excellent."

Lisa Marasco, MA, IBCLC, author of "Making More Milk":

"What we eat CAN matter. `Mother Food' is a wonderful collection of historical traditions from cultures around the world and what they feed mothers to support good health, breastfeeding, and plentiful milk production. Hilary Jacobson has put years of research into pulling together information that has almost been lost to the western world; every mother will benefit from reading this book, as well as anyone who works with or supports breastfeeding mothers."

Cheryl R. Scott, RN, IBCLC, Ph.D.:

"This book is a `must read' book for all pregnant and breastfeeding mothers along with their health care providers. Mrs. Jacobson provides information on how to avoid allergies, how to lower a mother's toxic load, how to prevent over-detoxification while breastfeeding, how to prevent infant colic, postpartum depression, anemia, insulin resistance, food cravings and food addictions along with how to promote and create a healthy milk supply. I love all of the helpful and yummy recipes sprinkled throughout the book."

Sheila Humphrey, RSC, RN, IBCLC, author of "Nursing Mothers Herbal":

"I like `Mother Food's' independent originality. Reading `Mother Food' is like entering a garden with intriguing viewpoints and a number of paths that invite further exploration. One's imagination is given permission to run rampant within beautifully arranged beds of knowledge that reveal themselves slowly along the meandering but manicured paths. For many restricted to thinking only with evidence-based information, reading the book will be like finding an inviting gate leading out of a walled city." 


See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Rosalind Press (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979599504
• ISBN-13: 978-0979599507
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Motherhood
  • #69 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Allergies

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can I give it 6 stars???, August 1, 2009

By 

Dr. Linda F. Palmer "Baby Matters" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mother Food: A Breastfeeding Diet Guide with Lactogenic Foods and Herbs - Build Milk Supply, Boost Immunity, Lift Depression, Detox, Lose Weight, Optimize a Baby's IQ, and Reduce Colic and Allergies (Paperback)

It's been over a decade since I've nursed and this topic is a slightly on the edge of my writing and consulting areas so why did I buy the book? I ran across the title accidentally and guess I was mostly interested in how someone could write a whole text about fenugreek, a few other herbs, and a couple of drugs. Maybe I just wanted to see if the book was just silliness. Well, zowie, even if you've been consulting in lactation for many years and read "all" the books, there's a multitude of interesting and juicy meat in this book (and there's a lot more than "a few other herbs"). She covers a wide array of pertinent topics, with an excellent understanding of the current spectrum of maternal, lactation professional, and science knowledge (each of which often seem to have large gaps between them), and adds lots of insightful and fun historic and anthropologic information along the way.

She's raised my own consciousness in my own favorite directions: just how intimately and distinctly our food choices affect us.

Something to bring to the beach for pleasure reading if you have ANY interest in infant feeding; really. A must-read for lactation professionals, and for breastfeeding mothers with any challenges at all. My dream to see pediatricians read.

Linda Folden Palmer, DC, author of "Baby Matters" and "The Baby Bond" The Baby Bond: The New Science Behind What's Really Important When Caring for Your Baby

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written and Useful, February 20, 2005

By 

N. Stephens "Mom of Two" (Mid-Atlantic, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mother Food for Breastfeeding Mothers (Paperback)

As one of the unlucky few with a true breasmilk supply issue, one that resulted in my first child being formula fed, I am thrilled to have discovered this book. It is just filled from cover to cover with useful information about herbs and foods to increase supply. Including actual methods of preparation and recipes. And, similarly, what to avoid. It is well researched and easy (and enjoyable) for the average person to read. The remedies recommended have made the difference between success and failure in feeding my new baby. I just can't recommend it enough. Thank you Hilary!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great resource for breastfeeding mothers, February 23, 2005

By 

Nancy Howat (Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mother Food for Breastfeeding Mothers (Paperback)

As a mother and medical writer, I highly recommend this fascinating book. It addresses a wide range of issues, but it is also a good read, and easy to understand. It is a great resource for any breastfeeding mother and a useful reference book for health workers such as midwives, breastfeeding councellors and doctors.

There is extensive information on foods and herbs that are used in different cultures to support a mothers milk production (galactagogues) and general health. A lot of the foods you will find already in your kitchen. This book is particularly useful if you have concerns over your milk supply (whether you are nursing or pumping) and looks at oversupply as well as undersupply, and at supply problems that are less well known, such as premenstrual reduction of milk production. There are numerous tips and recipes that can help you regulate your milk supply.

Other problems that also face nursing mothers are addressed (e.g. weightgain, post natal depression, blocked milk ducts, thrush and mastitis) along with appropriate dietary measures, foods, herbs and supplements for their treatment. More general problems of colds, allergies, fatigue and asthma are also discussed. There are also sections which describe foods and herbs (both to take and to avoid) that are useful in treating colic and reflux in your baby. The book has a comprehensive contents page and is clearly indexed so it is quick to find the information you need. The book is well referenced with a listing including peer-reviewed literature and book titles - great if you want to do some further reading.

As a mother who had some undersupply problems following a breast abscess, I can say that the information contained in this book very possibly saved my nursing relationship with my daughter. I would strongly recommend this book to any woman who is breastfeeding, thinking about breastfeeding or pumping milk for her baby.