Mother Food: A Breastfeeding Diet Guide with Lactogenic Foods and Herbs for a Mom and Baby's Best Health

By Hilary Jacobson

Book Overview

Author Hilary Jacobson was the first to explore so-called "lactogenic" foods and herbs in the late 1980s. In her book, Mother Food, based on 15 years of research, she shows how these foods can be used... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979599504
• ISBN13: 9780979599507
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Mother Food Books Series
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Can I give it 6 stars???

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

A great resource for breastfeeding mothers

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.

Well Written and Useful

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!

Must Have Book for all Breastfeeding Mothers and Doctors

Finally, we have a well researched, reliable, easy to understand book on this very important but sorely understudied topic: how mothers can create healthy babies and feel better by using the right foods and herbs. This book is a "must read" book for all pregnant and breastfeeding mothers along with their health care providers. It is clearly evident by the high quality and thorough research that Mrs. Jacobson has spent many, many years researching and synthezing this important and vital imformation. She does an excellent job at presenting this helpful information in an easy to understand manner. I love all of the helpful and yummy recipes sprinkled throughout the book. Mrs. Jacobson has provided information on how to avoid allergies, how to lower a mother's toxic load, how to prevent 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. Very practical information from sources all over the world from many cultures and throughout the millenia is provided on how to create healthy mothers and healthy babies through the food a mother eats. I especially enjoyed reading the sections of how classical medical systems around the world such as Ayurvedic and Middle Eastern countries treat milk supply challenges. But the most valuable information I have been able to recieve from Mother Food, is the abundant information on herbal and lactogenic cooking tips for mothers to increase their milk supply. As an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant for who has worked with breastfeeding mothers for over 25 years, I have been longing to have a book like this to offer as a referral to my patients. All mothers want to provide the best quality milk to their babies and yet thousands and thousands of mothers struggle with their milk supply. Now with Mother Food, health care providers along with pregnant and breastfeeding mothers can obtain reliable, thoroughly researched information on this topic. Thank you, Hilary Jacobson! With my doctorate in Natural Health, my main focus of research is on foods and herbs that create a healthy milk supply. It is very difficult to find any books that contain this kind of information and as reliable as Mrs. Jacobson's. I am convinced Mother Food is a book that needs to be on the kitchen and library book shelves of every pregnant and breastfeeding mother as well as every health care provider who counsels and cares for these women. I am thankful to finally have a reliable information source for myself and for my pregnant and breastfeeding clients. Kudos to Mrs. Jacobson for this thorough,well researched but easy to understand book!

Don't give up because your breastmilk is low!

Many women who experience the natural waxing and waning of breastmilk feel that they must be drying up and needlesly wean their babies too early. Hilary Jacobson shows how foods and herbs can increase milk production through natural cyclic changes as well as those brought about by medication, illness and stress. She doesn't simply present lists of galactogues (breatmilk enhancing foods and herbs) she talks about the energetics of them. For instance nigella seeds, used in the Mideast to enhance breastmilk, may be too warming for regular consumption unless a woman runs cold, and fennel may be a better choice. She discusses ways of determining what allergens may go through the breastmilk and bother the baby- even showing how they can be detected prenatally. Finally she covers foods that mother the mother. This is an excellent resource and I have no trouble recommending it to my patients.