About
Our Breastfeeding Expert:
Regina Roig Lane
I started off almost 11 years ago simply as a new mother wanting to learn how to breastfeed. At the recommendation of a coworker, I turned to La Leche League; they proved invaluable. They taught me how to breastfeed my son Matthew, how to ENJOY breastfeeding, and more importantly, they taught me that babies need to be held and comforted, without fear of "spoiling" them.
I quit my job and became a stay-at-home mother. I volunteered with LLL and became one of their accredited volunteer Leaders in Miami (Florida, where I live), and almost immediately became what League calls a "lone Leader" - a Leader running an entire LLL group by herself. During that time, my 2nd child (my daughter Sarah) was born.
Roughly a year after I became an accredited LLL Leader, Hurricane Andrew hit Miami, and suddenly I was one of only 2 Leaders left in Miami that still had a roof over my head. For months, I took half of all the breastfeeding calls to La Leche League in Miami, as women who had no electricity and no roof tried to learn how to breastfeed. I helped to coordinate LLL's relief effort to Miami; many LLL members around the country had donated money that needed to be spent wisely. At my suggestion, we used the money to buy the organization's book (The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding) and gave them away for free to women in the hardest hit areas of town.
My 3rd child - my 2nd son, Joshua - was born in 1994. At that time, I was the senior LLL Leader in my group. It was when he was born that my life took a HUGE turn, in the direction of vegetarianism. Why?
Joshua was born a vegetarian.
To be more specific, Joshua cannot digest most forms of animal protein. I didn't KNOW this when he was born, of course. I thought he was your "normal" child, with perhaps an allergy to milk (which I took out of my diet in his first month of life), but nothing more.
All I knew then was that he wasn't gaining enough weight. 12 ounces per MONTH was the best he could do. This is NOT enough weight gain for a newborn, and way under what my previous 2 children had gained. I was perplexed and greatly pained, to say the least. I had never had a problem with my children gaining weight while breastfeeding. I KNEW what I was doing, I KNEW he was eating well. Yet the scales weren't lying - you could tell just from looking at him that he was malnourished. I barely have any pictures of him from that time in his life; I didn't have the heart to take photographs of him.
For eight months I battled assertions that I suddenly and for unexplained reasons was no longer capable of making enough milk, while watching my son battle to gain 12 ounces a month. He was tested for cystic fibrosis - negative ::::sigh::: We tested my thyroid function - normal. I saw a trusted Lactation Consultant - she agreed with me that Joshua was eating well - getting lots of breastmilk.
After 8 months of tears, fear, and futile visits to pediatric gastroenterologists convinced that I was only making breastmilk in my fantasies, by coincidence, my husband had to take a 2 week business trip to Germany. I was never much of a meat lover - I ate it mainly out of a sense of obligation, and because he wanted me to cook it. But usually I ate it the way most people eat peas - as a side dish on the side of their plate. A few bites on the side of my plate.
When my husband left town, I realized that I was under no obligation to thaw the meat in the freezer unless I WANTED to, which I didn't. So I decided not to cook any meat until either he returned or I wanted to, whichever came first.
Within days Joshua was a changed child. Literally. He started gaining weight, lots of it. I barely recognized him, he gained weight so fast! Mothers at my LLL meeting (which had become a great source of shame for me, since I was RUNNING the group while nursing a child that was clearly underweight) asked me where Joshua had gone to - the boy I was now holding was so different they couldn't believe it was the same child. In just two months, he gained ALL of the weight that he was supposed to have gained the previous 8 months.
Needless to say, I haven't eaten beef since :-) The way I explain it to people now is that Joshua can't tolerate any part of any cow or any pig in any form. I started reading books on vegetarianism, starting with Diet for a New America. I was moved and greatly affected by it.
It was at about that time (when he was 2) that I became a board-certified Lactation Consultant. I took and passed my board exam with flying colors four years ago. I immediately took a part-time job with my local health department, for a program known as WIC. WIC stands for Women, Infants, and Children, and it is a federally funded supplemental food and nutrition program for poor women in the US that are either pregnant, or breastfeeding, or have recently given birth, and their children from birth to the age of 5 years. WIC gives them checks for certain foods that they then take to the grocery store and use to make their food purchases. WIC nutritionists provide nutrition education, and WIC lactation consultants, such as myself, provide breastfeeding education and consultation. Women who don't want to breastfeed are given checks to use in purchasing formula.
As a Hispanic fluent in Spanish, my job (part-time, since my kids come first with me) is to help low-income spanish-speaking women in Miami to breastfeed. I serve an average of 45 women per month.
(Fonte: www.vegsource.com)