A resource to inspire, inform and empower parents.

Twiddling While Breastfeeding

  • For our entire episode on Twiddling on The Badass Breastfeeding Podcast click here. 

Twiddling is defined by breastfeeders as the thing your baby does with their hand on your non-nursing breast. It’s when they stick their hand in your shirt and play with your nipple; scratch it, twist it, flick it, etc. Sometimes it doesn’t bother a person. With my first son I never noticed. It didn’t bother me. When I became pregnant and for the rest of my breastfeeding and tandem breastfeeding journey it made me feel like pulling my eyelashes out, stabbing myself and running through a wall. Or all of those things at once. I had to stop it. [Read more…]

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What To Do If You Feel “Touched Out” While Breastfeeding

By Wendy Wisner, IBCLC

When my nurslings were older babies—and especially when they were toddlers—I remember feeling at times like the physical closeness of breastfeeding was just about the last thing I could tolerate. After a long day of mothering, breastfeeding even made me want to jump out of my skin at times. I felt restless, irritated, and like if my babe stayed latched on for one more second, I was going to lose it. [Read more…]

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Breastfeeding: You Never Know When It’s the Last Time

“I feel like Jack is going to be one of those kids that breastfeeds until 7 years old,” I said to my husband one day when Jack was around 1 year old. I had been learning a lot about breastfeeding, mostly through the moms at The Badass Breastfeeder Facebook community. I learned that kids who are not weaned early can breastfeed anywhere from 2.5 to 7 years old. Before kids it would have completely freaked me out. Now that I had celebrated my very first nursiversary, after fighting tooth and nail to save what seemed like a doomed breastfeeding relationship, I couldn’t imagine why on earth I would ever wean him. My husband took a bit longer to adjust to the idea of coloring so outside the box, but ultimately we both felt that what helps Jack is much more important than anyone else’s opinion.

Abby Theuring, The Badass Breastfeeder, breastfeeding Jack. [Read more…]

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10 Things I Hate About Breastfeeding

It’s Breastfeeding Awareness Month 2017 baby! And I am here to rant about things I cannot stand about breastfeeding! Why? Because this is hard. Breastfeeding is really hard! It’s magical and empowering and all that stuff but I need all you new parents and parents struggling right now to know that you will not like everything about breastfeeding. And that’s OK! We do a disservice to each other when we wash over the negative feelings that breastfeeding can bring us. We can find comfort and community in the tough things that we deal with just like with any other journey in life. It’s the secret to our success. So let’s get to it. 10 things I hate about breastfeeding!

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Jenn’s Tandem Nursing Journey, Part 2

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Breastfeeding and being a mama of two isn’t easy, it’s something I’m still figuring out. How I talk to myself while figuring out Tandem nursing because I’ve been struggling nursing my oldest but it’s getting better.
I’m trying not to think about how she’s playing with my body. How she’s taking his milk. How she’s big and awkward and leaves teeth marks or that I can’t make it through a nursing session with her without bargaining for her to get off me. Or make it through a nursing session with him without her begging for milk.
I try to think about how she needs it too or else she wouldn’t be doing it. Whether it’s for nutrition or comfort, she needs it. Then my tension melts away slowly as if I started a Scentsy. It’s not immediate. I try to pass the time writing things like this to help. I look at my little baby and see that he is healthy and sleeping. That she’s resorted back to baby things like me changing her diaper etc. So she’s just trying to figure all this change out. It’s only been a month. Her life is completely different but nursing can at least equalize us a little bit. I think back when she was a baby and how concerned I was that she would wean too early and it makes me laugh now.
I breathe slowly in and out. I think it’s honestly my body equalizing out too because she sucks all the milk out so fast. I just get this sensation that I don’t like. Maybe this is nursing aversion? I’m being patient. I’m trying to let her stop for once. He’s full. He is fine. Even though he’s waking up. It will be OK . She has to stop eventually. She has to so be patient mama.
I’m building supply. I’m building supply. I made it through she’s happy . Her heart and mine are full and I can have a break oh wait she wants more milk. Lol she distracted herself. Time to get off the couch and do something.
***Jenn Novak just began her tandem nursing journey and will be sharing her experiences with our community.
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11 Tandem Nursing Myths Busted

By Abby Theuring, MSW and Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC

The amount of misinformation about breastfeeding is staggering so it’s sort of surprising to me that when it comes to tandem breastfeeding the problem is that there is very little information at all! Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, FILCA and I (both of us have tandem nursed) are here to help you navigate the world of tandem nursing myths. [Read more…]

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8 Tips for Breastfeeding With Boundaries

We talk a lot about breastfeeding on demand, so much that when I found myself breastfeeding a toddler I just kept right on doing it on demand! It wasn’t until I was pregnant and experiencing nursing aversion and all kinds of touched out that I started to feel drained. I birthed my new baby and embarked on tandem nursing thinking it would all be cool and I could just breastfeed the whole damn family on demand. I was losing my mind [Read more…]

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Why Would You Nurse a 4-Year-Old?

You may be expecting a snarky blog post aimed at critics of “extended” breastfeeding filled with awesome comebacks to sling around comment threads of breastfeeding posts. But I have written enough of those. A recent conversation in a thread on my own page reminded me that some people just… don’t get it. Some people just really don’t know why someone would breastfeed a toddler. They ask, “But doesn’t he eat food? Drink regular milk? Isn’t he too busy playing?” This post is dedicated to all of the people who want to know more about this. The people who ask questions, hold back judgement and have an open mind to listen to someone else’s experiences. [Read more…]

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My Tandem Nursing Journey: Author Interview

Ashley Kusi, My Tandem Nursing Journey
What is your name? What is the name of your book and what is it about? [Read more…]

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I Love My Baby More Than You Love Your Baby:

How the On-Line Motherhood Support Community is Committing Mass Suicide

We love nothing more than to say we have this wonderful, global community of women designed to support each other in a way that many people in our daily lives have not. And yet, we shit on this very community every single day. Many times a day. All day. I am just about at my wits end with the woman on woman hating on the internet. Yes, I am talking about you. And I am talking about me. Every single one of us needs to take responsibility.

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