Eat to Feed

INTRODUCTION

Feeding is an act of love.

There are few things in life that compare to your baby falling asleep against your breast smiling, or looking right into your eyes while making sweet chortling noises. As a breastfeeding mom, you are sharing your body, your nutrients, and your food with your baby. But breastfeeding isn’t easy—and that surprised both of us when we were new moms. (Nobody tells you breastfeeding will hurt!) When you’re getting started breastfeeding, you need all the support you can get. We know this firsthand.

We met at a park while we were each pregnant with our second baby and quickly bonded over our choice of names. (Eliza’s first son is named Oliver, and she was going to name her second boy Henry. Kristy’s first son is named Henry, and her second son was going to be named Oliver. You know what they say about great minds!)

When our second babies were born, we both started nursing again. But Kristy was having a hard time producing enough milk, and Eliza had had trouble the first time around.

While we were dealing with nursing challenges, we had read extensively about ingredients called galactogogues: whole foods and herbs traditionally incorporated in a postpartum diet to help support a healthy milk supply. Many of these ingredients were unfamiliar to us at first. A few of them, such as brewer’s yeast, were ones we hadn’t cooked with at all.

After talking to lots of mom friends, we realized we were not alone in our confusion. Most of us turned to either taking supplements or steeping herbs in water to make bitter teas. Around this same time, we noticed a growing trend of lactation cookies in stores, but many of them weren’t so tasty, or had lots of filler ingredients that aren’t so good for you. That’s where the inspiration for our lactation foods company, Oat Mama, was born.

Instead of choking down bitter teas or snacking on unhealthy cookies, we wanted to fill the postpartum period with foods that left us feeling cared for and energized. We decided to develop an incredibly tasty granola bar that was free of dairy, soy, and gluten; filled with galactogogues, such as brewer’s yeast and ground flax; and packed with healthy fats from nuts, seeds, and coconut oil. The first Oat Mama bar was born, and the reaction from moms was overwhelming. From there we took our mission further. We updated traditional grassy lactation teas with our line of Oat Mama teas featuring punchy fruit flavors, such as Blueberry Pomegranate, so they could be enjoyed hot or iced. As breastfeeding moms ourselves, we continue to think about what real moms actually want to eat and drink and what products will bring more health and enjoyment to nursing.

We also deeply care about community. Since support is one of the top predictors of breastfeeding success, we knew we wanted to incorporate as much support into our brand as possible. With our very first message of “You Got This” on our original bars to our vibrant community of moms on our social media feeds and Facebook group, we wanted every mom to feel connected and encouraged through her unique breastfeeding journey. We created the hashtag #mothertogether in this spirit and also donate a portion of our sales to help deliver lifesaving donor breast milk to babies in the NICU. Since the beginning, we’ve also developed and shared lactation recipes on our Oat Mama blog. Here’s what one mama said about our Coconut Panna Cotta: “Since most desserts are light on the fat and high on the sweetener, this is a great way to have a healthy dessert that feels like a treat but still has good nutrition in it. Panna Cotta beats Jell-O any day and is far more filling than the sugary, store-bought options with only a few minutes work.” The incredible response and demand for these nourishing lactogenic recipes led us to creating Eat to Feed.

We wrote Eat to Feed not only to demystify galactogogues but also to celebrate their unique flavor profiles and nutritional content. As passionate food enthusiasts, our goal was to come up with innovative and extremely tasty ways of cooking with these ingredients. All of our recipes highlight specific galactogogues in easy-to-use, delicious preparations that were created with you in mind.

By no means do you need or require a “perfect” diet to successfully breastfeed—not at all. There is no pressure or expectation here. And note that if you are encountering breastfeeding issues, food alone cannot “fix” low supply. We strongly believe that there is no substitute for best breastfeeding practices (feeding on demand, correct latching, skin-to-skin contact), good counsel from a professional lactation consultant or La Leche League leader, or meeting with a local breastfeeding support group to get you and your baby off to the strongest start possible. With Eat to Feed, we want to offer you a chance to broaden your culinary horizons and mark this special—and fleeting—time in your life with the smell and tastes of dishes you’ll always remember fondly as part of your journey as a new mother. Our hope is that you’ll continue turning to these superfoods and the recipes in this book long after your little ones have weaned.

By keeping yourself well nourished, well hydrated, and well rested, you are better equipped to navigate the inevitable ups and downs of feeding your baby. Nourishing yourself, and making that a priority, is the greatest gift you can give your baby. And it’s a good first step toward building a healthy family with a positive attitude about food. We hope these recipes delight you, comfort you, and remind you that you are not alone in this, and that every act of feeding yourself and your baby is one of pure love.