Category — New Moms

This one is a little unusual: the FDA recently issued a warning not to use or purchase Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream. Apparently the cream contains two ingredients, chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol, that can cause serious respiratory symptoms in infants, so the product has been taken off the market. That’s bad news for moms who welcomed the source of relief but great for moms who don’t want their babies to ingest more chemicals than necessary. It’s a little distressing — with BPA tainted baby bottles and chemically enhanced breast feeding products like nipple cream, it seems like it’s getting more and more difficult to simply feed children.

I mentioned another Mommy’s Bliss product, Mommy’s Bliss Morning Sickness Madness, in an earlier post because I was really excited about their products. I had heard great things about Morning Sickness Madness, and after checking out the Baby’s Bliss website, I was impressed with their commitment to natural products. I looked at the Baby’s Bliss site today, and they have posted a response to the FDA warning about Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream, but it doesn’t really help clear up the situation for me. My main issue is what constitutes an “All Natural” ingredient.

When I read “All Natural”, I interpret that as meaning no artificial flavors, colors, odors or preservatives. Basically, I envision that everything in that “all natural” product could be easily produced on a farm and not in a chemistry lab. I personally do not consider drugs like chlorphenesin to be “all natural.” It’s not even commercially available in the United States, so I wonder how and why the Mommy’s Bliss manufacturers started using chlorphenesin at all. All the information I have found on chlorphenesin states that it is not approved for use in children and should not be used by pregnant or nursing women, and that was just from a five minute Google search. It sounds like chlorphenesin is great as a muscle relaxant or as a treatment for foot fungus, but neither of those features make me want to feed it to a child, no matter how small the dose.

Put the baby bottles away and try breast feeding to help increase baby’s IQ. That’s the latest news on MSN Health & Fitness. This is great news, since I have a lot of pregnant friends and relatives, and I have been trying to think of good gift ideas that are BPA-free, lead-free or otherwise harmless to mother and child. This article got me thinking about things like: breast pumps, nursing pads, nursing pillows, breast milk storage and breast shells. I am really intrigued by the Medela Pump in Style Advance Breast Pump with Backpack and I think it will most likely be the next gift I purchase for a mom-to-be.

Links for more information on breastfeeding and breast pumps:

• Got Breast Pump!
• FamilyDoctor.org: Breast Milk: How to Pump and Store It
• Breastfeeding.com
• Women’s Health.gov: Breastfeeding–Best for Baby. Best for Mom.
• March of Dimes: Breastfeeding: Strategies for Success