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'Top model' drinks her own breast milk
Filed under: Just For Moms, Your Pregnancy, Celeb Kids, Celeb Parents, Weird But True
Do you watch Tyra Banks' show, America's Next Top Model? I've seen it a few times and my general impression is that it is chock full of, shall we say, interesting people. One of those interesting people is 24-year-old Claire, a breastfeeding mother who wants to be sure she can continue to nurse her 18-month-old daughter when the show is over. Like a lot of mothers who can't be with their nursing infants all the time, she expressed her breast milk. But unlike a lot of mothers, rather than sending the milk home for her baby, she drank it herself.
"I drank my breast milk only during audition week because I did not want to waste it after putting all my effort into making and extracting it. Dumping milk just seems wrong," Claire says. "A mother's milk is like liquid gold, so I also wanted the nutritional value back and to keep my immunity up."
Lactation experts say that the nutritional benefits of drinking one's own breast milk is very small and that it is rarely done. "I've never heard of anything like it," said Dr. Myron Peterson, a pediatrician and director of medical affairs for Cato Research in Boston. "There's no danger to it, but it's just kind of strange."
The first and most obvious question is: why isn't she freezing her breast milk and sending it home? Claire says that she didn't have access to a freezer during that time and just couldn't bear to throw it out. And the second, most obvious question (at least for me) is: what does it taste like? According to Claire, "It tastes kind of like light soy milk."
"I drank my breast milk only during audition week because I did not want to waste it after putting all my effort into making and extracting it. Dumping milk just seems wrong," Claire says. "A mother's milk is like liquid gold, so I also wanted the nutritional value back and to keep my immunity up."
Lactation experts say that the nutritional benefits of drinking one's own breast milk is very small and that it is rarely done. "I've never heard of anything like it," said Dr. Myron Peterson, a pediatrician and director of medical affairs for Cato Research in Boston. "There's no danger to it, but it's just kind of strange."
The first and most obvious question is: why isn't she freezing her breast milk and sending it home? Claire says that she didn't have access to a freezer during that time and just couldn't bear to throw it out. And the second, most obvious question (at least for me) is: what does it taste like? According to Claire, "It tastes kind of like light soy milk."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-26-2008 @ 6:00PM
ame s said...lol, there was a similar topic on another blog.
It is sweet. not sure if comparable to soy milk, b/c I haven't tried that. I understood why my daughters cried when I tried to give them formula in between nursing. Formula tastes icky!
Reply
2-26-2008 @ 7:57PM
ninainindia said...I think this was already posted on this blog last week, you did add some extra info though.
Reply
2-27-2008 @ 8:38AM
Carrie said...There is definitely an "ick" factor there, but I think any mom who has had to pump and been faced with the possibility of dumping their milk has probably been tempted!
And many pumping moms have had to taste milk they've pumped to make sure it wasn't soured - and it tastes like watery, sweeter cow's milk.
As far as what the expert said about the health benefits being negligible, that may be true for a healthy person, but not for someone with AIDS or other diseases where some adults are actually using breast milk as a treatment. And I've heard of moms giving it to their husbands when they had strep throat, I hear it's a great cure. ;)
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