As a new mother, I felt a lot of pressure to breastfeed my daughter. Breastfeeding has become synonymous with being a “good mother”, and women who choose to bottle-feed their babies often face scrutiny and judgment from other moms, and even from people who don’t have children! But I decided to make a different choice for my child.
I switched my baby from breast milk to kombucha, and I haven’t looked back.
Despite the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the World Health Organization all recommend breastfeeding as the best choice for babies whenever possible, a mother ultimately has to follow her gut when it comes to making the best decisions for her child. I just knew that my innate maternal instinct wouldn’t lead me astray. If I didn’t trust this instinct, my baby would be full of vaccine poisons, among other things. And my instinct was telling me that weaning my baby off of breast milk and onto the ’booch was the right choice for me and for her.
Some mothers worry that by not breastfeeding, they’re missing out on an important bonding experience with their child. But let me tell you, nothing makes me feel closer and more connected to my little one than sipping on our matching thermoses of ‘buchi brew while we drive to “Mommy and Me” Hot Yoga class.
This is the sweetest time of my life!
Of course, I sometimes get judgmental stares from strangers in public. Sure, my mother-in-law still sends me pamphlets on the virtues of raising your child on breast milk or formula or anything else that bears a greater resemblance to milk than to lemonade that’s been sitting in a hot car for three months. I know she thinks she’s being helpful. But you know what? I stopped breastfeeding a month ago and I’ve never been happier. And a happy mom means a happy baby. Westerners have always been slow to adapt traditional Eastern wisdom.
If you’re contemplating switching from breast milk to kombucha, don’t let those who feel the need to police your motherhood deter you with biased and judgy warnings, like “Babies’ digestive systems aren’t developed enough to process fermented cultures” or throwing around holier-than-thou words like “botulism” or sciencey doublespeak like, “What the hell is wrong with you?” Those lactation Nazis aren’t in control of your parenting destiny. You are.
We all want to give our babies the very best in life. I’m no different; my baby girl means the world to me, and that’s why I have to follow my heart and do what I feel is best for her. My heart told me to switch from breast milk to kombucha. And I listened.
After all, every jar of kombucha has a floating mushroom called a mother. Kombucha is the mother’s milk that’s right for my toxin-free baby—and me.
