shadow

essential oils

Homemade Gripe Water Recipes for Colicky Babies

Posted on: by: Comments: Leave a comment

8 tips for Baby’s immediate support

Food related colic takes about 2-3 weeks to accumulate.  Let’s first talk about immediate comfort!  When baby is uncomfortable from colic or the beginnings of it, it usually takes several things to keep comfort on the rise.   If the cause is birth trauma or structural, it will show up right away.

Beautiful work is being done for the latter with Dr. Ray Castellino and others.  If you would like to understand preventions for the all too common dietary factors, treating the cause, and why the following works (breast or bottle fed) , check out our core webinars, Ayurvedic Maternal and Newborn Care and Nutrition.

Here are 6 Homemade gripe water recipes

  1. fennel tea – 1 t boil 3-4 min in ¾ cup water
  2. 1 c water, ½ t each coarse ground dill, ajwain, fenugreek, and fennel seeds. Boil 3-4 min. cool, strain, use dropper to relieve gas, help burp, reduce tummy aches
  3. coarse grind 2 tsp ea coriander, cumin, ajwain, anise, dill, vidanga. Add to 250 ml water. Slow boil to 100 ml. Strain and give. (parasites too).
  4. ¼ small onion, boiled 5 min. in 2 oz water. Strain, Add 2 oz cool water, 1 tsp succanat or agave give in bottle. or use 2 cloves garlic, prepare similarly. Allows support to suck, breaks up gas.
  5. tea of organge leaves – wash, boil to sterilize and bring out properties, with a little succanat or agave to taste
  6. last resorts, still gives comfort:. Beer w/o carbonation. or Dissolve peppermint candy in Hot water, give 15-20 ml of either in bottle. support to burp.

8 General support keys for baby include:

  1. Infant massage is well researched for it’s benefit to unhappy tummy times.  Be sure to do the belly massage techniques, including Paddle Wheel, I Love U, and Sun Moon strokes, and use something like a baby hot water bottle – she can lay tummy down, enjoy the water rocking warmth, breath more easily for the lift at the midsection, and be more easily patted to sleep.  (use the linked green text to access our 3 hour distance learner’s recording or webinar option, or 8 hour training to teach Mamas).
  2. Babies go into light sleep first, not deep sleep like adults, so it takes a while when their tummies hurt!  It often may take 10-20 minutes.  Help them stay relaxed, and don’t blame yourself if it takes a while.  That’s your job priority, not cleaning the house.
  3. Take a hot bath together, then sleep (together!).
  4. Use ghee or castor oil for constipation – on nipple, fingertip, or sometimes also to rub the anus when tight.  Or give Baby 1 tsp extra virgin pure olive oil.  See in 10-15 minutes, they are likely to be quiet.  Learn at least 2 reasons why this and other remedies work in our core course, Ayurvedic Maternal and Newborn Care and Nutrition.
  5. Sometimes we may need extra oomph.  Essential oils topically of fennel, ginger, basil, nutmeg, chamomile or stronger used topically, can give quick relief.  Let baby’s nose help you choose, but just waft it for a moment under their nose, don’t hold it there.  Watch their reaction.  Dilute 1:2 with food/massage oil.  How to use safely and which, with opportunity to ask questions, in our Essential Oils, More than Basics.
  6. If nursing or formula feeding, the quality of the milk should be evaluated.  AyuDoulas are trained to help mothers be nourished themselves in a way that best nourishes baby.
  7. This is a big one too – Avoid overfeeding – after 2 weeks with term babies, give 2 hour gap from end to start of next feeding, for digestion (more time with formula). Sweet milk on top of part-digested milk creates ama, wast products which complicate.
  8. Handling yourself and Baby – such a dear and valuable discussion is found in Robin Lim’s classic reference, After the Baby’s Birth (ignore her food chapter, it has tummy and mood issue creating recipes)

So there is immediate things we can do, and if full blown colic has manifested, it will take some time to reverse.  In the meantime, here’s a toolkit for palliative care.  At the same time, it is important to assess and correct maternal diet, emotional climate best you can, and if baby is using formula, choices there.   A newborn human’s digestive system is immature for at least 6 months.  Adding complications to this maturing process sets a long term stage for health issues.

Addressing the root cause takes more time, and is SO worth it.   Quality of digestion and results of the digestive process through all the layers of the GI tract as well as for the 7 layers of tissue nutrition (dhatu prinanam), 3 waste products of the body (malas) and more are specialties of Ayurvedic medicine.  All contribute to short and long term health.

Ysha

Herbs for Mood – Depression and many related conditions

Posted on: by: Comments: 6 Comments

Herbs for Postnatal Moods – We use several really good ones.  Front line – I often call on Tulsi with Gotu Kola or another Brahmi tea – serotonin enhancing in Nature’s user friendly bio-balancing way that can be tandemed for month or more before beginning to SLOWLY reduce other herbs, according to some experienced Ayurvedics.  Transitioning off over at least 6 months, according to Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, if on mood meds for over a year.  She does not however have Ayurveda’s toolbox, so I believe there can be more help up front while still proceeding so very cautiously.   (Good results for a few days do not mean all is well – the medicines have stored in high quantity in brain tissues and begin to download in chunks into blood).  So this is just a beginning discussion of a number of mood supportive herbs.

These 2-3 herbs are also gentle at a time we need to be gentle!  They are key manas (Mind) rasayana (rejuvenative tonic) herbs.  Yes, they are safe in pregnancy and postpartum.  Especially for Mamas, I combine them a bit of digestive (ginger, pippali, or even cardamom), with shatavari (wild asparagus root) to potentiate the manas effects (connecting to body/hormones, and enhancing to lactation anyone?) and/or ashwagandha (more root chakra and Vata grounding/pacifying, also helps lactation).  There is controversy about use of ashwagandha in pregnancy, some are big on it, others totally avoid, I take a more middle perspective, in smaller amounts and well combined.  We can discuss that again another post.

Although there are many distinct diagnoses for mood issues after, or before childbirth, in Ayurveda we see a common thread during the postpartum time of high Vata, which may also push another dosha out of it’s right place and function.  We can consider support with herbal foods – a gentle benign tea – and leave the legally appropriate scope of practice in hands of licensed practitioner.

Tulsi-Gotu Kola Tea is on sale – just received the message today – with this wonderful company, Organic India .  I so honor this company – they sustainably employ thousands of families now in India in organic herb production.  They have loose leaf tulsi and brahmi (gotu kola or bacopa both work similarly and are called “Brahmi”).

I learned this from Ayurvedic practitioner of many years, Sarasvati Buhrman – she gives 4-5 drops nasya (nose drops/nasal administration of herbs) per nostril of brahmi decocted into ghee for Vata depression, varying it for Pitta and Kapha, along with 4-5 cups daily of the above tea as front line support while the rest of needed “homework” is being put into place.  I’ve worked with an older woman her family sent me East to support for a week, in severe suicidal condition under Dr Bhurman’s advice, and watched it really help, but please note that nasya is contraindicated in Pregnancy.

And severe cases MUST be under her doctor’s umbrella of support and referral.  Particularly with pitta cases involving violent impulses or thoughts which are highest risk.  There may be risk to baby or mother’s life.  They often have many issues and sources of advice, which can throw them off from prioritizing use of your support, even dietary and massage gets de-prioritized.  So this is offered as beginning discussion on long term project for education and care research perhaps.  We would want to look at the individual’s other issues in postpartum time and prioritize for it all to create their unique herbal formulation, under client’s and Doctor’s OK.  Research projects would start with much simpler parameters of course, and less potent results for many.

How does all this fit in context of a postpartum care practice?  

The following perspectives and the best possible care are especially important!  Mood support is greatly aided with the following knowledge and skills which may be much less difficult to implement than herbal formulation.   A mother’s special abhyanga (massage) given 3 days in a row absolute minimum, or 5-6 days (not spread out, in a row) as a wiser minimum for more serious cases, so helps ground the herbal effects and not just pop back out of benefits to this process.  It is a deeply significant component of postpartum care and of mood supports,  actually advised for all mamas, not just mood challenged, for 42 days daily.

Also deeply important are the rather unique even to Ayurvedic students and many western trained Ayruvedic practitioners, dietary recommendations after childbirth.  You can learn more in my basic webinars on Ayurvedic Maternal and Newborn Care.  Also useful is the e-cookbook and e-handbook for your clients, Touching Heaven, Tonic Postpartum Care/Cooking with Ayurveda.    The advanced 5 hour webinar on Safe Postpartum Herbs is also available, and will be most valuable to those with some knowledge of Ayurvedic herbology.  Those wanting to get started with potent supports right away can begin studying client and practitioner use of aromatherapy.   A 2 hour Essential Oils (More than) Basics class is also now recorded and getting really good reviews – as I must say I expected – even from experienced aromatherapists.

The early post-pregnancy time has been called “The Black Hole in Health Care” by Dr. Jeanne Watson Driscoll PhD,APRN,BC.  It is a big Y in the road, and effects easily last for decades – “42 Days for 42 Years” according to “Mother of Ayurveda” in the west, Dr. Sarita Shrestha.

I must make clear disclaimers to this post – it cannot be intended to replace the advice of your medical doctor or primary practitioner.  Information here is presented for educational purposes and  you must complete your own homework and work within your appropriate scope of practice.  For serious concerns, you may wish to also look at the reports by Dr. Ann Blake Tracy on a well researched website maintained for many years, Drugawareness.org.  She still offers phone consultations if you feel you are having adverse reactions to mood meds.  For some of the heavy social/medical industry implications – The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a nonprofit mental health watchdog, responsible for helping to enact more than 150 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive practices.  This is not a first focus recommendation for mothers, please; there is a serious political and social conscience and service they provide for those so inclined to work in that arena.

In your service,

Ysha Bhu

Cool it with warmth – Crazy Idea?

Posted on: by: Comments: 5 Comments

Keeping Cool with warmth – crazy idea?  The common sense of it is known by the Egyptians, Ayurvedics and others in tropical countries. Early postpartum mamas often enjoy hot water bottles on tummy and lower back, maybe breasts or neck, even in hot summer weather.  I’ve seen it many times!  OK, I haven’t researched other cultures much, just a few stories.  Like using HOT temperature peppermint, green or black tea to cool down in the mideast.  Sounds weird and there is more explanation than I can offer now… but here are some common sense and reflections on this dance of the opposites –

Hot tea may make you sweat – sweat evaporates and cools that way.

Many herbs have cooling energetics – many astringent, sweet, and light bitter herbs, even when ingested at warm temperature.  They can be used in pregnancy and postpartum teas and foods.  All mints, raspberry, oat straw, coriander, sandalwood (use pinches of the powder), fennel, cumin, tarragon, rose, chrysanthemum, cilantro, small amounts of lime (not lemon, it heats) and many other herbs can be used to cool.  These are more helpful than just doing bland foods and drinks – try small amounts steeped into water and see.  Midwives use more of some for the mineral content.  Nettle is also cooling, though diuretic and less valuable for Vata types.

Of special note for right use – small pinches cardamom, even small amounts of clove and turmeric can transform food and experience with their penetrating (“pungent”) qualities, yet post digestively cool.  Licorice, mostly avoided in pregnancy except in small amounts in formulation by Chinese or Ayurvedics is tonic for adrenals, pitta and Vata.  Yet licorice should be avoided with HBP and water retentions.

For the same reason, minimizing energetically (beyond temp) foods and drinks like red meats, most fish, tamarind, chilies, raw garlic and onions, tomatoes, and most citrus helps, even if they are served cool temp.

So the naturally abundant sweet juicy fruits and sweet, astringent, bitter and moist vegetables – most of them ripened with the heat, have cooling and gently cleansing effect though they nourish and build.  Coconut, grapes, and pomegranate stand out.  Peaches, most melons, later season mangoes, succulent green vegetables and opo (loki) squashes are particularly refreshing and cooling yet nourish, rebuild and are easy to digest.

Vegetables and more astringent fruit like apples and pears need the heat of cooking and seasonings for the early or unusually vata exacerbated postpartum system to prevent gas, bloating, and less obvious signs of malabsorption or incomplete products of digestion.  The dark green leafies do us more good in the spring and fall when they naturally are happiest in the garden, and after a few weeks post-pregnancy.  Easy to digest well cooked mung or matpe lentils, or for non-vegetarians, something like long cooked chicken soup complements protein needs, along with the use of cooling energetic dairy (milk), a few almonds, moist dates and and grains  during the day, even though the milk is taken warm and with at least a little (sometimes much more) digestive spice, and generous use of cooling but digestively enhancing clarified butter.

Hanging out by waterfalls, rivers, and in the moonlight sound nice?  Exercise for the joy of it, which means after birth, after some weeks, gently strolling.  And in water is great for pregnancy and after 6 weeks post;  sleeping outside may nourish later stages, walking barefoot in the cool grass or seashore – you remember these probably.  These are tonic behaviors which warm the heart, nourishing a feeling of connectedness with Mother Nature and ourselves and helping us feel at home where we are – part of what we these days call “chilling out”.

Things which expand the capillaries in relaxation can help disperse core body heat and still support our primary topic, of postpartum rejuvenation.  Core warmth is super important for rest, digest and transformative rejuvenations needed.

Sweet floral essential oils are well known for their antidepressant, usually cooling, relaxing and calming properties.  Rose, geranium, jasmine, vetiver, lavender, ylang ylang, chamomile, helichrysum and others.  They “warm” the transformational processes – hormones, heart, liver and blood vessels with their potent and gentling properties.  They put us in touch via mind-body coordination whereas strong pungent coolants like peppermint and eucalyptus may create too much sudden change, contractions from the overwhelm and be too extreme to nurture the needed subtle experience of connectedness and self-referral, self-correcting dynamics of awareness.

Warm oil Ayurvedic massage actually helps support this dual need of the times – It supports the body’s thermoregulation to work better, which was slowed down from natural fatigues of birthing and caring for Baby – so the inner heater and cooler both work better.  It also supports the core work so needed after such deeply transforming as well as usually hard labor to be tended to.  IE, Relaxation  puts us into rest, digest and transform, rejuvenate, while stress hormones put us into a state of fight or flight which tightens us up and keeps us HOT and geared for outer, not inner work.

Those living in hot damp climate feel the heat the most.  They should do less of these heat therapies, favoring warm instead of hot foods and drinks, a little less heavy on food and massage oils, and delay their massage treatments for maybe 3 days after the birth says Dr. Bharat Vaidya, quoting the ancient classical textbooks in Ayurveda on postnatal care.   Hot damp weather does a lot of the needed work and is a blessing.  Too much oily massage and heat too soon can increase kapha unduly – the priority the first few days still is to re-kindle or strengthen Agni, the digestive fires, which is specifically heating.  Professional guidance and care is particularly helpful during the first weeks to navigate this dance of the opposites in our various tissues and systems best.  Mothers DO need to AVOID air conditioning as much as possible.  The cold draft of “refreshing” AC can exacerbate natural weaknesses.  OK, I dare you to carry on this conversation with me if you doubt.

I shared some of this with a midwife who was grateful to understand why their clients (in Florida summertimes!) would not let them turn on any AC even for giving birth.  Everyone was dripping, but mama’s system, and baby’s, work best with this integrative experience of keeping their cool via mind-body integration awareness, supported by warmth.

And try the cooling effect of sattva, if you know what that means.  You could start with simple alternate nostril pranayama.  At this time, don’t worry which hand, and if baby is falling asleep in one arm at the breast – great – now is your time.  Baby needs 10-15 minutes often, to settle into stable deeper sleep.  Perfect time for you to purr.  This breath practice in the postpartum time should be done without any strain, force or breath retentions – simply inhale in through one nostril closing the other, naturally full breath, then switch nostrils for a naturally full out, and in on that side.  Switch – out, in.  Switch – etc.  for about 10 minutes.  The shift in brain wave patterns accompanies a chilling out mentally, physically and emotionally, a balancing of core and surface circulation and comfort, and much more.

Does this biochemistry make sense to you?   Let me know!  And consider Ayurvedic Midwife Terra Rafael’s course, Enhancing Fertility, Pregnancy and Birth with Ayurveda (21 hours), and my core class on postpartum ayurveda, Ayurvedic Maternal and Newborn Care.

Warmly,

Ysha

Baby’s genetic memory

Posted on: by: Comments: 2 Comments

Baby’s genetic memory – Do your clients understand the impact of their choices?  Sometimes they can use a nudge to enhance as we have to call it, “compliance” with our health recommendations.  This one may be a sleeper, yet deeper than most realize!  New studies confirm what Ayurved has known for thousands of years.

Ayurvedic medicine reports that our ancestor’s illnesses, viral and otherwise influence our genetics, and show up with iridilogical analysis (iris diagnosis).  For instance, even if Baby has not been exposed to a certain chemical this life, and Grandma has, Baby shows genetic influence of this toxin’s damage.   Recent studies add important weight to this discussion –

“We find that a single exposure to a common-use fungicide (vinclozolin) three generations removed alters the physiology, behavior, metabolic activity, and transcriptome in discrete brain nuclei in descendant males, causing them to respond differently to chronic restraint stress.(http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/15/1118514109.abstract)”

Find an interview video with the head researcher, Dr. David Crews and more understanding how the impact manifests epigenetically, i.e. on  genetic expression: http://www.naturalnews.com/035965_epigenetics_inheritance_synthetic_chemicals.html#ixzz1voBpzwHt ”

Then find our discussion of how and which essential oils can help clear both the receptor sites for DNA expression, and miswritten code, in our class, Essential Oils Basics.

We have profound tools from Ayurvedic medicine for preparing the body even to genetic level with Ayurvedic Panchakarma cleansing, and special preparations targeting the nuclear level of the cells such as tikta ghee.  Those who are not yet pregnant and seek to be are in best position to reverse unwanted changes.  Those who are, or with newborns and older, have much to gain also – each according to their specific “season” of life changes, body type and imbalances, and season in the more commonly understood term.

We have much support we can give our clients, and they so often need it, more than ever.  Even those who seem well, eat organic, all these things are less than enough in our polluted times and with the blessings and challenges of our forefathers and mothers.   Native American elders’  warning takes on depth, not just cultural, to make choices for positive influence on the next 7 generations.  And we have the burden of correction for the many who have not made wise decisions.  I hope you will take to heart and into your toolkit resources and service which deeply helps.

Peace –

Baby Reflux

Posted on: by: Comments: 11 Comments

Usually, there are 1 or two key factors to baby reflux, and 1 or two things which do the trick:

Air bubbles pushing up
  • Many of us have an intense milk let down at start often babies take in too much air  and milk too fast.  I learned a trick from one of my twice around postpartum clients:  briefly take baby off sucking when this happens.  Support her head with your opposite hand – press your near forearm against your nipple and areola for a few moments to diffuse the spray throughout the breast, and then let baby latch again.  This is often a big help, and does not create problems of any breast congestion that I have seen with many mothers.  Baby just can suck the generous supply without being forced.
  • Try nursing with feet lower instead of your “Boppy” pillow level, so air bubbles don’t go out the long way.  similarly, burping helps.
  • Bottle feeding often results in very quick delivery of milk, and Baby takes a lot in at once.
  • Either way, if baby takes in too much food, it won’t be just air bubbles that push milk out – it can be the excess milk itself.

Feeding too often – less than every 2 hours from end one feeding to beginning of another for breast milk, or – with formula feeding maybe less than 3-4 hours as a minimum, I’m not sure.  In either case –

  • Feeding too often is such a common issue, and results in poor food combining for Baby self induced.  Ie, fresh milk on top of sour or partly digested milk makes for a confused tummy, maybe gas, bloating, or general uncomfortable feelings.
  • It is like for us, after snacking on top of a full meal, we tend to feel ucky or mucky, and then gassy in the gut.
  • It is complicated by Baby’s common need to suck which goes beyond her need to eat.  Sucking balances hemispheres when they get out of sync, and gives him or her bliss.
  • So of course they want to suck, for that reason alone.  Even if tummy hurts, sucking at other times makes a tummy happy.
  • So babies do need our help and guidance with their instincts, not just with diaper changes and rocking and cuddling and loving.

Feeding baby while distracted, arguing, talking business, on phone, movie etc –

  • Here is a test of this – does the reflux happen at night too?  Often it does not.
  • It results in baby sometimes not doing the mind-body integration dynamic as well – He often will eat too fast or anxiously, again causing confusion, tensions or indigestions pushing milk back up.
  • It is better to try feeding in quiet place for a while and see how that works.
  • Similarly, this is an obvious probably to you – be slower and gentler with a baby who has just eaten – whether in burping, bouncing, bending or any other activity putting crimp on the tummy’s process.

More on food combining

  • I have seen common that some formulas now have two or more types of protein – dairy, soy, whey….even a raw milk formula with raw liver and 3 kinds of oil in it.  Simpler is better, easier.
  • Complementary feeding of formula on top of breastfeeding can complicate digestion or overfeed also.

More on difficult digestion issues

  • With breastfed babies often mama’s diet is compromising baby’s digestion, creating gassy or hot stomach.  We call them VATA or PITTA aggravating foods, respectively.  We can talk more about this if  you like.
  • For more useful input for most people, I’d like to send you to my e-cookbook, “Touching Heaven, Tonic Postpartum Recipes with Ayurveda.” It is in the Sacred Window online shop with a companion handbook.  Recipes are annotated, menu planning for Mom is basically by weeks postpartum, and even Baby’s first foods are discussed.
  • For formula fed babies, we must remember formula is heavier – and takes longer to digest.  It has “old” or low prana (life force), and is not exactly what Baby’s biology was designed to handle.   It is not just about chemistry, it is about life force and other things.  So indigestion, gas, bloating, or just tension or tummy ache are more common with formula, and can easily trigger the body to move food back out.  It does depend on the formula recipe, and Baby’s constitution, imbalances and circumstances such as above, how well she handles formula or other influences on breastfeeding.
Essential oils, baby massage, warmth, swaddling
These can help in short term, each in their own way.
  1. Essential oils choices depend if the need is for calming, tummy aches from gas, acidity, ama (accumulated impurities) from overfeeding, even parasitic influences….we can talk about this more soon.
  2. A lovely book by author, Ashley Montegu, “Touching” reports we might scientifically consider newborns as premies until they are 6 months of age.  It is an interesting thought – how compared to other animals and brain size, humans at 6 months old are where other mammals are at birth, but that size  head would not fit through the birth canal well at all!  He proposes what from a different perspective, Ayurveda speaks of, that the newborn digestion is quite immature for about 6 months.
It is so worth tending to the little things that protect baby for best beginnings, and it is not just to mollify the tears.  All these factors can help structure good foundations done right.  The time flies, and babies are so influenced in their early days, weeks and months, for such a long time to come.  Moms too!
Love,
Ysha ma