Milk. It Does A Body Good.

Remember that slogan before Got Milk? Well, it turns out that cow's milk isn't the only milk that can do your body good. Apparently, breastmilk has some pretty amazing benefits.  I'm not talking about the nutritional value and how it helps baby's immune system, although that's pretty amazing in itself. I'm talking about using breast milk as a home remedy for all kinds of ailments!

I wasn't aware of the hidden power of breastmilk until my baby was just about a week old. She woke up in the middle of the night for a feeding and I noticed her eye was kind of goopy. I didn't think much of it at first. I just thought it was a sign that she was beginning to produce tears. Well a few hours later she woke up again, and this time it was worse. She could barely open her right eye. It was almost crusted shut. My immediate thought was pink eye, but how could she have gotten that? She's never even left the house! We got her in to see the pediatrician that morning. He said it probably wasn't pink eye, but rather her tear duct was clogged and that should work itself out by the time she turns one. What?! My poor baby was going to have to deal with this for what could be an entire year? I cried the whole way home. I know it wasn't going to kill her or even be harmful to her health, but I've had pink eye before and know how nasty and uncomfortable it can be. I did not want my tiny, helpless newborn to wake up like that every day for the entire first year of her life!

So, I did exactly what I advised you all not to do. I took to the internet. Most of what I read was that it was pretty common and not likely to go on for a  whole year. I read that gently massaging the corner of her eye a few times a day can help unclog it. Then I came across a remedy that seemed so ridiculous I thought it was a joke. One mother posted to a blog that she squirted breast milk into her baby's eye and it cured it almost instantly! What the fuck? I thought to myself, now that's one wackado hippie mom. Who on Earth would do that?

Well, as I continued my online search, I came to find out that a lot of moms do that! I called my sister to tell her about my poor baby and without me even bringing it up she said, "This is going to sound insane, but have you tried breast milk in her eye?" Ok, I must be in a Twilight Zone episode. This has to be a joke! But she said she tried it, by accident really, and it worked. She was almost embarrassed to tell her pediatrician, but to her surprise, her pediatrician replied "Oh yeah, that stuff will fix a broken bone!"  My sister is my most trusted parenting resource, so I decided to give it a try. I expressed a few drops of milk into a medicine cup (because squirting my child in the eye was just too barbaric to me) and carefully let it drop into the corner of the affected eye. Then, with a clean finger, I gently massaged her tear duct to work it in. Well, wouldn't you know, it cleared up almost immediately. Each time she woke up after that it got better and better, so I continued with this remedy a few times a day for a couple of days and we haven't had a problem since!

This got me thinking, what else is breast milk good for? You'd be shocked to see what I've found. I'm not sure I believe it all, and I question how some of these remedies were discovered, but it's pretty cool to think about how truly amazing a mother's body really is.

Here are just a few things that breast milk apparently cures:

Diaper rash
Baby acne and eczema
Cradle cap
Ear infections (yup, right in the ear)
Itchiness due to chickenpox or poison ivy
Cuts and scrapes
Insect bites and bee stings
Clogged tear ducts (I can vouch for this one)
Congestion (yup, right up the nose)
Cancer
Burns
Warts

...Wait. What? Cancer??? Check it out:

Study: Breast Milk Kills Cancer Cells

There are also cosmetic uses too:

Makeup removal
Puffy eyes
Chapped lips
Contact lens solution
Deodorant (hmmm, not so sure I'd replace my Secret just yet)

Pretty crazy, huh? Now, I'm not condoning or recommending any of these remedies, as I have only tried one. I, myself, am not so sure I'd give some of these a go. So please don't go hosing your children down with breast milk and telling people that I told you it was ok.
It's not ok.