Uses For Breast Milk

You know your breast milk is the perfect food for your baby. You nurse him whenever he needs it and if you have to be gone you make sure to leave enough pumped milk behind. But there are other wonderful uses for breast milk than just feeding your baby. Did you know breast milk makes a good medicine and topical ointment as well? Here are some of the other ways you can use breast milk when you happen to have some extra.

Does your baby get diaper rash occasionally? You probably have an ointment on hand, but what if you’re out and about and forgot to pack it when baby really needs it? Nothing to worry about. Simply express a bit of milk into your hand and apply it to the affected area. Perhaps you’ll decide to skip the ointment even at home and just use your milk. If you consume coconut oil, your milk will be rich in lauric acid which is an important ingredient in natural lotions and ointments. The one exception would be if your child has a diaper rash caused by thrush, in this case breast milk wouldn't be helpful.

Did your older child just fall down and scrape her knee? Mommy’s milk to the rescue. Breast milk contains antimicrobial factors and can act as a topical disinfectant as well as a soothing ointment. Just apply a generous amount to the scrape or cut. You can use it instead of water to clean the wound, then you can apply it as an ointment. Cuts and scrapes have been reported to heal faster when treated with breast milk.

What about ear infections? What child gets through his entire childhood without at least one? You can begin to treat a possible ear infection by squirting breast milk into the child’s ear three times a day or more. The milk will soothe the ear and the antimicrobial properties in the milk can begin to mitigate the infection. At least fifty percent of ear infections are viral and therefore won’t be helped with antibiotic medicine. Yet doctors routinely prescribe antibiotics for all kinds of ear infections which can lead to the risk of your child harboring antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Applying breast milk to his ear won’t raise that issue, so you can use breast milk to treat any earache without needing to know the exact cause. You may even be able to avoid using antibiotics for a bacterial ear infection as the breast milk will act against those bacteria. If you or your child’s doctor chooses to wait a day or two before starting a course of antibiotics, you can begin treating with breast milk immediately and your child will likely start recovering.

The other major organ that often gets irritated or infected is the eye. You can squirt an affected eye three times a day or more with breast milk. It is especially useful for treating gunky eyes as the milk dissolves the discharges. The antimicrobial properties of breast milk can work effectively against conjunctivitis and eye irritation due to allergies. This works well for adults as well as children. My husband has reported immediate relief at times when I’ve applied breast milk to one of his allergy-sore eyes.

Of course the best medicinal application of breast milk is to simply feed it to your baby or nursing child. Breast milk can help keep a baby hydrated and nourished even when he is vomiting and has diarrhea. Even when it seems baby can’t keep anything down, breast milk is so digestible that he’ll be getting something. Disclaimer: none of this is meant to be medical advice. You are duly advised to consult with your healthcare provider.