Have You Heard About The Man On A Breast Milk Diet?

Last night I clicked on a facebook link and found myself reading about a man who has decided to try out a “breastmilk diet”.  Which I find extremely interesting.  Part of it is the train-wreck sort of mentality that makes us click weird stuff on the internet, and part of it is a genuine interest in all things that have to do with breastfeeding.

I can’t stand this persisting idea that breastmilk loses value once the drinker attains a certain age- which varies from person to person and doctor to doctor, depending on who is doing the talking.  I’ve heard the “there are no benefits” spiel regarding every age from after three months, six months, 12 months, and even the old “when they can ask for it, they no longer need it”.  Even though the WHO recommends at least two years.

I do have a little problem with the experiment, although I am interested to see how it will turn out.  It isn’t that an adult is drinking it, they make it clear that this isn’t taking anything away from their own baby.  I love that they have this “problem” of too much milk to deal with, I think it is a FANTASTIC problem to have!  That mama is a milk pumping rockstar, because let me tell you- pumping sucks.  (HarHar) It is time-consuming and messy and aggravating and I HATE it with an all-consuming, fiery passion.  So anyone that can pump such an excessive amount of milk is my personal hero.  Seriously, go look at the picture of their freezer.  It is insane.

I don’t think there is anything “gross” about drinking breastmilk in general.  My kids get some in cups when they are sick, and we’ve all used it for various colds and infections. A little in the nose for a cold, the eye for irritation or pink eye does wonders. So no, it isn’t “disgusting” at all.  I actually think that they are showing everyone that you don’t have to be squeamish about human milk.  It isn’t a waste product.  It is FOOD.

My only issue is that this milk could benefit babies in need if it was donated.  There are SO many parents that are desperately looking for milk for their babies.  There is a huge network, Human Milk for Human Babies, that is devoted to matching donors with babies in need of milk.  I’ve mentioned it twice in comments on Katie and Curtis’ posts, but they have responded several times with the fact that milk banks won’t take the milk because it is too old (which I believe- I looked into donating before and milk banks are super-stringent on donations.) and that they can’t donate to individual people because they won’t pay shipping costs.

I think there is a veritable sea of women willing to pay the shipping costs or drive long distances to pick up milk for their babies, and I think if we all put effort into it, we could find recipients for that milk.  I can’t be the only person that thinks at least SOME of that milk should go to babies in need!

So I do think it is a shame that it won’t be going into baby bellies.  But other than that, I find the whole thing fascinating and I will be checking back to see how this plays out.