Candice James IBCLC

Did you know that YOU are the most important part of your babies feeding plan.

Thats right- YOU 🤍

Take a moment and check in with yourself:

• Do you dread the next feeding before it even begins?

• Do you spend hours Googling, scrolling social media, using ChatGPT, or searching for the answer that will finally make feeding feel easier?

• Do you find yourself constantly analyzing your baby’s latch, convinced something must be wrong?

• Do you feel anxious before, during, or after most feeds?

• Do you spend more time worrying about feeding than enjoying your baby?

• Do you feel like you’re constantly trying to “fix” breastfeeding?

• Are you exhausted from tracking, measuring, timing, or monitoring every feeding?

• Do you feel pressure to follow a plan that doesn’t feel sustainable for your family?

• Do you find yourself thinking about quitting more often than you’d like to admit?

• Have you lost trust in yourself, your baby, or the feeding relationship?

If you answered “yes” to several of these questions, it doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong, but it may be worth asking:

Is the feeding plan even working for me?

If its not, there are OPTIONS and strategies and help available ❤️

Truly.

Baby feeding should not be stealing your joy during one of the most beautiful times of your life. If you need help, I would be honored to help you.

I find the science behind our let down, or milk ejection reflex, to be one of the most fascinating topics.

Do you know you can sort of train your body to let down milk by sequence of events?

For example, when you are pumping at work, your brain and body start to notice that you’re gathering your pump parts, it realizes that the time is coming, and might even start letting down at your thought of it.

Sometimes I think it’s easy to get lost in the postpartum haze and we don’t really notice just how magical and powerful our body is.

Complex processes it quietly runs behind the scenes automatically, almost like a 24/7 milk making factory.

We are pretty cool. 😍

Additional fun facts for the list that got this far:

* Letdown is triggered by oxytocin, the same hormone involved in labor, bonding, or***ms, and feelings of relaxation/love.

* Milk is not “stored in the breast.” Letdowns are what moves milk from the milk-making cells through the ducts toward baby.

* One breast letting down can trigger leaking from the opposite breast.

* Skin-to-skin contact can help stimulate stronger or easier letdowns.

* Warmth and breast compression can sometimes help encourage another letdown.

* Stress, pain, fear, and anxiety can temporarily inhibit letdown because adrenaline counteracts oxytocin release. This is why some parents can pump “nothing” while stressed and suddenly spray milk once relaxed.

An AMAZING Saturday is coming right up, on MAY 16th!

Sign up website 🎀

One thing about working with me is, we are going to ZOOM out and assess what is really working for you and what’s not.

And I’ll tell you what, this is different for EVERYONE.

But one thing I’m seeing more often than not, is we went through a big postpartum wave where the tracking apps were hot commodities and trying to track sleep cycles and control these for little little babies who are so across the board with sleep (I KNOW you know this 😅)

Okay so we went through this wave of tracking and what I am seeing is in most cases, its bringing more stress than really helping, but when someone is knee deep in it and sleep deprived and maybe overwhelmed in the sea of love and baby and HOLY MOLY postpartum greatness its hard to see the forrest for the trees and you are trying your best and everything just feels like 😵‍💫

With my clients my goal is to help you strip all of that away, and focus on what cues to look for, how to truly know your baby is getting enough, what to expect for typical infant development, how to build and protect your milk supply, and tie all that up in a pretty bow with what looks and feels most sustainable for your lifestyle 🎀

Theres only so much energy postpartum and my philosophy is that if we focus on these things versus the other, its less stressful.. its not stress FREE.. right because we all know postpartum is not always butterflies and rainbows, but its the most calming I think..

What do you think?

When the sockies are off, sensory pathways are ON 💡

When sensory pathways are active, babies tend to be more organized in their bodies. And feeding is a full-body neurological event, not just a mouth skill. Rooting, latching, sucking, and swallowing all rely on coordinated input between the brain and body. Rich sensory feedback, including through the feet, can support that coordination, helping some babies settle into more effective feeding patterns.

It also plays a role in early body awareness. Feeling the ground, your body, or even the air helps babies begin mapping their bodies in space. That foundation supports muscle tone, reflex integration, and the subtle postural stability needed for feeding.

Of course, warmth and safety matter, and socks absolutely have their place. But when appropriate, giving babies time with bare feet, especially when feeding, is one simple way to support sensory development, nervous system regulation, and the complex coordination that underlies feeding.