The dairy industry probably frowns on this: a friend recently sent me a link to the South Dakota chapter of a relatively new organization, Eats on Feets. The group started just last summer in Arizona to facilitate the sharing of human breast milk. Eats on Feets does not collect or sell breast milk; they simply provide a forum where moms can make connections and arrange their own deals to share the best food for babies.
Eats for Feets also provides all sorts of information on a topic that makes some people unreasonably queasy. Today's fun facts:
- If you bottle breast milk, don't shake it! If you do, you'll mess up the molecules. Really!
- There is no documented case of HIV transmission from a single shot of breast milk. Chemicals in breast milk work with time and cold to destroy HIV in expressed breast milk. But if you're sharing breast milk, you should still ask suppliers about their health background.
- Various studies find that if we humans behaved more like our primate relatives, we would wean our offspring from breast milk at age 5 or later.
The Eats for Feets SD page links to ladies offering milk in Vermillion, Sioux Falls, and the Black Hills. Remember, moms, that milk has good bacteria eager to colonize your babies' tummies and keep them healthy!
But be careful, ladies: the dairy industry hates competition.