My Great-Grandmother was a genius.

She did and said things, at times, that made no sense to me.

Of course, she had lived a much longer life…experience had taught her much and I’m sure I wasn’t old enough to appreciate nearly enough.

SO, last week, my daughter bought me a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar.
As with so many other things these days, I flipped the bar over to read the ingredients on the back.

One ingredient stood out above the rest SOY LECITHIN.

I couldn’t help but to begin to laugh. She told me. She told me over and over through the years she was still with us.

She used to tell me milk chocolate bars made healthy babies and made lots of milk.

While I don’t think she quite understood why…and I’m sure she didn’t understand the soy lecithin part, she did know she had seen good results with a mama eating chocolate.
Several years ago, after Emma’s birth….I developed my first case of mastitis. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

I’ve tried to nurse each of my babies for at least a year- some a little more, some a little longer.

After this first round of mastitis, there were many more to follow. I stayed on and off of anti-biotics for months while nursing Emma, and Jon. When Meredith was born, I had a very kind lactation nurse ask if I had ever tried soy lecithin. I had not, and frankly, I was skeptical anything would help. I decided to try but was quite discouraged.

Amazingly, it did work! …and it worked perfectly!

Soy lecithin is an emulsifier and helps milk glide more easily through the ducts. Now, I keep a bottle on hand. Obviously, I also drink lots of water and try to nap more often, but I’m convinced the soy lecithin is what makes such a difference.

Of course, it couldn’t hurt to throw in a chocolate bar here and there. 😀

I sure loved that woman.